Danity Kane
Welcome to the Dollhouse (Bad Boy)
ESSENTIAL "Poetry"
On "Bad Girl," the opening track of their sophomore effort, Danity Kane sing, "When the red light comes on/ I transform." Into what, no one knows because there is no way that these tame tracks are the work of bad girls. Interpret bad as you will here. Unlike their modestly appealing and tuneful debut, this disc from the girls of the "Making of the Band" series is generic and vapid, seemingly geared more for the strip mall than the strip club. As the Pussycat Dolls proved, to make this bimbo-pop work, you need to have boatloads of attitude and equal amount of good songs with killer hooks. It also helps to have a talented and alluring lead singer like Nicole Scherzinger, but DK's members are vocal Legos - interchangeable and anonymous. The super slick production from the likes of Danja can't cover up the weaknesses. Almost all cuts feature layered, breathy harmonies, but there's no intensity or personality. "On Damaged," they could be singing about their nails instead of their hearts. The girls hint at saucy sex but really only flirt with banality. The disc is frontloaded with the better tunes, and the rest of the disc is like a jog through quicksand. [Ken Capobianco]
