Although it hardly deserved it, {^Try This} -- {$Pink}'s 2003 sequel to her 2001 artistic and commercial breakthrough, {^M!ssundaztood} -- turned out to be something of a flop, selling considerably less than its predecessor and generating no true hit singles. Perhaps this downturn in sales was due to the harder {\rock} direction she pursued on {^Try This}, perhaps the songs she co-wrote with {$Rancid}'s {$Tim Armstrong} weren't quite {\pop} even if they were poppy, perhaps it was just a matter of timing, but the album just didn't click with a larger audience, through no fault of the music, which was the equal to that on {^M!ssundaztood}. When faced with such a commercial disappointment, some artists would crawl back to what made them a star, but not {$Pink}. Although she does pump up the {\dance} on 2006's {^I'm Not Dead}, it's way too simple to call the album a return to {&"Get the Party Started"} -- {$Pink} is far too complex to do something so straightforward. No, {$Pink} is complicated, often seemingly contradictory: she tears down "porno paparazzi girls" like {$Paris Hilton} just as easily as she flaunts her bling on {&"'Cuz I Can"}; she celebrates that {&"I Got Money Now"}; she'll swagger and snarl and swear like a sailor, then turn around and write sweet songs of support to a teenager, or a knowingly melancholy reflection like {&"I Got Money Now"}; she'll collaborate with {$Britney Spears} hitmaker {$Max Martin} on one track, then turn around and bring in {$the Indigo Girls} for support on a stripped-down protest song. She'll try anything, and she does on {^I'm Not Dead}. It Ping-Pongs between dense dancefloor anthems and fuzzy {\power pop}, acoustic {\folk-rock} and anthemic power {\ballads}, {\hard rock} tunes powered by {\electronic} beats and {\dance} tunes sung with the zeal of a rocker. It's not just that {$Pink} tries a lot of different sounds, it's that she seizes the freedom to hurl insults at both {%George W. Bush} and a sleazoid who tried to pick her up at a bar, or to end a chorus with a chant of "Ice cream, ice cream/We all want ice cream." Far from sounding cow-towed by the reaction to {^Try This}, {$Pink} sounds liberated, making music that's far riskier and stranger than anything else in mainstream {\pop} in 2006. And it's a testament to her power as both a musician and a persona that for this record, even though she's working with singer/songwriter {$Butch Walker}, {$Max Martin}, and {$Teddy Geiger}'s cohort, {$Billy Mann} -- her most mainstream collaborators since {$LA Reid} and {$Babyface} helmed her 2000 debut, {^Can't Take Me Home} -- she sounds the strangest she ever has, and that's a positively thrilling thing to hear. That's because she not only sounds strange, she sounds stronger as a writer and singer, as convincing when she's singing the bluesy, acoustic {&"The One That Got Away"} as when she's taunting and teasing on {&"Stupid Girls"} or {&"U + Ur Hand"} or when she's singing a propulsive piece of pure {\pop} like {&"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)."} In other words, she sounds complex: smart, funny, sexy, catchy, and best of all, surprising and unpredictable. This is the third album in a row where she's thrown a curve ball, confounding expectations by delivering a record that's wilder, stronger, and better than the last. And while that's no guarantee that {^I'm Not Dead} will be a bigger hit than {^Try This}, at least it's proof positive that there are few {\pop} musicians more exciting in the 2000s than {$Pink}. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide