****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“New York Dolls.” Mercury. The Dolls’ gloriously outrageous rock ‘n’ rouge style in the early ‘70s forged an anyone-can-be-a-star sensibility that inspired Malcolm McLaren (who managed the group briefly) to go back to London and form the Sex Pistols. The sassy music and David Johansen’s vocals were mostly warmed-over Stones, but the attitude was classic and several songs (including “Personality Crisis”) on this first of the group’s two studio LPs still stand as colorful, if exaggerated, expressions of teen alienation. Johansen, incidentally, has resurfaced with a witty new persona as tuxedoed lounge singer Buster Poindexter. ***