NakedSelf

On Naked Self, Johnson hasn't let up one bit. His tongue is as sharp as ever, and his songs show that updating one's style doesn't have to mean dressing in this year's airwave fashions.

NakedSelf once again finds Matt Johnson in his element, tackling issues of alienation, global corruption, and urban squalor and decay with potent, more succinct lyrics and some of his most affecting melodies in ages.

The winnowing, soul-pop sheen of the hit-yielding Soul Mining and Infected is long gone, replaced by an overall grungey, corrosive edge which indicates that Johnson bought up every last piece of analogue gear in town.

Though rockier in parts than any of his previous work, this 12-track set houses some of Johnson's most impressive songwriting to date.

There's a refreshing lack of samplers, loops, and unnecessary electronic ephemera here... [s]olid from beginning to end...

Recorded with a Luddite's zeal- no keyboards, samplers, sequencers - he's... managed to document the clanking claustrophobia of modern life.

Gone is the sweeping piano and oozing horns of previous albums. Gone too is the pop sensibility that permeated Dusk, Mind Bomb, Soul Mining, and others. Matt Johnson has never been a pop artist, but he can craft amazing melodies. However, Johnson has hit a new level of menace here, like he's become a subterranean dweller since 1993. It's musically more free form and grittier. This takes some adjustment.