With every year I add to my age, I have to keep reminding myself
\nthat every generation has their own holiday music. Our parents had
\nBing Crosby, Nat “King” Cole and the Harry Simeone Chorale —
\ngroups I still relate the Christmas season to. My generation had
\nthe original Band Aid, Elmo & Patsy and a host of teeny-bop
\ngroups doing throwaway albums.<\/p>\n
Today’s generation also has their own style of holiday music,
\nand who better to represent them than Hilary Duff, star of
\nLizzie McGuire<\/i> and fixture on Disney Channel. Her debut
\nalbum,
\nSanta Claus Lane<\/i>, does show there is a voice behind the
\npretty young face, even if this is a strange place to start one’s
\nrecording career.<\/p>\n
This release — the original 10-track disc came out a year prior
\n— features an additional track, “What Christmas Should Be”. And
\nwhile it is a pretty track, starting out the disc with a morality
\nplay is a little off-putting, especially coming from a teenager.
\nStill, the message of the song is appropriate — especially as the
\nholiday season becomes more and more about material possessions
\nthan any religious significance.<\/p>\n
Duff is able to breathe some life into some slightly stale
\nchestnuts, such as her cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” — in
\nretrospect, this is a song that should have been sung by a female
\nin the first place. And you have to give Duff and her band credit
\nfor trying to do something to “Wonderful Christmastime,” even if
\nthe source material isn’t the strongest cup of tea on the table. It
\ndoesn’t totally succeed, but there is some level of joy in the
\ntrack that I don’t hear in Paul McCartney’s original.<\/p>\n
The bulk of
\nSanta Claus Lane<\/i>, admittedly, isn’t designed for those of us
\nin our mid-30s; rather, kids 13 and under will appreciate this disc
\nmore. That doesn’t mean that parents will roll their eyes and groan
\nwhen this disc is played — indeed, Duff does show she has a strong
\n(if slightly understated) voice that she is still growing into. On
\nclassics like “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” and “Sleigh Ride,”
\nDuff puts an interesting spin on the songs without disturbing the
\nghosts of the originals. Duff also introduces some tracks which —
\nbelieve it or not — could someday become classics, such as the
\ntitle track and “Same Old Christmas.”<\/p>\n
The only real mis-step comes on “Tell Me A Story,” a duet with
\nrapper Lil’ Romeo which feels as out of place here as bringing a
\ncat to a dog show. (Sorry, but it’s a kids’ music review, and
\nthat’s the cleanest simile I could come up with.) Granted, hip-hop
\nand rap is still popular, and I don’t want to take anything away
\nfrom Lil’ Romeo or Duff, but this track just never takes off, nor
\ndoes it live up to the standards of the other songs on this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
Duff is, at this writing, still not even old enough to vote, so
\nher recording history has a long way to go. As a first effort,
\nSanta Claus Lane<\/i> is respectable, even as we wonder where
\nshe’ll take things. As a Christmas album, it has the possibility of
\nhaving longer legs than, say, Hanson’s
\nSnowed In<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7096],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38196","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hilary-duff","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38196"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}