If nothing else, these four lasses from Dublin are cocky. Who else would

attempt to mix Irish folk music with vanilla pop and pretend that the

end result would be something anyone would actually want to

listen to. There's a fiddle and/or tin whistle on every track,

for heaven's sake. Within the first two minutes of this album, B*Witched

have ransacked their native musical culture with the scurrilous "Let's

Go"(The B*Witched Jig)." A jig? If we'd wanted a jig, we'd have bought

The Clancy Brothers' Greatest Hits. Unfortunately, this

wrongheaded inclusion is just one of many to be found on the band's

debut, another of which is their cheerful, attitude-stuffed single

"C'est La Vie."

It doesn't say much for a group when they can't even muster the shallow

charisma of a "band" like the Spice Girls. For starters, "Rev It Up" is

not an acceptable song title. Not even if it were intended to be ironic,

which this wasn't. The offending track -- one of the few co-written by

bandmembers -- sounds distinctly Jackson Five-ish. The B*Witched version

is ... well, the lyrics speak for themselves: "We'll have fun/ We'll be

splashin'/ Lazin' on the sand by the sea/ So don't you worry 'bout

fashion/ You can wear your blue dungarees." It doesn't get much better,

though it does get slower. Among the most lethargic tracks are "Blame it

on the Weatherman" and "Oh Mr. Postman." At the other extreme are

songs in dire need of Ritalin that would be ideal for serving at 7-year-olds'

disco parties, right next to the bubblegum ice cream cake.

"Rollercoaster," a recent UK single, is about life, love and everything.

It may not rock, exactly, but it does bop. So, OK, I kind of like

"Rollercoaster" -- it's sweet and light, a meringue of a song.

B*Witched are the bargain basement Spice Girls, that's all -- cheaper

and not as good.