Should a song about a relationship’s end be so infectious?

Putting such reservations aside and letting the rhythm instead be my guide, the Pussycat Dolls’ latest single, “I Hate This Part,” has my heart. Right here.

While Entertainment Weekly seems to be gunning for the Dolls (calling them an “atrocity” and refusing to “acknowledge their existence in a world created by a beneficent god”), I’m going on record with my affection for the group (or lead Nicole Scherzinger, at least). Sure, it’s manufactured pop, but even Detroit wishes it could tap into such first-rate engineering.

The “I Hate This Part” video takes a kitchen-sink approach, as if a coherent narrative is completely beside the point. Though the first lines of the song speak of “driving slow through the snow on Fifth Avenue,” our Dolls are stranded on some dusty desert road in the middle of nowhere. Later, the setting is an old car graveyard (still in the middle of nowhere). There’s a grand piano (conveniently), a deer, a snake, a broken-down convertible, a Siberian Husky, a pinball machine (ready to be writhed upon), an elephant (pink, stuffed), and a butterfly. It’s sunny, it rains. Alas, there is no snow, though there is much touching of one’s hair/head.

With so much packed into less than four minutes, you’re bound to find some part to love (if not the song itself):

Purchase the Pussycat Dolls’ “I Hate This Part” via iTunes, Amazon MP3. (To prolong the pain—in a good way—consider the four remixes from Moto Blanco, Digital Dog, Dave Aude, and Karamtronic, allowing you to wallow a bit longer on the dancefloor).