MEG and the BEAUTIFUL Harbourfront

I’m out in downtown Toronto right now. Got a big night planned celebrating misa’s birthday but for now, I’m just enjoying the AMAZING weather and sitting on a bench out here on the Toronto Harbourfront. I couldn’t think of a better time to review MEG’s BEAUTIFUL album considering everything about this day so far has just been BEAUTIFUL. Oh har har. BTW, did I mention I’ve got free wifi right now?

I listened to this album on the subway down here and doing it a second time as I’m typing this out. It might be a bit too soon to do it in standard blm album style but I’ll write in order of first impression appeal from ascending order.

DAYS doesn’t count as a song since it’s an intro so it’ll go first. Nothing too special going on in the song: a synth pad carried by MEG’s quirky engrish. The delivery is solid and almost haunting with a downtempo, minimalistic beat that builds into a solid percussion line. An interesting experimental piece.

STAR is a piano led, downtempo track that doesn’t quite do it for me. I don’t know what it is about it but it doesn’t really connect with me. She’s had more appealing slower songs like NATALIE. It’s cute enough and MEG does a solid vocal performance but I’m just not feeling this one.

STAND starts off very summery. It should be a perfect song to listen to considering my current situation but just like STAR, it’s just not carrying much of a catchy tune. Solid performances all around. The guitar and electric piano is a fun combo. It’s really just the melody.

WHY? It sounded like it had so much potential once that bassline dropped, but from there, it just didn’t really deliver. The melody is somewhat interesting and the main melodic synth is fun in its repetitive nature but where a song should grow on you, it just doesn’t do anything after it shows you its stuff.

Ahhh, the title track, BEAUTIFUL. It’s kinda downtempo but not so much. (~120 neighborhood) and it suffers what the songs previous suffers from, I mean, it’s cute and it’s entertaining, but the melody just doesn’t carry though. It could basically blend in with the scenery or if it happened to play on random, it wouldn’t attract my attention.

And this is where the album takes a turn for the better. TELEPHONE starts off the fun with a solid beat and a fun electric piano line with a splash of guitar. Aside from it being the third track, it’s a good start to the album and grabbed my by the ear and took me for a bit of a ride. It could just be that I’m a sucker for the big beat snare.

SKIN is more of an instrumental track than a vocal track. The lines that MEG delivers is more of a logical separator than anything else. It’s like lines – “I’m starting” – do a bit of stuff – lines – “I’m starting to build up momentum” – add something else to the mix – go for a break – come back kicking – o hi more lines – “I’m still here” – come back full-force – take another quick break – CRESCENDO! WITH LINES! – cool down – fin.

PRECIOUS is the only song I heard previous to listening to this album. I love this song on its own and already did a review of it. Why don’t you read that instead?

Starting off with a funky break of a beat and keeping the broken quality throughout, LIES really sets itself apart from the rest of the album. The chorus is so solid and really holds the entire song together. There are no words to further describe the song. I just suggest you listen to it and see why I’ve given it the #3 spot.

JOKER has, by far, the catchiest melody in the album. This is some extreme last.fm spam potential. MEG’s higher register is showcased in the chorus and it’s. just. love. When I can’t explain things, I turn to fanboy tactics to solve my problems. People tend to understand fanboy more than the little technicalities that I might blurt out for a song like this but It doesn’t need anything confusing like that to muddle its enjoyability factor. This would definitely be the number one track on the album if…

FREAK didn’t get the nakata remix treatment. HOLY. CRAP. Where did this come from!? It’s songs like this that remind me why I consider him to be a musical genius. I’m not going to say that the Hadouken version of the song was a complete train wreck but one needed to be in a particular state of mind to really appreciate that song. Lucky for me I enjoy Hadouken’s music and when I found out that they did a collaboration with MEG, I kinda flipped out for a second. Something about their styles don’t quite mesh well together but it was an experience. THIS, however… I can’t sing its praises enough. I think we may have a potential Song Of the Summer on our hands.

And that’s it!

Though, I would like to add, MEG didn’t really have a fashion show / clubby party song like she had on her past two albums: MODEL in BEAM and MAKE LOVE and SUPERSONIC in STEP. I kinda wanted one but it’s ok that it doesn’t have one. We’ve got some quality melodies and vocals and I find it to be quite BEAUTIFUL. HUR.