Hilary Duff: Breathe In. Breathe Out. (RCA) There is something intrinsically OK about Hilary Duff making records. She does not appear to have the sort of emotional baggage her teenstar/Disney contemporaries conspicuously have. She exudes health, happiness, she is pretty, she’s had a stable, full life—married, separated—is still having one, has the admiration of her peers, and—importantly—the former Lizzie McGuire can actually sing, and she does so here. But. The material is way too formulaically pop, the vocals are too samey and cloying—semi-sexy at first, then veering toward chipmunkesque—and some of the lyrics, as in the opening set-up for “Night Like This” featuring Big Time Rush’s Kendall Schmidt, veer headlong into tragic cornball. Still: In small doses, a song at a time, this is a collection of serviceable poptunes that’s one step up from nearly everything else her Disney pals have ever produced. She, and we, could do immensely worse.
