An old song laments, “Breaking up is hard to do.” P!nk’s take might be something closer to, “Breaking up is hard to do, but, hey, songs about it pay the bills. Besides, heartache gives you an excuse to party and swear and generally behave badly to boot.”
Reading the title of P!nk’s latest hit, the first single from her sixth album, The Truth About Love, one is immediately confronted with its suggestive grammatical construction, something P!nk never actually pauses long enough to play around with while singing.
But no matter. Other problems become apparent soon enough.
“Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” sounds a lot like P!nk’s last guitar-fueled breakup anthem, 2008’s ” So What.” Just as she did in that song, the woman formerly known as Alecia Beth Moore once again vents all manner of caustic emotion in the wake of a broken relationship. Somehow, though, she also seems to have quite a bit of fun uncorking her pent-up rage as we’re “treated” to her particular penchant for turning a breakup into an excuse to party.
“Eyes on fire, eyes on fire, and they burn from all the tears,” she confesses in the first verse. She’s weary (“I’ve been crying, I’ve been crying, I’ve been dying over you”), clinging to what’s left of a romantic relationship that’s in deep trouble (“Tie a knot in the rope, tryin’ to hold, tryin’ to hold”). It turns out things are just too far gone: “But there’s nothing to grasp, so I let go.”
And once P!nk lets go, watch out! Because you can be certain that the cryin’ is over. In its place: a whole lotta rage, which P!nk delights in delivering with both metaphorical barrels.
She’s had enough, for instance, of her ex’s criticism: “You think I’m just too serious, I think you’re full of s‑‑‑.”
She’s done with conflict: “I won’t miss all the fighting that we always did.”
She’s also done with unsatisfying, alcohol-impaired sex: “No more sick whiskey d‑‑k.” (It’s a lewd lyric not censored in the radio version.)
Finally, she’s looking forward to going to a club, getting smashed and hooking up with whomever she likes: “I’ll dress nice, I’ll go dancing alone/I will laugh, I’ll get drunk, I’ll take somebody home/ … I will do what I please, anything that I want.”
S-words (barely censored in the radio version) rain down throughout the first half of the oft-repeated chorus, in which P!nk complains, “I’ve had a s‑‑‑ day (No!)/Have you had a s‑‑‑ day (No!)/We’ve had a s‑‑‑ day (No!)” before affirming that she’s moving on: “I think that life’s too short for this, want back my ignorance and bliss/I think I’ve had enough of this, blow me one last kiss.”
Virtually the only lyric a listener might place on the positive side of the ledger is P!nk’s passing recognition that selfish actions have negative consequences. “You will pay for your sins, you’ll be sorry, my dear,” she tells her ex. “All the lies, all the whys, will all be crystal clear.”
But even here, P!nk’s recognition of truth drips with vengeful glee.
For the video, P!nk teamed up with frequent collaborator David Meyers to tell the song’s story in the style of an old black-and-white film. In it, P!nk is having a romantic picnic with a beau who’s on the verge of kissing her when he receives a cellphone call and happily takes it. Her response? Throwing a glass of wine in his face.
She then marches down the road and tears off her elaborate dress, stripping down to a revealing corset. An admiring man on a motorcycle eyes her up and down, then invites her home to his sprawling mansion. Once there, we see him painting her nude (we see the side of her breast) before she puts on clothes and heads down to the parlor to participate in a ball.
P!nk begins dancing with a beautiful woman before her new suitor comes downstairs. Then: A ring, a bent knee and a proposal follow—for the woman P!nk’s dancing with, not for her.
Naturally, this being a P!nk song and all, the twice-spurned singer gets the last laugh at their wedding, as a man piloting a fantastical pedal-driven flying machine drifts overhead towing a giant red heart … which explodes and showers guests with bloodlike red goo.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
