Tainted Love

The Pussycat Dolls' take on "Tainted Love" reimagines the synth-pop classic — itself a cover of Gloria Jones's northern-soul original — through a glossy, club-ready, mid-2000s pop lens. The arrangement keeps the song's iconic stabbing hook recognizable while layering it with sleek dance production, a thumping beat, and the group's signature sultry-aggressive vocal delivery. Where Soft Cell's version was anxious and brittle, this rendition is more performative and seductive, leaning into the burlesque-tinged confidence that defined the Dolls' brand. The lyric remains the same plea to escape a love that's become poisonous — the need to run from someone who gives only pain — but the emotional register shifts from desperation to defiant glamour, a heartbreak you can dance away in heels. Vocally it's all attitude, the lead delivery wrapping the melody in breathy power while the production keeps everything taut and propulsive. As a cover it functions partly as a wink to pop history, repackaging a familiar hook for a generation raised on clubs and choreography. It's a song for getting dressed up, for the bathroom mirror, for shaking off someone who didn't deserve you. Less reinvention than reupholstery, it succeeds by matching a timeless hook to maximalist 2000s sheen.