After the release of her double platinum album Funhouse last year, P!nk set out on a world-wide tour. The Australia leg of the tour was sold-out — all 60 shows. A camera crew went along, and the fruit of their efforts is the recently released DVD/CD set Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia.
The CD portion of the set is a selection of the songs performed on the DVD portion. Three of the tracks are covers (AC/DC's "Highway To Hell," Led Zepplin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"), one track is from I'm Not Dead ("U + Ur Hand"), and the rest are all off of Funhouse. The choice of including cover songs in the concert is a boggling one, but to include them in the recording as well makes me wonder why they thought it would be better to do that than to have live versions of more of P!nk's songs. Don't get me wrong — they're classic songs and I can see why P!nk would want to cover them. But, I felt like they needed more of her style/touch to make them worthy of being included in this recording. "Bohemian Rhapsody" in particular sounds almost like she's singing to a karaoke track, which is a testament to the quality of the performance of her band and backup singers, but not something that excites me as a listener.
I don't know how anyone has the strength to keep going full throttle day after day. P!nk's body may be up to the stress of the athleticism of her performances, but her voice isn't. If you want a recording with spot-on vocals, pull out your copy of Funhouse, because what you'll find on Funhouse Tour are energetic, passionate performances with weaker, almost broken vocals. Live audio recordings are fickle beasts. On the one hand, you often get moments captured for all time that could never exist in a studio environment (i.e. the electric guitar solo in "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"). On the other hand, they never quite replicate the experience of being at the concert. The listener is left with the feeling that they've missed something that would make the recording more like looking back through old family photos rather than looking back through some stranger's family photos.
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Article comments
1 - nic
I don't agree with your assesment on the Bohemian Rhapsody cover. She did a great job and its the best cover I've heard since Queen.
2 - nic
I don't agree with your opinion on her live voice. If you're a professional critic, you should know that live voices are not supposed to sound like the studio version. Critics all over the world have lauded her live vocals. I guess you must be used to Britney Spears or Beyonce's pre-recorded performances, which sound exactly like their recordings, because duh they lipsync.
3 - Anna Creech
Nic, go back and read my review again. I did note that live recordings are not the same as studio recordings. P!nk is one of my favorite pop artists, mostly because unlike Britney or Beyonce, she's got talent beyond a pretty face. However, as a professional critic, as you put it, I could not review this release without noting that her voice sounds tired and abused in comparison to the studio recordings. No surprise there, since the recording was made near the end of a long tour, and the studio bits get a lot more work and time and rest.
4 - rob
her voice is effortless, not a note out of key, and id rater listen tot he live mp3s that the album as her voice is the same, but with more passion and the live band is amazing.