By The Pussycat Dolls, 2005

"Inside every woman is a Pussycat Doll," says Robin Antin, the creator of the singing-and-dancing ensemble that has risen from underground cool to major-label hot. "It's about female empowerment, about being confident with who you are. It's about singing and dancing in front of a mirror by yourself and having fun."With their debut album released by A&M Records in summer 2005 (led by "Don't Cha," a duet with Busta Rhymes, written and produced by Cee-Lo), the Pussycat Dolls go beyond being extraordinarily beautiful.

With tremendous voices, and after working with today's top songwriters and producers, the Pussycat Dolls are ready to stamp their mark on music and on attitudes. "To me, a Pussycat Doll is fearless but also vulnerable," says lead singer Nicole Scherzinger. "We're strong but we like to play too.

The line in 'Don't Cha'--'don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me'--is meant to be empowering. The Pussycat Dolls are not about just being hot but also about saying something with real feeling."From Scherzinger, who earlier scored a Top 10 album and single while in girl group Eden's Crush, to Jessica Sutta, the one-time captain of the Miami Heat dance troupe; from Carmit Bachar, the La Vida Loca girl on Ricky Martin's world tour, to Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt, two of the most talented young dancers in Hollywood, and Melody Thornton, a stunning singer chosen from an open audition, these Pussycat Dolls are the new incarnation--more contemporary, more street--of the group whose Sunset Strip performances became the hippest ticket in Hollywood.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 behind PCD clearly 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

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