Meg has a history in J-pop of being rather on-again/off-again with the quality of her work. She had been riding the train of basic techno-pop for a few albums by the time she made
Beautiful (reuniting with producer
Yasutaka Nakata), but the sheer mass of the Auto-Tune work and synth drums is something to be marveled at. After a chunky intro that never quite takes off,
Meg moves into deep electronic territory quickly. The existing hit, "Precious," gives
Meg a chance to show off a generally young voice in what could have been a
Daft Punk track from a few years prior. "Telephone" is a well-put together dance track, but the action really kicks up in "Lies," with a deep, darker funk embedded in the electro loops. The album's main points of faltering happen when the music becomes more relaxed or sparse, as in "Star," and put more focus on
Meg's relatively light and thin vocals. After a couple of rough patches, the album picks itself up a bit towards the end with "Skin" -- though
Meg's vocals are out of range, the beat gets the album back to its original form of dance. As evidenced on
Beautiful,
Meg has some promise when put into the right arrangements and the right productions.
Nakata does a good job of finding some good pieces for her, but there's plenty of work here which showcases vocal qualities that shouldn't be bothered with (listener beware when she gets to the la-la portion of "Freak").