"i honestly lost respect for that whole situation when songs from nicole’s failed solo effort ended up on their second album and sounded exactly the same. like atleast try and fake the idea of this being a group"

It was a cheap tactic. Even stranger, she's still releasing her solo album in the future. Does she expect her fans to buy the songs twice? I do think the second PCD album is better than the first, but the 'Nicole and the PCD' image got old fast. If she'd waited for them all to go solo later, they'd probably have all had success.