Duff’s new ‘Most Wanted’ shows very little growth
Hilary Duff
“Most Wanted” (Hollywood Records) • 1/2
Duff can whip up a seven-course meal out of scraps. That’s how the teen star of screen and studio is able to be everywhere at once without spreading herself too thin.
Her third CD (not counting the obligatory Christmas collection) is essentially a greatest hits package (a little early in the career to be going that route) with just enough new songs (three) to make it a reasonable investment for fans.
There’s not much development evident in the fresh material, bouncy little dance numbers with a guitar crunch that Duff sings in her thin, breathy voice. It’s all so precious.
As this album shows, Duff is more product than talent. A couple of weeks in the studio, a quick photo session for the jewel box and whammo, you have a new CD.
Minimum investment, maximum return. It’s showbiz, Duff’s way.
David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
The New Pornographers
“Twin Cinema” (Matador) •••
I’m not saying the New Pornographers’ songs don’t make any sense. I’m saying that when the supercharged indie pop confections of this Vancouver, B.C., band are galloping, soaring and whooshing by at their most irresistibly infectious, I couldn’t care less if they did.
Take “10,000 dancing girls kicking cans across sky/No reason why,” as Neko Case sings in “These Are the Fables.” And there doesn’t have to be a reason, not when the melody is harnessed to Case’s powerhouse voice, or when a chorus is as hummable as that of the intricately structured showstopper “Sing Me Spanish Techno.”
Unfortunately, not everything on the NP’s third album is so unstoppable. And though “Twin Cinema” is mighty snappy, it isn’t quite such an adrenalized hook fest as 2003’s “Electric Version.”
Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
Staind
“Chapter V” (Elektra) •
Still spewing poor-pitiful-me laments over minor-key metallic bluster, Staind seems permanently stalled in a rotten childhood that singer Aaron Lewis has been brooding about since day one.
The grunge rehashes, lugubrious drone and bleat riots such as “King of All Excuses” don’t exactly signal a plot shift. And when Lewis moans, “I’m dead inside, why don’t I care?” the natural response is, “Why should we?”
This whine and cheese-metal routine isn’t aging well.
Edna Gundersen, USA Today
Jimmy Webb
“Twilight of the Renegades” (Sanctuary) ••• 1/2 stars)
No living songwriter has been covered by a wider array of great singers than Webb, whose classics include “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.”
His own vocals, while not as technically proficient as those of his best-known interpreters, uniquely capture the wistful romanticism that seeps through his haunting melodies and lyrics. Tracks such as “Paul Gauguin in the South Seas” and “Class Clown” may flirt with sentimentality, but Webb’s purity of heart and spirit transcend it.
“Some people say I’m losing touch with harsh reality,” he sings on “Skywriter.” They should be grateful that a few such dreamers still exist.
Elysa Gardner, USA Today
Bob Mould
“Body of Song” (Yep Roc) •••
Some contend – OK, I do – that Bob Mould peaked with Husker Du, his post-punk-pop trio whose iconoclastic fireworks died with Du. Everything since – his Husker-lite band Sugar, his off-putting electro-experiments – seemed inelegant, compared with what Du could do.
“Body” breaks that banal streak. The hypnotic dynamics of its catchiest songs (“Circles”) are met head-on by Mould’s wounded-bear caterwaul (“Underneath Days”), along with a riotous rhythm and cutting lyrics that balance angst with bittersweet celebration.
It’s not perfect. The dance-tronic “(Shine Your) Light Love Hope” is so cheesy, you’ll feel your cholesterol rise. And the tubular-bell ballad “High Fidelity” is tepid.
But by balancing what he did best in the long-ago with his continued curiosity in electronic music, Mould shows that “Body” isn’t just a puny dog-and-pony show.
A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer