Pattaya Trader - Classified advertising

Find 100's ofhouses condos cars and items for sale and for rent

Pussycat Dolls - Doll Domination
Verdict: 5/10

The girls from LA who look they could be from Soi Six are back with their second CD, a continuation of their hi-energy, high-kicking routine.

This former burlesque troop show no signs of letting up and are well on their way to taking Christina Aguilera’s crown as the sleaziest-looking pop show in town. Not that we’re complaining, you understand.

They may have been thrown together by commercial interests rather than fate, and they may only have one decent singer between them, but there’s no disputing that they are the complete package.

‘When I Grow Up’ is the pounding, unrelenting first single about the girls’ desire for fame and what happens when you get it. It seems that MTV can’t get enough of the PCD these days (and you know you’ve surely made it when you’re known by an acronym alone). The remaining 15 songs are much along the same lines, harmless pop/dance tracks, and none of them quite matching the quality of the album’s opener.

Timbaland and Darkchild helped with production and there are guest turns from R Kelly, Ne-Yok and Snoop Dogg to ensure many a club will be playing many of the tracks here. Lead singer Nicole Scherzinger (currently dating Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton) sizzles on stage but it’s much easier to get excited about her outfits than her voice.
‘Out of This Club’ featuring R Kelly is a probably hit with a catchy chorus, while ‘I Hate This Part’ is one of Nicole’s better moments and lets her show off what vocal talents she has.

The PCD aren’t venturing into new territory here and you can’t blame them as their limited shelf-life must be close to expiry date. As a pop album it pushes the right buttons, but they won’t be gaining any new fans with this.

Kid Rock - Rock n Roll Jesus
Verdict: 6/10

You have to hand it to Kid Rock. Musical genius he sure ain’t, but he does know how to get your attention. Pamela Anderson’s ex has a clever knack for contradiction, so that we don’t know if he’s more hillbilly or hip-hop, rock star or just raw.

His latest offering raises more questions than answers. The single ‘All Summer Long’ is a nostalgic look at his youth, with more than a nod towards ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. And there’s more homely rock with ‘New Orleans’, which he wrote with David Allan Coe, and is a cheery track guaranteed to get air time on the radio.

Beyond that there’s a bewildering mix of messages, from the raucous ‘Half Your Age’ to the religious imagery in ‘Blue Jeans and a Rosary’. The music at least is fairly consistent, his southern-style rock is easy on the ears, although he does tend to veer off towards rap and blues at times with decidedly mixed results. Still, you have to give him a hand for being willing to try something different.

Kid Rock clearly isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but he does get serious on ‘Amen’, where he laments America’s race relations efforts, among other things.

Maybe Kid Rock’s greatest achievement is that he’s so hard to pin down. The mixed imagery and styles that make him an enigma also make him frustrating. His daring to break out and experiement with different styles is admirable, but ultimately he hasn’t quite found the right mix yet. Despite that, this album is still a step up from previous releases and does show a certain lyrical maturity.

Maybe it doesn’t matter what box you put him in, his music has improved and his mix of imagery and styles makes for a more interesting musical world.

Pink - Funhouse
Verdict: 7/10

By now you think you know what you’re going to get with a Pink CD.
A bit of pseduo-punk mingled with the odd sexual innuendo that will delight her teenage fanbase and mildly irritate their parents.

A little bit of anarchy and rebellion all rolled into one highly polished, commercialised package. But with this new Pink CD something has changed. Maybe it’s her recent divorce, but there’s definitely a more mature singer in evidence here.

Opening single ‘So What’ has all the Pink pout that you’d expect, full of challenging lyrics and self-belief.
Some other tracks follow in a similar vein, with lost love an unsurprisingly common theme. ‘I Don’t Believe You’ is a grower that allows Pink to growl with anger and resentment. ‘Mean’ is a great rock song that asks where a relationship fell apart, with Pink delivering her customary ‘F’ word half way through. The title track returns to the familiar theme of destruction and devil-may-care attitude. Other tracks are slower and almost poignant. ‘Crystal Ball’ is just Pink and a guitar, with her questioning the world around her and musing about the future.
Pink does what she does well, and her ability to mix genres has earned her a place in pop’s higher echelons. Not quite pop, not quite rock, definitely not quite r’n’b, she manages to confound critics and remain credible.

Unlike her previos CDs, there is a certain edge here that has been missing before.

Maybe we’ve just never heard the real Pink before. Lines like ‘I just lost my husband/I don’t know where he went/So I’m gonna drink my money’ were just never options before. And so this ends being more of a ‘divorce’ CD than anything else, which is a shame, as the ass-kicking, stomping, in-your-face Pink was a lot more fun.