Reader, I’ve been having a Hilary Duff week.
I listened to Dignity while I did my Big Shop today; I had Breathe In Breathe Out soundtracking a 10km run the other night; I had a nostalgic angst-fest to Underneath This Smile that would’ve made 15-year-old me proud… it’s been all-in.
But there’s one song that – if you’re in the UK – is juuuust out of reach. It’s not on streaming, it’s impossible to buy on any of the major UK music stores, and it’s hard to hear on-the-go unless you have YouTube open on your phone and you don’t stop or skip it by brushing the screen at any point.
It’s Outlaw, and it bangs.
The song was recorded for 2015’s Breathe In Breathe Out era but only released as a Japanese bonus track and on something called the “Fanjoy edition”.
Written by Duffers herself alongside Ian Kirkpatrick (Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now) and Lindy Robbins (Demi Lovato’s Skyscraper), and produced by Kirkpatrick, it’s an excellent three minutes and six seconds of feelgood pop; driven by a Western-esque twangy riff and lyrics about Mercury being in retrograde, “dice swinging on the dash” and being “on the run in my red lace bra”.
Duff sounds right at home on this kind of breezy, oh-fuck-it anthem, and it remains a travesty that it never made it onto the album’s original tracklisting.
She addressed the song on Twitter as part of a Q&A in 2015 saying she “could possibly do it live”, but alas the Breathe In Breathe Out era was cut way too short, and this gem has yet to be given the spotlight it deserves (though it was on an episode of Duff’s TV show Younger).
Maybe all the big pop queens need these elusive, rare songs as a rite of passage. See also Britney Spears‘ epic Circus bonus track Amnesia; only properly available in the UK if you own the deluxe edition on a physical CD. Or I Am Woman, the big post-Battlefield track from Jordin Sparks that never did see the light of day here in Britain. I’m sure I don’t even need to mention the Victoria Beckham double-A side.
With the chances of Duff wanting to record another album anytime soon seeming somewhat slim (even if she is handily married to the man who produced BOBO’s best songs), I’ll continue enjoying a low-quality YouTube rip of Outlaw and consider myself blessed that it even exists at all. Because honestly WHAT A SONG.
Electric Angels 