Metamorphosis, Zach

I haven't followed Hilary Duff's career at all, ever, and so I remember her as a person who exists in the pop culture world and who was famous as a young person but who I basically forgot existed and whose music I don't really know.

And I find myself wanting to look at her Wikipedia page. Because her photo looks so young and impressionable and airbrushed on the cover of this album. In one sense, a version of a human with a perfect life, with absolutely no problems in the world. But then her earrings aren't perfectly straight and there's a crack in the armor. Maybe she's not quite so perfect?

I want to know what the last 20 years have been like for her. Has she met the fate of other child stars? Is she Macaulay Culkin, or is she Haley Joel Osment, or is she Joseph Gordon Levitt? Has she been married and divorced? Does she have children? How much has the paparazzi followed her around? Was she the victim of some terrible arrangement like Kesha or Britney Spears?

I'm not going to look it up. I'm just going to listen to this album. 

I will say that the first two songs on this album—the two biggest hits, it seems—are songs I would keep listening to. They're catchy and hopeful and "So Yesterday" has that little dose of nostalgia I like. 

And I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the rest of this album is listenable. This isn't like Rihanna or *NSYNC albums, where the hits hit so hard and the other songs are just terrible. 

I think it just goes on too long. It's too much of the same. The lyrics are nice and cute at the beginning, but then, like, we get the message. You're figuring it out! You like boys! You like kissing!

I got a nice giggle out of the star 69 reference in "The Math." Landlines. Those were the days. I also think those were the days before the internet ruined (or made better?) the number 69 for everyone.

It's quite an artistic choice to put a minute-and-a-half song towards the end of the album. I would have easily thought this song would clock in at five minutes, especially since it is slow developing. 

"Why Not" is a cute way to end the album. It also makes sense. The same messaging about taking a chance. It's not always easy to take a crazy chance, though, and it's not always the right decision. I'm sure Hilary Duff knows this now, wherever she is in life.