Diva battle royale: Hilary Duff vs. Martina McBride

By Nicholas Rader
Richwood High School

Martina McBride and Hilary Duff recently released new albums on the same day. “Dignity,” Duff’s fourth studio album is good but not great. McBride’s new album, “Wake up Laughing,” is her ninth studio album. It’s not wonderful, either.

“Dignity” is the first album where Duff wrote more than a few songs. She co-wrote 13 of the 14, but, sadly, the best song on the album, “Outside of You,” is the one that she didn’t write. It is on repeat on my computer all the time; I really think this the best song she’s ever recorded.

“Between You and Me” is good, too. It sounds like Duff is singing to me, which makes me laugh.

Next is “Happy.” The title makes you think it will be like her old up-beat and slightly annoying stuff, but it isn’t. It actually sounds kind of depressing. It’s her post-breakup “I’m moving on and I’m glad” song.

Her two singles, “Play with Fire” and “With Love,” are definitely not her best songs. I don’t know why they were picked as singles. The worst song on the album, though, is “No Work, All Play” because of its awful vocals.

Duff has definitely grown up recording this album, but it still doesn’t wow me. None of her other albums have wowed me either, but at least her third, self-titled album had more variety. This is mostly fast songs.

Moving on to McBride, like Duff, she also co-wrote some of the songs on “Waking Up Laughing,” which is a first for her. She helped write three of the songs.

McBride has been known to release some great albums, and while this isn’t her worst, it isn’t her best, either, that’s for sure. The first four songs are awful.

“Anyway,” her new single, is good but only the second best on the album, I think. However, it’s the first good one on the album, and by that point, I thought it was the only one I was going to like. But “How I Feel,” “I’ll Still Be Me” and “House of a Thousand Dreams” are also good songs.

‘I’ll Still Be Me” has beautiful vocals and is the best song on the album. “House of a Thousand Dreams” is a sweet song about parents who try to give their kids everything but the kids love their house just the way it is.

These four really good songs outweigh the four really bad ones to make it an average album. And then, there are three other good songs, too. So if you listen to the CD, don’t stop after the first four songs. There are better songs throughout the album, I promise.

Overall, there’s no clear winner between these two albums. Both are good, and they are very different from each other. McBride has the better voice for sure, but of all the songs, the best one to me is Duf’s “Outside of You.” I declare a tie.