First off, let me tell you that I'm no music expert and this entire thing is purely opinion, and that I may ignore some conventions when I comment on things.
Now, with that out of the way, on with the review! The beginnings of Hilary Duff had nothing to do with music. I originally encountered her on Disney Channel when I saw her in "Lizzie McGuire." She was a reasonable actress at the time, nothing special. Towards the end of her career as Lizzie she contributed to Disney records music collection with the song "I Can't Wait." She then went on to "The Lizzie McGuire Movie." Here, she showed a lot of potential as an actress, and a singer as well with her songs "Why Not?" (of which a slightly modified version is included on the CD) and "What Dreams Are Made Of." Both were very good for a young fifteen-year old singer. At his point, she did several other movies (which I won't get into as they don't pertain to her music career). After those movies Hilary decided she wanted a new flavor in life and, following the example of her sister Haylie, she started singing. Her first single in her new career, "So Yesterday," was a hit and held the #1 spot on the billboard charts for weeks. She then released Metamorphosis in August. It started out 2nd on the charts, but within a week it had the #1 spot.
Ok, now that you know where Hilary started, I'll get into where she is now and into the music itself. I'd heard both "Come Clean" and "So Yesterday" (the first two songs in the album) on her site (Media Player link) and I still think they're pretty good. Not amazing, but worth listening to. Then my sister got the album, "Metamorphosis." When I first popped the CD in my computer and opened it in iTunes I decided that I'd skim the songs and just pick out the good ones. I ended up listening through the entire CD, start to finish. I was amazed; several of the songs were really good and not one of them could actually be called bad. The lyrics were fresh and creative, not to mention well-sung. At this point I decided I'd keep them all, just to have them, depending on my mood, as every single one worth listening to.
As I was copying them into my iTunes library I noticed that they were all categorized as Pop. Of course, all on the same CD, the CD has to be Pop or Rock, or something... but the songs were really not all Pop: "Party Up" and "So Yesterday" both definitely could fall under Rock, "Little Voice" (one of my favorites!) was certainly at least half Techno, and "Where Did I Go Right?" could almost be called a Ballad (well, maybe not... but it wasn't Pop...). I was certainly suprised by the album; the songs were quite amazing. The only song I didn't like much was "Inner Strength" and I warn most guys that, simply put, "Inner Strength" is a "girl-power" song (though it still isn't a bad song...). I definitely recommend taking a look at the album, though (free 30 second samples from the iTunes music store and the entirety of "Come Clean" and "So Yesterday" at the above link). Even if Hilary is only sixteen now, her talent should not be discounted as amateur. If you're planning on buying a few new songs any time soon (hopefully using the iTunes Music Store or EVula's Amazon.com link ;) ) definitely check out "Metamorphosis."
The final score gets tenths of points off for a "Inner Strength" and the overall shortness of the album, only 43.1 minutes.