luck... or something

Even the ellipsis in the title is millennial. luck... or something, Hilary Duff's fifth studio album and first in over a decade, starts the same way all albums start: with an opening track. Here, the bouncy "Weather for Tennis" has the burden of trying to make up for a decades long absence of new Duff music — and it does its job, the inner workings of Duff's marital spats with producer Matthew Koma acting as a salve for the open wound that is aging.That's probably, perhaps inevitably, the biggest theme of the album. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and the feverish embrace of the Lizzie McGuire star's return to the stage — initially performing live again after 18 years away in a few modest-sized venues that sold out in minutes, and soon, in arenas across North American, Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico on her lucky me world tour — has been proof of its potency.Duff notably pulled the plug on the Disney+ reboot of her hit teen sitcom because they refused to let her character actually grow up, so to launch into her comeback era by taking the biggest, horniest swings on tracks like "Roommates," "Adult Size Medium" and "You, from the Honeymoon" feels both daring and true to her convictions. I think about being 23 and horny all the time, so when she sang those words on "Adult Size Medium," I about hit the floor; her singular ability to make the audience feel seen remains intact, and it's very nice to know that the men she's hooked up with have gone down on her.Lead single "Mature" delivered what I wanted most: a drag brunch staple that speaks to the girlies who feel aged-out of salacious encounters with older men. In fact, as luck… or something unfurls, it becomes clear that this is at least a soundscape for millennial gay guy dinner parties (I'm viscerally transported to a dimly lit room, a Jo Malone candle burning and a plate of roasted Brussels sprouts in my periphery as someone named Kevin explains why Metamorphosis was both urgent and meta at the time of its release) — and, at best, a softcore recapturing of that 2003 Duff magic."Growing Up" is the Duff deep-dive fans have longed for, grieving the changes that come with time's passage to an early 2000s beat that feels lifted from memory because it interpolates blink-182's "Dammit." It shouldn't work, but it does — and it's the greatest gift on the album, which is already one in and of itself. Longing for the collective glittery memory of envisioning yourself singing "What Dreams Are Made Of" with your brunette Italian twin at the International Music Video Awards has descended upon us en masse again, and who would look that gift horse in the mouth?The pop star said luck… or something was "for the gays" (Kevin is right and he should say it), and it fittingly reflects the exact kind of femininity many gay guys see in themselves. While she tries to impress upon us that the girl we knew is now a woman who reads tarot cards and engages in pure sexual pleasure, bold and brash have never entered the lexicon when it comes to Hilary Duff and her music — and maybe they never will. We love her because she stays earnest, something most pop stars avoid in an effort to not seem too cringe.Duff knows better than anyone that to be cringe is to be meme. Enjoy the Duffaissance, it comes but every 10 years!