There's a perfectly good reason why the first single from
Doll Domination, the
Pussycat Dolls' second album, sports the punch line "When I Grow Up/I Want to Be Famous": despite a million-selling debut, the
Pussycats aren't famous yet, a fact borne out by the disastrous non-launch of head Doll
Nicole Scherzinger's scrapped solo debut Her Name Is Nicole. Heralded by several sexy magazine covers, the record was set for 2007 but disappeared after four singles failed to turn into hits. Maybe they weren't great songs, maybe the public didn't like them, but it's just as likely that even fans may not have known who she was, as her name was buried in the credits to
PCD's debut and despite all that skin she flashed on all those magazines, nobody really could tie that girl to this group. Every single thing about
Doll Domination suggests that the powers that be at Interscope and the
PCD organization decided that
PCD was an insufficient launch pad for solo stardom, so they made the second album into a showcase for
Nicole and the other four
Dolls, none of whom you could possibly name or pick out in a Maxim lineup. On
Doll Domination's cover, each
Pussycat straddles her own motorcycle bedecked with the initial of her first name, while on the album each gets to sing lead on at least one track and on the double-disc deluxe version -- which clocks in at over 85 minutes, four minutes longer than
Pink Floyd's
The Wall -- each
Pussycat gets a track credited to herself.
Despite the parade of pretty, sculpted, generic R&B voices, there are some good tracks: the ever-reliable
Kara DioGuardi helps give the shimmering '80s gloss of "Who's Gonna Love You" some shape and
Ne-Yo's "Happily Never After" is a good ballad, and there's a
Snoop Dogg cameo and
Missy Elliot name-dropping
Katy Perry. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine