En Vogue

By Design, the girl group is as blatant a male-fantasy vehicle as the strip-o-gram. The notion
of young women in provocative costumes cooing and swaying in carefully choreographed
bliss holds endless lascivious possibilities, as any Spice Girls video can attest. Yet the most
successful girl groups have ultimately held the greatest appeal for women, because the
sexy, glamorous singers have made it clear that they wouldn't be cheap dates or... More >

Sylvia Rhone isn't going to pull the plug on her copyright just because Dawn Robinson has decided she's the reason for her own success. So with yeomanlike help from Babyface, the label has laboriously extracted a hit and some platinum from Rhone's three remaining charges as they strain for soul and funk as stagily and dutifully as the fabricated bevy of talent-hunt beauties they've always been. Sole exception: the Robinson-led Set It Off smash "Don't Let Go (Love)." There's a lesson in that, right? Only what will that lesson be when Robinson's debut does the dog? (Grade: B-)