let us anticipate and discuss DOLL DOMINATION aka the new Pussycat Dolls album; haters to the left

Why isn't it called "DOLLMINATION" the better to facilitate future ILM thread "POLLMINATION"?

I think more bands should keep that in consideration when naming their albums.

Has there been a TS: Pussycat Dolls vs. Girls Aloud thread?

b/c PCDs would walk it in an embarrassing landslide if anyone has any taste

anyway! 'i hate this part' is pretty much my favourite song of the year which isn't funky house

"the WOOORLD! slows DOOOOWN! but my HEAAAART! is fast right now!"

<3 <3 <3

also, excellent use of half-rhymes in the chorus

"the WOOORLD! slows DOOOOWN! but my HEAAAART! is fast right now!"

yes that line is amazing!

and no I still haven't heard this album yet! I have this, and the Sugababes' and Girls Aloud's albums in the queue as well.

YESSSSSS "I Hate This Part" is spectacular, definitely in my top 10 singles.

I GOTTA DO IT
I GOTTA DOOOO ITTTTT
I GOTTA DO ITTTTTTTTTT
I HATE THIIIIISSSSSSSSS PART
IIIIIIII GOTTA DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ITTTTTTTTTTT
I GOTTA DOOOOOOOOOOOO ITTTTT
IIIIIIIIIIII GOTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAA DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Their best song ever. The album kind of sucks though.

My Glamour-Pop Write-Up:

I recently described Nicole Scherzinger – lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls – as a pop Trojan Horse. Ostensibly, Nicole’s songs (and really, almost all Pussycat Dolls songs are basically Nicole songs with the other Dolls providing indistinguishable backing vocals) are straightforward cookie-cutter robot (R&B) pop. And she's not really made any attempt to disprove this (her failed solo career aside - which produced at least a few fabulous and underrated singles most people never heard - check "Superhero"), although she's perhaps contractually obliged not to run down her fellow Dolls in interviews in an effort to distinguish herself. Apparently the new PCD album includes each member singing lead at least once, and on a bonus disc songs written by each Doll. This strikes me as a recipe for disaster but I’m oddly curious to hear the results.

You’ll understand the “Trojan Horse” bit if you actually listen to the better PCD singles, in particular “Buttons”, which you’d think would be one of the group’s more generic efforts. But Nicole is just so ON as a singer and performer and persona, she more often than not can take what are fairly good cookie-cutter R&B tracks and push them over the line with the inventiveness, the precision and the sheer personality of her vocals. On “Buttons”, she stakes out the verses with a declamatory flair, her vocals sounding at once resonant and distant, as if she’s singing down a long, echoey tunnel (it’s a bit Wizard of Oz: her voice an ominous and frightening effect emanating from a large video screen while the real Nicole presumably sings a bit more humbly behind a curtain).

The first single from the second PCD album, “When I Grow Up” struck me as kinda grimly authoritarian, but new single “I Hate This Part” is excellent. Jumping on the increasingly crowded Ne-Yo bandwagon (in style at least: I don’t know who wrote it, but it’s definitely of a piece with “Closer”), nonetheless it’s an unusual and charming mixture of fragile piano ballad wailer and pumping 4X4 pop stormer. This is a great showcase of Nicole’s ability to carry a dramatic song with precise but totally distinct and emotionally charged phrasing (whereas of course the glorified back-ups are not just anonymous but completely inaudible) – switching from firm to frail to strident to resigned with unusual agility and grace. I love, too, how the lyrics short-circuit the generic and specific – the details about driving in a car with your lover listening to the radio because there’s nothing left to say to one another ring totally true.

The music is ace as well: the moody cloud-of-wasps of bassline, the fragile piano, the swarming strings, the way the extra beats in the chorus stuttering around the 4/4 kick imply a sort of collapse or disintegration. But most of all, I love the disarming frankness of its bittersweet conclusion: “I hate this part right here” Nicole admits as she plunges the knife into a moribund relationship, delivering the chorus in a breathy, emphysemic whisper by the end. ABBA were the masters of this sort of ambivalent, self-reflective, pathos-laden pop. It’s rare to stumble upon it being reproduced so effectively today.

im afraid i wont be able to serve up any meaningful discussion, but i would like to say that the combination of the old hag at the front's crazy eyes and the way she goes 'eeeeEEEEE' busts my ribs.

According to Wikipedia, "I Hate This Part" was produced/written by the same team that did Kylie's "All I See" and Jordin Sparks' quite amazing "One Step at a Time".

there was a brief period after the initial flush of enjoyment that i thought 'when i grow up' was a bit too grimly relentless, but it didn't last - mostly thanks to my street dance teacher, who plays it regularly in class, usually when she wants to make us go as fast as possible and miss our spins. it's loads of fun.

other great tracks on the album are 'bottle pop' (sparse blackoutesque banger), 'hush hush' (HUGE impassioned ballad/groove, tilted more towards ballad than 'i hate this part' though) and 'love the way you love me' (kinda understated swing based around a really addictive guitar loop). the whole thing is a bit much to take in at once though.

appropriately enough i am falling head over heels with one track at a time from this album. fucking hell how amazing is 'halo'?? another tour de force from scherzinger, really striking a perfect balance of sorrow and bitterness. and how great is she in the role of fallen angel - the outro, "i didn't mean to fall from grace," is just epic. and more evidence that PCDs sing more interestingly about various types of objectification than anyone else out there - here, the emotional fallout of spiritual objectification (as opposed to the physical objectification which is the territory they usually stalk). i love them.

(also i think i mentioned this somewhere else, but fucking hell they put on a great live show too. completely ridiculous of course, but tremendous fun.)

that new single w/missy elliott really sucks though. i blame missy.

so wait - is this actually coming out? or did it come out?

the album came out last year. don't think 'halo' is scheduled to be a single though.

didn't the second failed single have Missy? Bottle Pop has Snoop on it

not heard this cos i assumed it was crap except for i hate this part.

WORLD DOLLMINATION ENTERPRISES!

musically - the second UK single was 'i hate this part' (which missed the top 10 but hung around for ages), the one w/missy is the third and is just starting to chart. guessing we'll get 'bottle pop' as the fourth.

maybe it was different in the US, because I heard the Missy single on the radio first (albeit very very briefly) and then I Hate This Part started hitting the chart.

i can't get enuf of When i grow up, the song and the video. perfect Amerian delight.

"get on magaziiiiiines!"

honestly everytime i youtube this thing it blows my mind.

im afraid i wont be able to serve up any meaningful discussion, but i would like to say that the combination of the old hag at the front's crazy eyes and the way she goes 'eeeeEEEEE' busts my ribs.

― siskin/skulls, Thursday, October 30, 2008 5:06 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is really one of my favorite things

The first single from the second PCD album, “When I Grow Up” struck me as kinda grimly authoritarian, but new single “I Hate This Part” is excellent. Jumping on the increasingly crowded Ne-Yo bandwagon (in style at least: I don’t know who wrote it, but it’s definitely of a piece with “Closer”), nonetheless it’s an unusual and charming mixture of fragile piano ballad wailer and pumping 4X4 pop stormer. This is a great showcase of Nicole’s ability to carry a dramatic song with precise but totally distinct and emotionally charged phrasing (whereas of course the glorified back-ups are not just anonymous but completely inaudible) – switching from firm to frail to strident to resigned with unusual agility and grace. I love, too, how the lyrics short-circuit the generic and specific – the details about driving in a car with your lover listening to the radio because there’s nothing left to say to one another ring totally true.

The music is ace as well: the moody cloud-of-wasps of bassline, the fragile piano, the swarming strings, the way the extra beats in the chorus stuttering around the 4/4 kick imply a sort of collapse or disintegration. But most of all, I love the disarming frankness of its bittersweet conclusion: “I hate this part right here” Nicole admits as she plunges the knife into a moribund relationship, delivering the chorus in a breathy, emphysemic whisper by the end. ABBA were the masters of this sort of ambivalent, self-reflective, pathos-laden pop. It’s rare to stumble upon it being reproduced so effectively today.

all of this is massively OTM

yes that's one of my favourite tim f writings

also one of my favourite songs...like, ever, i guess? i still listen to it on the reg in the winter