Atlantic Records is really breaking new ground.
They’ve signed Hillary Duff, age 37, whose last record was 10 years ago.
Duff, a very cheerful presence on TV in shows like “Lizzie McGuire” and “Younger,” is not exactly cutting edge.
In her day, she was an amiable pop singer. We wouldn’t take that away from her.
But Atlantic is desperate for hits. They just laid off almost 90% of their staff. They’re praying that the new Ed Sheeran album, out on Friday, will save them.
Otherwise, Atlantic — created by the legendary Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun and once an R&B then rock giant of a record company — is a mess. They’re now run by Eliot Grainge, the 31 year old son of Universal Music Group president Lucien Grainge, who was supposed to bring in cutting edge acts.
It’s not like Duff had a huge music following even in her heyday. Shehad one hit album, released 20 years ago. She has a single that went to number 5 in 2015.
Atlantic is in a death spiral. They let Rob Thomas get poached by Republic Records, and now he has a hit album with them. They have acts like Kelly Clarkson, Bruno Mars and Charlie Puth, who do very little. They’ve lived all year on one hit wonder Alex Warren and his song, “Ordinary.” Coldplay sells more tickets than albums. Lizzo is in purgatory.
But here comes Hillary Duff. Let’s hope they’re right!
