Sweet Black [CD+DVD]

Maki Goto is one of my favorite singers and easily the best voice to come out of Morning Musume. She left Hello! Project for Avex back near the end of 2008. When this new album came out in Sept. 2009, it was after a long, agonizing wait. The good news was that the wait was over. The bad news was that the CD's only got eight tracks. And only four videos on the accompanying DVD. Still, it's better than nothing. And I'm always eager to hear new Maki. This album is quite a change of pace for her. She's definitely broken free of whatever restrictions the H!P management put on her. I miss her H!P style, and the new material will take some getting used to, but I'm happy for her. She's more herself here. The videos showcase an extraordinarily beautiful and sexy 24-year-old woman. And she's in fine voice. I like five of the songs better than the others, "Queen Bee," "Lady-Rise," "Candy," "Tear Drops," and "Plastic Lover." She wrote the lyrics for the following songs, "Lady-Rise," "Candy," "Mine" and "with..." Two of the videos, "Fly Away" and "Lady-Rise," are livelier than the others. In "Fly Away," she gets to dance--with two female backup dancers--and does it well. In "Lady-Rise," she gets to wear an assortment of sexy and attractive outfits and is even seen changing in and out of them. She's absolutely gorgeous here. And it's all for a date with a guy, something we never would have seen in an H!P video. The other videos, "with..." and "Tear Drops," both have way too much staged footage of other people. When Maki sings, she's all I want to see. The videos are well-done; they're higher-budgeted than H!P's, but lower-budgeted than Ayumi Hamasaki's. Three of the songs feature male singers performing with her. "Queen Bee" features heavyset rapper Bigga Raiji. "Tear Drops" features KG. "Mine" features Ken the 390. I found Bigga's aggressive reggae-inspired Japanese rapping quite entertaining. KG harmonizes nicely with Maki in a very pleasant song. The video for "Queen Bee" is not included on the disc. I've seen it on YouTube. It's easily the best video of the bunch and, arguably, the best video she's done in years. Bigga is quite a fun presence in it. I don't know why they didn't include it on this disc. It's a serious omission and it takes a star off the rating.