Hilary Duff is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Hilary Duff. It was released on September 15, 2004, by Hollywood Records. The recording sessions for the seventeen-track album took place in between Duff's filming of Raise Your Voice (2004) and The Perfect Man (2005).
Hilary Duff topped the album charts in Canada while reaching the top 10 in Argentina, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and the United States. It was number 65 on Billboard magazine's 2005 year-end top albums chart."2005 Year End Charts - The Billboard 200 Titles". Billboard. Issue date: November 26, 2005. Retrieved October 28, 2004. The album has also received platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, and the United States. It received generally negative reviews from music critics, many of whom compared the album unfavorably to the music of Avril Lavigne and Ashlee Simpson.
The lead single from Hilary Duff, "Fly", premiered on August 26, 2004, on MTV's Total Request Live. It was officially released as a single on August 10, 2004. "Fly" peaked outside the top twenty on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart. A second single, "Someone's Watching Over Me", was released exclusively in Australia on February 21, 2005. The song was released to promote the film Raise Your Voice and charted at number 22 on Australia's ARIA Charts.
Background and development According to Duff, the album chronicles her experiences over the year before its release: "some of it's good, and some of it's bad, and a lot of it's, like, a big learning experience," she explained.. Yahoo! Music. September 27, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006. She expressed an interest in recording lyrically more aggressive material than the songs on Metamorphosis (2003) and wanted the album to reflect that, according to her, she is a normal sixteen-year-old. "Well, I'm not going to be singing about lollipops because I no longer relate to lollipops," she said. "Basically, I'm not Lizzie McGuire anymore."Duerden, Nick. "The Golden Girl". Blender. October 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006. She said the album deals with issues she would not discuss publicly and provides "some answers," but she disagreed with people who believed the album presented a different side of her, saying "I think it's just more me this time because I got to really do it how I wanted to."Goodman, Abbey. "Hilary Duff: The Nicest Brat" . MTV News. November 12, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006. Duff called the album "different [from]" Metamorphosis and "much more mature," particularly in its sound, but not to the point where it would be inappropriate for children: "I just think that other people will relate better." According to her, she was more "involved" compared to the production of her first album and "confident enough to make suggestions" about the style of the album: "If I thought it needed to be more heavy, more rock, I said so.""Hilary Duff comes to Manchester on Jan. 27" . The Dover Community News. December 31, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
Three songs — "Fly", "Someone's Watching over Me", and "Jericho" — were used in Raise Your Voice, a film released shortly after the album in which Duff starred as an aspiring singer who attends a prestigious performing arts summer school. Her character performs "Someone's Watching Over Me" during the film's climax and "Jericho" during the end credits. Duff described "Fly" as "an uplifting song" about "how people are scared to open up and show who they are inside because they're afraid of what others are going to say."Sony Music. "Hilary Duff - Hilary Duff" . The Star. Retrieved October 27, 2006. The album's release in Japan includes three bonus tracks: an acoustic version of "Who's That Girl?", a cover of The Go-Go's' "Our Lips Are Sealed" recorded with Haylie for the soundtrack to Duff's film A Cinderella Story, and a cover of The Who's "My Generation" in which the lyric "I hope I die before I get old" was changed to "I hope I don't die before I get old". Duff began performing it in concert after a suggestion from her manager, who was a fan of the song.
Duff herself co-wrote three tracks on the album: "Mr. James Dean", "Haters" and "Rock This World", the first two of which, along with "The Last Song", Haylie co-wrote. Hilary said she refrained from co-writing the entire album because "I don't know if I'm secure enough with myself to do that." She characterised "Haters" as "tongue-in-cheek" and said people would know what it is about when they heard it, and it attracted substantial publicity when rumors circulated that it was about actress Lindsay Lohan, with whom Duff was alleged to have been feuding."Duff Blasts Lohan on New Album" . WENN. October 8, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006.Williams, Rob. . Winnipeg Sun. January 10, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2006.Wood, Mikael. "The Jig Is Up" . The Village Voice. November 12, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006. Duff denied that the rumors were true, saying she did not know Lohan and would not write a song about her."Inside Interview - Hilary Duff, the talented US teenager singer" . New Weekly. Retrieved October 27, 2006. She said that at the time she wrote it she was feeling she had to openly discuss her personal life because "people make accusations and there are lies and rumors constantly ... people are so negative. They love to read what's coming out next on Page Six [of the New York Post] and I just felt like it was appropriate." She said she felt "normal girls" could relate to the song because of the "petty stuff" that occurs in schools.
Duff told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2005 that because she was under the control of her record label during the making of Metamorphosis and Hilary Duff, she wasn't able to incorporate the sound she wanted into her recordings. She said the production "[had] been mastered and sounds really pretty", noting: "If I could change it, I would, and it would sound [less pop]. My name is Hilary Duff, and I don't know why I don't get to make Hilary Duff music."DeRogatis, Jim. "Is She For Real?" . Chicago Sun-Times. July 19, 2005. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
Recording and production Duff recorded the first three songs for the album between the shooting dates of Raise Your Voice and The Perfect Man, two films in which she was involved.Staff report. "For The Record: Quick News On Beanie Sigel, Hilary Duff, Josh Homme, Jessica Simpson, Vince Neil & More" . MTV News. April 8, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006. Subsequent songs were recorded on the weekends during filming of The Perfect Man and on the nights after concerts on her summer 2004 tour. The album's outro track, "The Last Song", was recorded in her dressing room.Moss, Corey and Cornell, Jeff. "Hilary Duff Got 'Ghetto version' When Necessary For New LP" . MTV News. September 23, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
When discussion regarding her second album began, Duff said she wanted to work with the same team of producers and songwriters with whom she worked on Metamorphosis. "[They] made me feel so comfortable and so secure with myself. I loved working with them. I have a great relationship with them. I talk to them [all the time] ... They knew what was going on in my life, what I was going through ... and how I feel inside," Duff said.Murray, Rebecca. "Hilary Duff Talks About 'Raise Your Voice'" . About.com. Retrieved October 27, 2006. For songs she did not co-write, Duff discussed her experiences and feelings with the writers and asked them to write songs about them. Members of the creative team behind Metamorphosis who returned for Hilary Duff include Charlie Midnight, John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi (who collaborated on the commercially released singles), Andre Recke, Marc Swersky, and Duff's sister Haylie. Hilary said, "I do have a lot to say, and I have a lot going on inside that sometimes is buried and hidden because I'm working so hard, and I don't have time to think about it. But if we sit down and we talk about it and I tell her how I feel and she writes, it'll be good."Moss, Corey and Downey, Ryan J. "Hilary Duff Works It With New LP, More Movies, Little Rest" . MTV News. March 15, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
Several producers and songwriters who did not contribute to Metamorphosis worked on the album, including Andreas Carlsson and Desmond Child ("Who's That Girl?"), British songwriter Guy Chambers ("Shine"), Julian Bunetta and James Michael ("The Getaway"), and Ty Stevens ("Rock This World"). Ron Entwistle is co-writer and co-producer of "Weird", which Duff said is "about someone that she's still obsessed with. And everything he does is like he says this, but he does this ... She's not really sure who he is or what he does, but she likes it.". News Times. January 21, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2006. Kevin De Clue contributed to "The Last Song" and "Mr. James Dean" (both co-produced by Haylie), which Duff named her favorite track on the album and described as "very funny"; in the song, she tells an ex-boyfriend that he'll "never be James Dean." Duff neither confirmed nor denied whether the song was about fellow singer Aaron Carter, and she said "it was definitely an experience that I went through that was interesting and I learned a lot from that time in my life." In "Hide Away", co-produced and co-written by Shaun Shankel, Duff discusses a relationship that isn't working because she is in a position where her life is "figuratively under the microscope." Diane Warren wrote "I Am", an empowerment song in which Duff lists positive and negative aspects about herself; she has said it is about being comfortable "with all those feelings ... being who you are." David Campbell arranged and conducted strings for the tracks "Someone's Watching Over Me" and "Who's That Girl?"."Duff inspires magic moment from young fans". London Free Press. January 21, 2006. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
Duff's management team considered recording the song "Since U Been Gone" for the album, which Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin had originally written for Pink. According to Gottwald, Duff's team passed on the song because some of the notes were too high for Duff's voice. "Since U Been Gone" was later recorded by Kelly Clarkson, for whom it became a major hit.Raftery, Brian. "Woman of the Year: Everybody Loves Kelly (Yes, even you)" . Blender. January/February 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
Singles "Fly" was the lead single from the album. It is also the only single released in the US. The song was released as a single on October 19, 2004; it peaked outside the top twenty on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.[ "Hilary Duff - Billboard Singles"]. Allmusic and Billboard. Retrieved October 27, 2006. The music video was directed by Chris Applebaum and combines black-and-white backstage footage with color shots of Duff performing the song. The video premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on August 26, 2004.
The second and final single, "Someone's Watching Over Me", was released exclusively in Australia on February 21, 2005. The song was released to promote the film Raise Your Voice in which Duff plays the lead role and charted at number 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The music video for the song was taken from a performance scene in the film.
Following the album's release, Duff mentioned that she was considering "Haters" and "Weird" as potential singles, however, only the latter was released as a promotional single in Spain in December 2004.Moss, Corey. "Duff Sisters Talk About Their Long 'To Do' List, From Madonna To McDonald's" . MTV News. November 12, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
Promotion