Hilary Duff Is Mature, But I Want Her To Be Electropop
And what's going on with Tate McRae?
Who else has been waiting for this comeback?? After teasing her return for a while now, Hilary Duff has finally given us new music with the release of her single Mature.
It’s probably been about 10 years since we’ve gotten new music from Hilary, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect in this new era. With her husband Matthew Koma’s pop songwriting success, I was hopeful he’d be on board to ensure she had a hit. With that said, it’s a hard task to write something that stands up to the likes of Come Clean, What Dreams Are Made Of, and So Yesterday, so I was trying to keep my expectations realistic.
Listening to the vocals on their own, I was initially getting Carly Rae Jepsen a la I Really Like You. I’m thinking - big synths, pulsating bassline, bright, electropop fun, so of course, that’s the direction I went in. And honestly, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if the original had ended up being that as well, it felt in line with what I’d expect for Hilary Duff’s sound, but I was pretty off base with that guess. Her version leans way more indie pop with acoustic drums and electric guitars, giving something much more reminiscent of beachy-pop-rock.
Was this the track you were expecting from Hilary?
Haven’t heard the original yet? Check it out here:
Deep diving into Tate McRae’s latest album:
Tate McRae is about to release the deluxe version of her latest album, So Close To What, that came out in February of this year, so what better time to finally listen to the original tracks.
With the success of singles Sports car and It’s ok I’m ok earlier this year, I had high hopes for this album - especially after how much I enjoyed THINK LATER. Some more Tate x Ryan Tedder collabs sounded like the perfect storm, but what we ended up with was, in my opinion, a bit lackluster. While that formula worked great on her 2023 project, the majority of the new tracks on her more recent release left me feeling underwhelmed and wishing for something fresh and new. From a producer standpoint, I felt like I could hear the same plug-and-play arrangement from song to song and very few stand-out hooks, which was pretty surprising after their last collaboration. The songs that broke that mold rose to the top of my ranking pretty quickly after listening straight through from beginning to end. Highlights for me included bonus track, Siren Sounds, and the acoustic final track, Nostalgia.
Come listen with me as I rank the tracks from my favorite to least favorite and let me know if our rankings match up.
Looking for more?
Find all previous episodes in this series here
Stay tuned next week for my take on one of Tate’s deluxe add-ons
And make sure to check out my original music wherever you like to stream: https://snd.click/uh8r