PCD
Roll your eyes or--worse--invoke the Spice Girls all you want: Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like any one of the members of this revolving collective? Dissing the Pussycat Dolls is like denying you want a peek at the Victoria's Secret runway show--a foolhardy stance nobody's going to believe anyway. Never mind, for a moment, the semi-lewd pleasures of the disc's visuals (midriffs galore!): the pop on parade by this gang of writhers and eyelash-batters isn't bad. Nicole Scherzinger, a former member of the failed prefab teen pop act Eden's Crush, brings it with determination and carefully distributed shots of sweetness. More important, she gets high-wattage help. Busta Rhymes, Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, and Timbaland all step in to dress up the Dolls' sound, and the songwriters' and producers behindPCDclearly know how to sexify a disc without sinking it into the gutter. What's best about the Dolls' debut, though, is its shamelessness. This is manufactured friskiness that doesn't take itself seriously; these girls don't want a Grammy, they only want to pounce.--Tammy La Gorce