So it’s been a full week since the leak of Danity‘s fabulous Welcome to the Dollhouse, and I refrained from posting a complete review until I allowed myself time to hear the album several times over. I ended up liking some tracks more than I did during the track-by-track leak last week, but the overall rating of the album remains the same.

I’ve continuously said it, but this is a strong release. “Sucka For Love”, which I included in the download section below, is a truly shimmering moment. It’s like getting sucked into a warm tunnel of glitter (Mariah Carey‘s vagina). Even “Ecstasy” and “Lights Out” shine for me, though they weren’t initial favorites at first; they’ve got such unforgettable melodies above drippy bass beats…I love it! The phrasing is really key on these songs, as well as the entire album; it’s nearly impossible not to fall in love with the girl’s stuttering, stops, and sexified grunts. The CD may not be full of five-scale riffs, but its undeniably slippery with talent. And those are just the non-dance oriented tracks!

“Damaged” remains a jewel of pulsating perfection, and seems to get richer with age. I still can’t get over the first bit of each verse. Aubrey’s such a st-st-stutterer and it’s so, so appetizing. “2 Of You” is the unexpected garage-rock-lite tune breaks the Danity trip-hop mold, and sounds so much better on a booming stereo system. The hand-claps are all shades of brilliant here: it’s just smart pop! “Pretty Boy” grows steadily. If I’m not wrong, it feels more polished than the initial leak during the first single competition. And of course there’s “Strip Tease”, the Pussycat Dolls-esque racy romp through cabaret beats and a perfect electro stinger during the chorus. I just love it when Shannon(?) breaks out the “I know you like it, the way I do it private” bit in the first verse. It’s sex.

All of the tracks share a similar warm synth sound, making the album a well meshed compilation of beautiful electro-hop. Don’t wait around for some vocal exercises on this album, because they’re not here. Just bounce-happy melodies and seriously sharp pop bars. I remain confident in my ranking. This is top notch, Bad Boy produced or otherwise.

DL: Danity Kane – Sucka For Love
DL: Danity Kane – 2 Of You
DL: Danity Kane – Strip Tease
DL: Danity Kane – Bad Girl ft. Missy Elliot

MTV is now leaking Danity Kane’s new album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, on The Leak. I’m reviewing the tracks as they come through:

Welcome to the Dollhouse (Opening) – Yeah, I saw that coming. The spin of a key, the music box playing, and the omnipresent Diddy announcing the return of Danity Kane. No surprises here.

Bad Girl (ft. Missy Elliot) – We already got the clip of this song, but hearing it in full only adds to its craft. Dark synths tripping on top of a nice, chugging beat. And don’t forget those vocal stutters! The surprise here was the collaboration with Missy, which seems to set the hottest songs on pure fire. Best line:”I–I can be your addiction / If you want to get hooked on me.”

Damaged – Such an addictive song. “Do–do you, got a first aid kit handy? / Do–do you know how to patch up a wall?” With all this talk about addiction and brokenness, I’m beginning to wonder if Danity’s preparing a concept album about the trials and tribulations of the medical industry. Whoops, sounds like an obnoxious Puffy interjection in the final bars of the track. He’s like a dog marking his territory, I swear to God.

Pretty Boy – It still comes off like a Janet Jackson album track, which isn’t exactly a criticism. There’s nothing too special about the sound, however. The girls float above a ’90′s-centric scrambled synth beat with plenty of scratching. It’s a fair dance track however, and I doubt that it would be ignored on the dancefloors.

Strip Tease – It comes out like Justin Timberlake producing a modern cabaret filled with beat-boxing, an orchestral swell, and a crucial sting of electro in between the chorus lines. As I’ve said before, it’s “Buttons” with a (second) slap on the ass.

Sucka For Love – Nice, disjointed slider of a song, playing with the tempo and never settling upon a speed for too long. It’s not all that far from Annie’s “Fool For Love”, though it’s probably the title playing with my mind.

Secret Place (Interlude) - They’ve got a secret place. The title could write the song itself. WE GET IT. You’re inviting us all to your respective vaginas. I’ll take a rain check, thanks. Features some surprisingly ranged vocals hanging out all over the place, considering it’s just an interlude.

Extasy – Uh ohhhh. It’s one of those beats. Glossed trip-hop after the rapper’s introduction. Sounds like every Mariah Carey song released in the past three years interlaced with a superior backing track. The song brings Kylie‘s bonus track “Slo Motion” to mind.

2 Of You - That came out of nowhere! This is—this is–this sounds like a Girls Aloud track! Even the lyrics adhere to the Girls Aloud Golden Rule of Nonsensicalness: “Boy, you’re so hot / There must be two of you / Boy, you got me having breakfast in the afternoon”. The beat is disappointingly minimal, compared to what could have been. I am always one for handclaps, but I consider them to be the ultimate accessory, not the main course! This song demands and deserves a driving guitar riff, or even some more synthesizers. The sign off is brilliant, as well. What a kiss-off track!

Lights Out – This one’s relentless! Sounds like Nelly Furtado‘s “Maneater”-lite, with tons of vocal play. It’s great fun to hear the “Turn off the lights / And see if you can get into my dark side” This song is obviously about anal sex.

Picture This (Interlude) – Vocals about emotions. Serves as an optional come down from “Lights Out”. Skip.

Poetry – Ah, yes. Heard this one too. A nice power ballad that wouldn’t perform too poorly on the stage of this year’s Eurovision. It’s all nice and flowy, and probably sounds nicer in HQ. Required “Ladies Represent” portion of the song begins at the 4:00 mark for all interested parties.

Key To My Heart – Oh, Aubrey, why you so metaphorical? The song’s a bit literal…they’re looking for the lost key to their hearts. I’m not sure what the goal is here, because I can distinctly hear the wannabe-stomping beat in the chorus, but the verses are distinctly trip-hop-pop only. This is a skipper.

Flashback (Interlude) - Well constructed backing track, a very industrial, clunking rhythm. The song was probably once a full track that was considered too weak, and probably so.

Is Anybody Listening? – Another mid-tempo shiner. Probably the most mellow track on the album, with a lovely ambient composition. The girls ask, perhaps ironically, if anybody’s listening throughout the track. This move would be career suicide if the album’s lead-off tracks weren’t so hot. Thankfully, somebody’s going to be listening, girls.

So, that was the new Danity Kane, and I’m shocked at how quickly I lost myself into the album. Considering the loud buzz of breakup rumors last year, I’m more than impressed to hear how well they’ve managed to bring their sound to the next level. Their vocals are certainly on point throughout the album, and more cohesive than the first release, though there were no stand out moments here either. Not that it’s a problem with girl group tracks…we wouldn’t want anyone getting all the shining bits of a song every time, now would we?

As a whole, the album tracks share a warm, glossy retro-synth sound and tempo-challenging construction, allowing the album to flow well and keep the booty swaying with confidence.

For a limited time, I’m offering the entire album, thanks to a web-rip from BMK Forums.

DL: Danity Kane – Welcome To The Dollhouse

Oh, dear MuuMuse, how I’ve neglected you! I’ve just had so many things to do and well, you know how these things can be, and…well…I–I hope you understand and forgive me. What? No, it’s not something you did. I’ve just had so many thin–WHAT? NO, IT’S NOT ANOTHER BLOG! We’ve been through this! I wouldn’t publish anyone but you, and you KNOW this! Don–DON’T GIVE ME THAT. No. Stop crying. We’re going to work through this, WE’RE GOING TO BE OKAY. Together. You and I. Together, we will prove to the world that one small gay Jewish man with a severely questionable taste in music and one Blogger-founded blog will bust through the mean streets of this dirty, cold-hearted city and ONTO THE STARS. Our names shall be in LIGHTS all across the Manhattan skyline, darling!

I know the perfect way to make things right again between us. Yes, really. How about a little….Danity Kane? See! There we go, baby…I knew you’d come around for those trashy ol’ slut bags!

DK5, as they’re famously known to myself and myself only, had themselves a little leakage of sneak peek clips and such, and I’ve taken the liberty of sneak peek posting them. Take a clicker to them and holla back.

Did she really just throw in “Maybelline” in that first line? Oh, it doesn’t even fucking matter! The beat more than makes up for the obvious-as-shit lyrics. It’s a little bit Nelly Furtado at her finest on Loose, except a little better. This is going to be a hot song, despite Puff Dingle’s introduction. Listen to this track. It’s like the COP’S theme for the new generation! That little clip after the chorus (“I can be your addiction…”) is a lot like Ayumi Hamasaki‘s “Ladies Night”, as well. So obviously this here song is perfection.

DL: Danity Kane – Bad Girl (Clip)

Yes, Diddy, I often think of Danity Kane as the multi-cultural New America as well. No girl group has ever gone there before, you know…mixing cultures and races. Well, there was short lived pop group from the ’90′s…The Spice Girls, I believe they were called. But they died out after a year, and rightly so, so that doesn’t count.

The song’s fairly standard ballad, but a bit better than usual. Oh, do yourselves a favor and watch out for that line in the first verse that starts “In the bathroom taking sh…” Catches me off guard each time. Yes, it’s “showers,” but you never know really. They said they wanted to make the second record more personal…

DL: Danity Kane – Poetry (Clip)

It’s a Justin Timberlake beatbox background that makes up this twisted-cabaret, Pussycat Doll’s “Buttons” rip-off. But honestly, if any song has the audacity to live up to the pain inflicting guilt-filled pleasure that “Buttons” served the community, then I’m all for it.

DL: Danity Kane – Striptease (Clip)

In all seriousness, this is shaping up to be a VERY strong release. It seems as though Diddy’s actually taking the project seriously this time around, and not fucking them over for his own failed solo “dance” effort. That or Audrey finally figured out how to get him going in bed.

It’s the cover of Danity Kane‘s new album, Welcome To The Dollhouse! I don’t know why, but I root for Danity Kane. Maybe it’s because I was so invested in Making the Band. Maybe it’s because I like to watch Shannon fruitlessly adapt to the ruthlessly ghetto-fab vibe of DK that she is so obviously unable to replicate. But most of all, their songs (more specifically, their choice of producers) are fairly well made products.

Onto the new album cover. Once again, I remain disappointed from the band’s disinterest in sharing wardrobes with the lead from the same-named Indie movie from 1994. Blasphemy.

Despite all this, the cover is something above average. It’s not perfect, but I’m brought to days of DC3′s Survivor, and am aroused accordingly. Of course, it’s not perfect. The title font is atrocious, and Aundrea looks a bit straining while lying down. Also, Aubrey is a Photoshop Robot with voluptuous breasts. Actually only Dawn and Wanita (okay, so that’s her real name. She goes by “D. Woods“, but everyone knows she should be representing the Wanita) look fairly natural here. But overall, I’m rooting for them.

The single has been decided for the ladies of Diggity Dang Dinny Do Danity Kane, and the result is (shockingly) “Damaged,” the ode to being broken goods and looking for a rebound. Hopefully they’ll toss that other song entirely.

Additionally, the group revealed the new name for the second album: Welcome To The Dollhouse.

Thankfully, there aren’t any other hip-hop influenced, sex-pot sextets around in the industry sharing the name “doll.” Right? Additionally, props to the band for the genius shout out to the essential independent movie, Welcome to the Dollhouse from 1995 with Heather Matarazzo. I can only assume they’re seeking to replicate the movie poster on their album cover. Break out those elastic hair ties, ladies.

DL: Danity Kane – Damaged

GREAT NEWS EVERYONE. Danity Kane is coming back with a second release this year. Danity wha? You remember..they’re the ones who won Making the Band 3. Remember “Showstopper?” Me either. But their album had about three amazing songs, so I’m throwing them the tiniest morsel of a bone.

Anyway, I know everyone is really excited, so I’ll just cut to the chase. Da Band–oh wait, that’s another failed Diddy project–Danity Kane has posted these two songs on their website, asking their fans (questionable assumption) to choose their next lead single. And so, I shall judge accordingly.

First up is “Pretty Boy,” produced by Danja. I literally forgot that the song was still playing while I was browsing the Internet, so I’ll let you interpret how much I enjoyed the track. The beginning sounds like they all tried their hands at improvisational rapping at the mic, and the results were something of an off-beat train wreck. It’s a dangerous mess of sound, trying too hard to incorporate ’90′s dance and record-scratch electro sounds. It’s an absolute skipper.

“Damaged” was already better after the first second. After ten seconds, it was officially the clear winner. With a whole lot of Furtado’s “Maneater” and a lack of pretentious ad-libbing, the song finally travels to where Danity needs to be taken. Watch for the rather infectious vocal skipping and lyrical repetition. It’s nowhere near where it needs to be as far as production is concerned, but for the Diddy-dissed band destined for failure, this group has the potential to stay around for a little bit longer. Hell, I even considered listening to this for a second time. By the way, I’m still amused by the song’s sheer bluntness as the girls openly reveal that they’re damaged goods. It’s brilliant.

Okay, now you decide. P.S. I converted them from .asf to .mp3, so be thankful you greedy bastards. Well, it only took a few seconds, but still. Admire me.

DL: Danity Kane – Pretty Boy
DL: Danity Kane – Damaged

Source: Envvy