Posted on: July 20, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Hilary Duff – Dignity / 2007 Hollywood / 14 Tracks / http://www.hilaryduff.com / http://www.hollywoodrecords.com /

Hilary Duff has changed eir style quite a bit since eir last few albums. A song like ”Why not” was something that could make it easily onto any Disney soundtrack, where songs like “With Love” may be pandering to a slightly older fan base. This is not really surprising, as the fan base that liked “Why Not” a few years back are wanting a little more sophisticated. The one thing that individuals can see from the onset of this CD is that there is nothing in the way of “featuring” or “including” on the fourteen cuts of this album. When it seems like female stars need a little added rub (whether it is Rihanna using Jay-Z or Nelly Furtado using Timbaland), the lack of “name” stars on this album beyond Duff’s own is a nice sight. There is not much in the way of experimentation with this album, with the tracks either gliding into the pop style or using R&B and dance influences to change things up slightly.

There seems to be a greater cohesion on this album than on albums past, which is most likely due to the fact that the vast majority of tracks on “Dignity” were written by Duff eirself and fellow writer Kara DioGuardi. There are a few derivations to that formula, being “Outside of You”, which was written by Pink, but this song-writing team is one of the major constants that individuals can bank on when they put “Dignity” into their CD players. Individuals that are very into Duff will noticed a little bit of a switch-up with tracks on this disc; while there was a song that sounded like “Play With Fire” on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie Material Girls, it contained many of the lyrics of “Happy”. For “Dignity”, the lyrics of “Happy” got a new backing beat and the backing beat of “Play With Fire” got new lyrics.

The evolution from the one song to the two shows that Duff is willing to change eir output when it necessitates it, and the resulting tracks are much stronger as a result. Duff is still not someone that is at the edge of experimental music, but the type of pop present on this album will be something that longtime fans and newer individuals that are just getting into Duff can appreciate. Give the disc a go if you like solid pop music or have liked Duff in the past.

Top Tracks: I Wish, Burned

Rating: 5.2/10

Leave a Comment