Different For Girls

Leslie Mills' Different for Girls is enjoyable, but don't dig too deep or you'll run into the bits and pieces of all the albums it sounds like. It's fine-tuned and highly textured pop music, fronted by a self-assured woman who asserts her right to be sexy but isn't afraid to admit she's vulnerable. "Feel like getting down and dirty/With a pocket of love," Mills sings on the sassy, effervescent "Radiowave." Its big power chords and processed drum loops are as addictive as a Max Martin arrangement, but in the witty, half-rapped wordplay, Mills plays her self-confidence off a pop culture jag. "Radiowave" and the kindred spirit title track may amp up radio-friendly dance-pop, but the sound's infused with jaded female fury. When Mills sneers "he just needs time" in the chorus to "Different for Girls," it's like the punch line to a girls'-night-out bitch session. While Different can be sassy, it accesses a whole different set of production tricks (synth strings, vocal muting) for a series of slower tracks that try to establish Mills' softer, somewhat needy side. "Rule the World" and "Violet" border on Celine Dion, or at least Sophie B. Hawkins, and the album limps into the station with another pair of whimpering ballads. To be fair, the liners list finale "Wings" as being licensed to Mattel and Barbie, so it's included here as a bonus track. But these tracks still undercut Different for Girls' more upbeat moments, where Mills can at least offset the material's predictability with clever lyrics and radio-ready, Matrix-style production.