DOLL DOMINATION by the Pussycat Dolls

The Pussycat Dolls, the burlesque troupe turned girl band, return to the world of music with their second album, Doll Domination. There are an impressive sixteen songs on the disc, with five more on the bonus disc on the deluxe edition. Alas, this is the only impressive thing about the album.

It's not a good sign when the highlight of the album is a piece of fun fluff that uses the word "boobies" in its refrain. Sadly, the single "When I Grow Up" is one of the few memorable songs here. There's a generic feel through the album, which alternates between synth-heavy top 40-aimed dance tracks and saccharine-sweet slow ballads. A few of the songs here are decent -- including the upbeat "Magic" and "Halo," plus "Played," which is the only song approaching sensuality -- but there's little original or memorable here. And lines like "we go up and we go down, down down/like an elevator/we touch the sky, we touch the ground, ground, ground/like an elevator" give the feeling that no one cared what they wrote, as long as it rhymed.

For those keeping track, the Pussycat Dolls roster on Doll Domination is Nicole, Melody, Kimberly, Ashley, and now Jessica. The bonus disc has five songs, each featuring a different member of the band. While this was intended to highlight the member's vocal strengths, all it does is demonstrate how interchangeable the individual Pussycat Dolls are.

The Pussycat Dolls proclaim that they "took over the club/now we gonna take over the world." It's hard to imagine them achieving either of these goals with an album as mediocre as Doll Domination.

Overall grade: D

Reviewed by James Lynch