Naked Self

You'd be hard pushed to find a more enduring maverick than Matt Johnson and he's still at it.

Naked Self is as confrontational and brash as the title suggests, revisiting the famillar The The territory of empty lust and capitalist-baiting diatribes. "Mobilise/hypnotise/homogenise/shut your eyes/don't criticise/Kentucky fried genocide" is Johnson's mantra on the darkly kooky 'Global Eyes'. The man who penned the mournful hymn to Thatcher's children 'The Beaten Generation', is clearly no fan of turn of the century PR empowered authority, and his rants against mass consumerism make for refreshing listening when most whippersnappers half his age are content to play ball and lick arse.

Unfortunately the murky production work doesn't do Johnson's worthy causes any favours. The dirty FX driven 'Swine Fever' is the sole example of how the clanging, disjointed guitar sounds that litter Naked Self can work wonders, while 'Diesel Breeze' and the dreadful closing track 'Saltwater' serve as first-hand evidence of an 'interesting' experiment gone very badly wrong. Thus, it's left to contemplative ballads such as 'Soul Catcher' and 'December Sunlight' to redeem the roost. While it's great to hear Johnson still raging against the machine, anger alone is not enough of an energy.