Photo credit: Andrew Macpherson
9/10
Project Information:
Release Date: 03/21/07
Genre: Pop
Label: Hollywood (At The Time) / RCA (Currently)
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Hilary Duff is a household name, whether it be from her movies, her feud with Ashlee Simpson or one of her amazing albums. Today we’d love to talk about ‘Dignity’, the fourth studio album by Disney starlet, Hilary Duff.
The Introduction
There are not enough amazing things I could say about Hilary Duff as an artist, actress, and human being (to mention a few). In August of 2005, Hilary hit the world with “Most Wanted”, a greatest hits album (after only two albums?). The album did serve as an international second album (in lieu of her self-titled sophomore album).
At the time the compilation seemed rather odd, but who am I to disagree with the bosses at Hollywood Records? To complicate matters even further, Hilary released a SECOND Greatest Hits album titled ‘4Ever’ in Italy. It appeared to most (myself included) that she was hanging up the microphone and moving headfirst into acting.
Well, then we ‘Play(ed) With Fire’…
In the trailer for 2006’s film “Material Girl” (which stars Hilary and her sister Haylie), we hear the first glimpse of HD3 with “Happy“. Somewhere during production for the album the instrumental for “Happy” (as featured in the trailer) was removed and reworked into a separate song titled “Play With Fire”. Don’t worry though, we still got “Happy”, just with a different instrumental.
On August 16, 2006, ‘Play With Fire’ was officially released as the first single from “Dignity”. The song didn’t receive much promotion, however, it did peak at #31 on the US Dance Club Songs charts. There would be a long break between the first and second single and in February of 2007, she released “With Love” and this is where we began to get the cohesive energy of the ‘Dignity’ era.
Simply put ‘With Love’ is a banger and rightfully was the best charting song from the ‘Dignity’ era. Peaking at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #29 on the UK singles chart (both of these chart positions are a travesty and are not an accurate representation of how amazing the song is). A third single “Stranger” was also released, and received a large promotional push with performances on the Today Show, Teen Nick, and So You Think You Can Dance, but failed to chart in any meaningful way!
Where’s Your, where’s your, where’s your Dignity
To say that the release schedules for the album were hectic. “Dignity” was first released on this day (March 21m 2007) in Italy. Releases followed in the UK on March 26, 2007, Germany and Switzerland on March 30, 2007, March 31, 2007 in Australia, and finally April 3, 2007 in North America. Needless to say by that point, the album had leaked online. Regardless of that the album was a success, peaking at #3 on the US Albums Charts where it sold in excess of 500,000 copies and certified gold. Elsewhere in the world “Dignity” peaked in the top 30 in 12 other countries.
The album “Dignity” has so many hidden gems, including the title track. ‘You’d show up to the opening of an envelope” and I’m sorry you just can’t beat that. Hilary had a hand in writing 13 of the 14 tracks that appear on the album. She was quoted saying “Dignity has all of me in it. I never did my records like that before. I got to choose the music, but this time around it was, like, I’d sit down and think: ‘What happened to me yesterday? What happened to me today?’ and just write. It was very therapeutic”
Notable Songs
The album does not contain a single skip, in fact, it is one of the few albums that I could listen to from beginning to end and be completely satisfied. Some “must listens” include “Gypsy Woman”, “Burned”, “Happy”, and “Outside of You”.
The Conclusion
Hilary followed up this release with the song ‘Reach Out’ which is included on a third greatest hits collection ‘The Best of Hilary Duff’. At this point honestly, I would like for Hilary to release a new collection of Greatest Hits after the release of each studio album.
The third greatest hits album (released in 2008) would be the final release from Hilary until 2015’s ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’ (which there will certainly be a similar review for in June).
You can purchase a copy of “Dignity” on Vinyl over at Urban Outfitters, in a flawless Merlot with Black Swirl variation.
