Hilary Duff: Dignity

Hilary Duff
Dignity
Buena Vista

Hilary Duff isn't just another marcher in Mickey Mouse's jailbait parade. Not anymore, anyway. For one thing, she is, like, totally a brunette now, which means we can finally tell her apart from that Lizzie McGuire chick. Plus, she recently dumped her faux-punk Good Charlotte boyfriend, freeing her up to rip on him and other awesome celebrities on her appropriately titled new album, Dignity.

Sure, you could criticize Duff for being nothing more than a vapid, talentless cog in the fascist Disney merchandising machine, but how about a little objectivity? Dignity is Duff's fourth album, and at the age of 19, she has made considerable strides as a performer and co-lyricist. Choosing to forego the automatic, undeserved street cred of a Timbaland collaboration, Hilary has instead taken on the considerable challenge of trying to sound exactly like a half-asleep Gwen Stefani--often succeeding with pinpoint accuracy.

"With Love" is a killer club-pop anthem, sort of like a "Wouldn't It Be Nice" for today's fun-loving, anorexic set. And the Duffster brings it even stronger on "Never Stop" and "Happy," channeling Kajagoogoo as she totally burns her ex-BF with the line I'm happy and I know that makes you sad.

More awesomer still, Hilary somehow maintains her incomparable cuteness as she chides her pantiless, Hollywood rivals on the CD's title track, asking, Where's your dignity? You see, Duff has the right to judge, because even though her music is essentially indistinguishable from that of your Lohans and Hiltons, she's always been a classier act.


(Andrew Clayman)


Published in the Metro Pulse, April 2007