"Rolling Stone" magazine described the album as "a slick collection of pop songs, master-crafted to appeal to huge numbers of young people". Duff told the "Chicago Sun-Times" in 2005 she was under the control of the record label during the making of "Metamorphosis" and her second album, "Hilary Duff" (2004), and could not incorporate the sound she wanted into her recordings. She said the production "has --> been mastered and sounds really pretty ... If I could change it, I would, and it would sound pop. My name is Hilary Duff, and I don't know why I don't get to make Hilary Duff music." In spite of the release of "Santa Claus Lane", "Metamorphosis" is considered Duff's "proper" debut album.