I'm Not Dead is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter P!nk. The album was released on April 4, 2006 through LaFace Records to coincide the same release date of P!nk's first album, Can't Take Me Home.
The album helped renew interest in P!nk's music after a three-year break which followed the poor commercial and critical performances of her previous album, Try This. Originally titled Long Way to Happy, a song on the album, and scheduled for release on September 20, 2005, the album was delayed several months. Its title was changed to I'm Not Dead, also a song on the album, in order to match the comeback nature of the album, and its heavy tone in terms of lyrical content, strong language and edgy sound. I'm Not Dead is primarily a pop rock album, but includes country, alternative rock and R&B influences.
The release of I'm Not Dead was preceded by its controversial lead single, "Stupid Girls," a top 20 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 the video of which earned P!nk an MTV Video Music Award. The album's third single, "U + Ur Hand," reached the top ten and became a significant chart success, reviving the album's sales fortunes in the US, leading to a platinum certification from the RIAA for sales of one million. "Who Knew," originally released as the album's second single, was subsequently re-released to critical and commercial acclaim. The two songs are also P!nk's first two singles to achieve Platinum certifications. Subsequent regional singles include "Nobody Knows," "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)," and "Dear Mr. President." A platinum edition of the album was issued with bonus tracks, remixes and a DVD.
P!nk said she titled the album I'm Not Dead because "It's about being alive and feisty and not sitting down and shutting up even though people would like you to." She said it came from "the awakening" and how "it felt good to feel again ... I turned twenty-five and I just kind of woke up and realized I have so much to learn, whereas before I thought I knew everything. That's definitely a huge part of that title." According to P!nk, she did not expect to be very emotionally involved in the making of the album because the experience of making her last, Try This (2003), was "draining," but that she was "forced to be almost emotionally involved" by her collaborators, such as Billy Mann. "I guess I was just kind of at that place where I felt like I kind of had something to add to the world," she said. "I feel like there's a hole and I know how to fill it, people aren't talking trash anymore. I was just feeling really creative and really emotionally available again, and it came out great." According to her, she wrote more than forty songs for the album on "everything I could possibly think of." On December 4, 2007, an edition of the album titled I'm Not Dead: Platinum Edition was released.
Musical style and themes[]
P!nk was inspired to write opening track "Stupid Girls," in which she deplores the lack of good role models for young girls while encouraging them to cultivate independence, after she noticed many such girls aspire to be like female pop icons, particularly those near her Los Angeles home. "There's a certain thing the world is being fed, and my point is there should be a choice," P!nk said. She stated that "Who Knew" is about "the death of friendship," as well as friends of hers who died as a result of drug overdoses. The song is about several people. The third song, "Long Way to Happy," is based on a poem about sexual abuse P!nk wrote when she was thirteen years old. "I know a lot of people that have been abused and/or molested and/or fucked over by someone close to them. And I'm no exception. And that's that song," she said. The ballad "Nobody Knows" describes feelings that one can have but not show to the outside world, and P!nk has named it the most vulnerable track on the album. "Dear Mr. President" is an open letter to then president of the United States, George W. Bush; the song's format is a series of rhetorical questions for the President, specifically pertaining to how he really feels about issues such as war, homosexuality, homelessness and drug abuse.
According to P!nk, the sixth and title track, "I'm Not Dead," is her first "subtle" and "poetic" self-written song: "Usually it's very much more cartoon-y and blunt, the way I write songs. I don't really know diplomacy or subtlety." The song was inspired by how P!nk and producer Billy Mann felt about the end of their working relationship: "We were scared to move on from each other, after seeing how much that little bit of time together changed us, and how scary change is." In "'Cuz I Can," P!nk says she plays by her own rules boasts about her "bling," a contrast to the anti-consumerist content of "Stupid Girls." Referring to the song, she called herself "a walking contradiction" and "a hypocrite sometimes." This theme is echoed in "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)," which deals with contradictory feelings about a relationship; P!nk said "That's how I live my life. I'm a walking conflict." She called the song "a funny take on 'I love you' ... I get really cramped ... But, every girl needs her space." "U + Ur Hand," the ninth track, is a kiss-off song addressed to a man who is trying to seduce P!nk; it became a fan favorite before the release of the album, when it was leaked to the internet.
P!nk said of songs such as "Runaway" that "It's been especially hard for [my parents] hearing me write about things they never knew about ... My mom's like, 'Were you really that angry? Was I really that in denial? Was I really that bad a parent?' 'No, Mom—you were great. You didn't try to run me over with your car. I made it up.' But by writing all of it down and sharing it with the world, I've broken with most of it." "The One That Got Away" is, as P!nk puts it, "the classic 'Is this the one? Or is the grass really greener?'" P!nk described track thirteen, "Conversations with My 13 Year Old Self," as a "huge therapy session" that addresses her "pissed-off, complicated" younger self. She said of writing the song, "I needed a hug, and I get it ... now. If I tried to hug my 13-year-old self, she'd try to kick my ass, and then she'd collapse and cry."
"Fingers" is about her videotaping herself masturbating. She said she probably didn't need to add to the number of songs about masturbation, but she couldn't help herself. The final song on the album, the hidden track "I Have Seen the Rain," was written by and features P!nk's father, James T. Moore. He wrote it when he was a soldier in the Vietnam War, but according to P!nk, "It's still relevant today. It's a soldier's cry." She had always wanted to record it with him and learnt to harmonize with it. She said of its recording, "He was so nervous, it was the most adorable experience for a father and daughter to share."
