Beauty is notable for its "collage of styles" that range from rock, techno, and classical to flamenco, African, and Japanese traditional.

For example, for one of my songs on the album Beauty, I was always having visions of Amazonian rainforests, a little plane flying very low over the trees.

"[5] Recorded at various sound studios throughout Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles, Beauty features many collaborators that include Arto Lindsay, Brian Wilson, Robbie Robertson, and Sly Dunbar.

I had been informed that he had had a difficult time, some kind of mental illness, and I could sense that, even though he wasn't that surprising in the studio.

But then the following day, I flew from LA back to New York to continue recording and he showed up without telling me, with his whole family in tow.