Last post of the bank holiday weekend and before I go back to one a week! Bit of a longer one.

I have always been passionate about music from a young age. I was around 5/6 when I got into The Beatles, Oasis and The Ramones through my parents playing their music. With the internet, I’ve been able to deep-dive into discographies of bands and find out about their history. Yes, I guess you could say I’m a music nerd! An aspect of this interest has been watching interviews with singers and bands over the years. One of those is Dave Grohl, from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, who I’ve watched a fair amount of interviews from.

One of these was a silly 2022 interview of him on James Corden. The guest he was on with happened to be Hilary Duff. I had heard of her and the show Lizzie McGuire, and knew she had a music career like most other actresses, and was intrigued to see what it was like!

Surprisingly, I found that some of Hilary’s music was quite interesting and fairly acclaimed for a star of her ilk. Her early and most famous music is kinda like Avril Lavigne for 12 year olds. I enjoy the pop rock sound but the vocals and lyrics are a bit too immature for me, but it was written for a teen and tween audience. “Wake Up” has great melodies and harmonies though, and doesn’t sound too immature.

However, I think her 2007 album Dignity is absolutely brilliant. It is the typical “Disney star grows up and dyes her hair” album but it is still pretty sweet and not tacky. It has a very quirky dance sound, similar to pop acts like Girls Aloud, with a large dose of rock influence once again.

Standouts for me include the title track, which sounds like Franz Ferdinand with New Order high bass, “Danger” and “Never Stop” which almost have a wacky Gorillaz electro sound, “No Work, All Play” with its reggae-inflections and “Between You and Me” and “Play With Fire,” which have a kooky ’80s new wave sound.

Finally, “Dreamer” sounds like a ’90s house remix of “Just Can’t Get Enough” by Depeche Mode and “I Wish” sounds like a ’90s house remix of AC/DC! I don’t like “Gypsy Woman,” “Happy,” “Burned” and “Outside of You.”

2015 saw the release of her next album Breathe In. Breathe Out. This album has a much more generic dance sound of the time, similar to hits of DJs like Calvin Harris. Nonetheless, I do think the dreamy and cutesy vibe of the album does work with her relatively wholesome image for a Disney child star. To relate this style of music to “cool” music, if you squint your eye it’s not that dissimilar to some of New Order’s work like “Vanishing Point” off the classic Technique album, with its euphoric and poppy piano house melody and beat.

“Sparks,” “Arms Around a Memory,” “Rebel Hearts” and “Confetti” all have this EDM sound (her massive hit “What Dreams Are Made Of” does too which I do enjoy). Even though “My Kind” has a generic pop sound and chord progression of Bm G D A, the switch to Bm G D F#m in the last chorus is neat. Finally, “Stay in Love” and “One in a Million” are nice electro rock. I don’t like “Lies,” “Brave Heart,” “Tattoo” and “Nights Like This” with their boring acoustic sound. Even for a more typical pop album, it is very blissful and well-crafted.

This leads us to her new album, this year’s Luck…Or Something.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when the first single “Mature” was announced. It really surprised me by being a throwback to the pop rock sound of Duff’s famous music, yet more “mature!.” It has organic production and drums, with thick electric guitar chords. It reminds me of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry being played by Weezer or The Cars! Easily my favourite Hilary song.

The rest of the album isn’t as rock as I hoped it would be, but I still think it’s worth talking about with how impressive and cohesive the lyrics are to me. The vulnerable themes of her not speaking to her sister and father anymore, anxiety of her husband leaving her and reminiscing on your younger years would certainly challenge one’s preconceived notions of this former child star.

Thus, to make the album more rock/indie I would just pretend that the portions of chiming guitars on “Future Tripping” and “You, From The Honeymoon” are played by Johnny Marr – make them sound like a more pop Smiths! “Weather For Tennis” also has Weezer/The Cars style keyboards and handclaps in there and “Growing Up” samples Blink-182 (I was able to persuade my metalhead friend with that latter track). The indie/rock influences also make sense when you find out the album was co-written and co-produced by her husband Matthew Koma, frontman for Winnetka Bowling League who I just reviewed.

Finally, there are gorgeous chill tracks like “We Don’t Talk,” “Adult Size Medium” and the X-rated yet melancholy “Roommates.” I don’t like the disco pop of “Holiday Party” and “Tell Me That Won’t Happen” though – I can’t make them rock n roll!

So yeah, watching a random interview with Dave Grohl led me to finding this surprisingly interesting and rock influenced singing career of this famous actress (not that her music isn’t famous in its own right). The Walmart deluxe CD of the new album features remakes of her old songs and the rocking “Wake Up” is included. Thus, here’s my rock n roll version of Luck…Or Something. This review will also relate to a humourous article coming in the future, and you’ll see why I put it out at this time… Thanks for reading.

1. Weather for Tennis
2. Roommates
3. Wake Up (Mine)
4. We Don’t Talk
5. Growing Up
6. Future Tripping
7. The Optimist
8. Mature
9. You, from the Honeymoon
10. Adult Size Medium

*to also give more of a rock angle to this article, The Colour and the Shape is another great Foo Fighters album, having just reviewed There Is Nothing Left To Lose.