NAKEDSELF

"Matt Johnson has returned from shadows few ever emerge from."
- NME

"Why does Johnson always sound so in tune with the political troubles of the time? This could be 1986. Or 1993. Or 1980. Yet it still feels like the future."
- THE GUARDIAN

"This 12-track set houses some of Johnson's most impressive song writing to date. A frequently beautiful, moving and thought provoking addition to the TheThe catalogue"
- Q ****

"NakedSelf finds Johnson returning to the slow-burn industrial grind of his best work. Everything on the album is driven by storm-trooping drums, a battalion of distorted axes and Johnson's ominous echo-chamber vocals. It is as darkly insidious as a toxic IV drip."
- ROLLING STONE

"Not many other songwriters can dissect both the personal and the political in their lyrics with equal conviction. He is by no means as gloomy as his reputation. His lyrics are full of reassurance in the face of loneliness, consumerism and the other evils he sees in the modern world."
- THE INDEPENDENT

"Johnson provides desperately sad lyrics wrapped lovingly in beautiful melody lines and delivered with a voice that communicates straight to the gut. NakedSelf is worth paying for."
- THE SUNDAY TIMES

"Matt Johnson proves to be one of the few Eighties figures who deserves reappraisal. Naked Self may prove that he was ahead of his time."
- EVENING STANDARD

"The same conviction and idealism that underlie his conversation shine through his art, imbuing his songs and performances with an almost physical sense of passion."
- THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

"This record is an enormous sonic pleasure. Repeated listens required, but well worth it."
- TIME OUT NEW YORK

"NakedSelf throbs and growls with expressions of deep dissatisfaction, both personal and political. It's a grimy low-down rock record. A thrillingly gritty and distorted adventure. The man's muse has clearly never deserted him."
- THE TIMES

"This is The The's catchiest, prettiest and downright most enjoyable album in years. Think Led Zeppelin at their more folky spliced with The Stone Roses at their peak and The The at their most subtle and you'll get a rough idea."
- THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

"From ambient to Middle Eastern, startling is the breadth of noises Johnson derives from various guitars. Compelling, uncompromising and often beautiful music."
- UNCUT

"An uncompromising and intense album that makes you realise how soft, inoffensive and unpolitical alternative music has become. Remember when it took about 10 plays to get into an album and that made you like it even more? Well, this is one of those."
- LATER

"This assertive return reconfirms his place as one of Britain's most profoundly talented musicians and songwriters. Predominantly guitar driven, NakedSelf draws on the dynamic power of Led Zeppelin at their best and combines it with Johnson's cutting lyrics to devastating effect."
- WESTERN MAIL

"Dark, frustrated, fiercely intelligent, brooding and brimming with self-analysis and raw horror at the state of the world we live in. The lonely melodies are as beautifully twisted and spikingly melancholy as ever."
WHAT'S ON

"Albums and indeed bands like this are a dying breed and you are left hoping that Matt never lightens up."
- POP CULTURE DETOX

"Johnson targets global capitalism and slices it apart with laser like wit"
- THE OBSERVER

"The maturity is also in the winter weariness that dominates the disc: On the brisk 'December Sunlight,' you can almost see Johnson's breath as he sings, and his bracing acoustic-guitar figures slide off one another like ice sheets dropping off a giant berg."
- DETAILS

"NakedSelf is an album in its purest sense; its sum is greater than its parts. But as far as this album reaches, it's never directionless. His scope in talent is equal to defiance of categorization. Further, this offering, a culmination of all his musical interests, makes evident that the wait for his albums is proportionate to the rewards reaped from them."
- AMAZON.COM

"The loosest, most aggressive-sounding record that has ever carried the moniker of The The. Stripped down musically, guitars dominate the proceedings, and most of the songs sport dark, ominous atmospherics. What remains are the deeply personal and introspective lyrics, which, through the years, have revealed a man whose cynicism and optimism create a constant inner struggle, one which was taken to its limits in the emotional tumult of the last ten years."
- FLAUNT

"The guitars are on stun for almost 12 songs. And what songs they are!"
- ALTERNATIVE PRESS

"As potent a recording as Johnson has ever made, as he continues to carve a deeper, more meaningful niche for himself as modern rock's most eloquent and insightful artist."
- THE PROVIDENCE PHOENIX

"He continues to sound like nobody but himself"
- DrDREW.COM

"A vertiginous, psychedelic splatter-fest."
- MAGNET

"NakedSelf's exposed-nerve sonics only serve to illuminate the mix of anger, criticism, turmoil and hesitant hope that comprises Johnson's emotionally- and politically- charged song writing."
- CMJ NEW MUSIC MONTHLY

“A beautiful, vital work untouched by fads or fake emotion.”
- SAIN

“Matt johnson has always had something meaningful to say. He's also a songwriter whose delicate touches provide songs of extreme beauty. And in the world of pop and rock, where ephemeral and shallow are generally key words to chart success , exhibiting concern and talking about issues is hardly a passport to fame and overnight fortune. Luckily, Johnson cares less about such vagaries than he does about either making creative and confronting music or addressing issues such as the pervading Westernisation of the world.”
- IN PRESS

“NakedSelf is a stripped-back organic album devoid of studio augmentation. The message has always been more important than the sound.”
- THE AGE

“Matt Johnson's return is an icy blast from the summer of our discontent.”
ROLLING STONE (AUSTRALIA)

Musically, this album is hot. The opening track is a visceral, in your face wall of guitar noise that recalls Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. The next time you're feeling a bit angst-ridden about the state of the world, this is the CD you need to put on.
- CAMBERRA TIMES

“NakedSelf is as challenging as it is enjoyable. Fantastic.”
MASSIVE

“Yeah, Matt's back. And still able to get inside your head, and mess with it. And that's what the best music should do.”
- DRUM

“The music you're buying is spat directly from his mouth as he (Johnson) gnaws away at the cage that holds him.”
- REVOLVER

“Matt Johnson continues to channel paranoia, irritation and self-examination into weighty, passionate music”.
- SUN HERALD-TIME OUT

“Matt Johnson, is a serious weirdo, always has been, God bless him.”
- DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Young, vital and very sexy, NakedSelf is an album with a shelf life, an album that artists of the future will discover and name check as inspiration.”
- SAIN UNLIMITED

"His deep baritone continues to explore his favorite subjects - the walking wounded on society's fringe, the people balanced in the twilight zone between hope and despair. The music jumps all over, veering from the metallic noise of "BoilingPoint" the bright, acoustic "SoulCatcher" and on to the fury of the anticapitalist screed "GlobalEyes." Despite the bleak subject matter, however, Johnson always seems to keep whistling in the dark."
- E! ONLINE

"Johnson's personality is still the guiding force, chronicling the tales of an emotionally stunted underclass. NakedSelf is a restrained record full of bare-bones tracks that have just enough layers to seem thicker than they are, while leaving enough space for Johnson's gravelly and mellow vocal phrasings."
- NEW TIMES

"From the creepy subway surrealism of 'Boiling Point; to the regretful rock of 'Soul Catcher,' we see that Johnson hasn't found much inner peace over the years. Like Scorsese's 'God's lonely man' in Taxi Driver, Johnson's roamed a sad, scorched earth looking for relief. On NakedSelf, he seems almost relieved he hasn't found it."
- PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER

"Johnson has always addressed the human condition in his songs. And so it is with his new album, in which he looks at himself and the rest of the world with brutish reality."
- KANE COUNTY CHRONICLE

Never one to rush his recording schedule, Matt Johnson -- aka The The -- re-emerges on Trent Reznor's Nothing label with a typically original and lyrically provocative set, "Naked Self." Still squarely aiming his fare at the alternative rock listener, the mood ranges from the bombastic grandeur of "Swine Fever" to the gentle acoustic melancholy of "The Whisperers."
CNN.COM

The pervasive gloom and apocalyptic imagery of Matt Johnson's music has often overshadowed his sly wit and wry sense of humor. "NakedSelf," which could well be his most vicious and visceral release to date is a modern-day blues album, steeped in distortion and cynical takes on love and loneliness. Johnson makes clear that even though mass success has generally passed him by, he's more than happy to have done things his own iconoclastic way.
- CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Avec Naked Self, The The semble décidé à renouer avec leur glorieux passé. Par la grace de Shrunkenman, Soulcatcher ou, surtout The Wisperer, titre aussi mélodique que n'importe quel morceau de bravoure de feu Jeff Buckley le nouvel album de The The devrait permettre à Matt Johnson de continuer à soigner son égo à ciel ouvert, cette vraie mine pour l'ame.
MAGIC!

Naked Self choisit le dépouillement pour s'exprimer à nu. L'ancien pionnier du sample et du tout électronique a banni tout clavier de ses nouvelles chansons. La voix de Matt Johnson garde par moment des accents de prédicateur fou (Boiling point, Soul Catcher), la guitare peut encore suinter d'angoisse (Weather Belle; Salt water), mais dans l'ensemble le The The de l'an 2000 cherche d'abord à poser des mélodies subtiles, des ambiances à dimension humaine. Comme disait William Blake."Les chemins de l'excés mènent à la sagesse..."
MEGAPRESSE

Avec son approche directe et sans fioritures, le disque marque la résurrection de The The. Et annonce le retour sur scéne d'un phénix dont on pensait les cendres définitivement éparpillées.
ADEN

Aprés sept années d'absence, Matt Johnson, le fondateur de The The, rescapé de la New Wave renouvelle le genre avec brio, un sens certain de la majesté, des mélodies finement discordantes et des textes chuchotés avec malice. En marge de la britpop et de ses effets de mode, son ame mise à nu révèle des ambiances crépusculaires, douloureuses et belles.
L'EXPRESS

Le nouveau The The est ambitieux dans son écriture et formel dans sa mélodie. Naked Self est une mise à nu, perlée d'arpéges lourds, modelée dans un psychédelisme boueux, nourri de superstitions théologiques et de contorsions harmoniques, d'humour glacé et de phobies sexuelles. L'album de The The est un reflexe de survie mélodique.
ROCKSOUND

Matt johnson travaille désormais ouvertement dans le vif et en apnée, dans une veine délibérément blues déclinée, malaxée et sculptée dans les matériaux les plus arides. Naked Self est un labyrinthe de sons construit sur les plans abstraits de la musique industrielle pour mener une hypothétique transe. Dans ce dédale casse tete aussi passionant que harassant, Matt Johnson a cependant ménagé quelques aires de repos extatiques et dépouillées ( The Whisperers, Phanton Walls, Soul Catcher) et des clairiéres mélodiques semi-acoustiques modèles de songwritings où planent le fantome d'Hank Williams.
LES INROCKUPTIBLES

La marque de Matt Johnson est qu'il écrit de bonnes chansons, doublées d'un son trés esthétique. Ce nouvel album trés calme est , incroyablement abouti.
- BLAH BLAH

"Boiling Point", "Swine Fever" and especially "Voidy Numbness" - such burning, disturbed moments of controlled rage that go with unmistakeable deep harmonical islands and all together create a bitter-sweet nostalgia without losing calming undertones.
- GIG

Between classics like "Infected" and "Beat(en) Generation" new songs came up and fitted perfectly. With the outstanding voice of Mastermind Matt Johnson in their ears, all the fans went home after 80 minutes-deeply satisfied!
- HAMBURGER ADENBLATT

Even though Johnson suffered from an incredible cold, he impressed during this loud and clear -gig with his deep, sonore voice, that even put the blues-like guitar arrangements in the background.
- HAMBURGER MORGENPOST

Strident sounds, sirens, strange vocals-that´s how "Nakedself" starts off. An album, that also bears beautifully relaxing, acoustic moments, but ends up in a punk-like, powerful and dynamic style.
- FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU

"Comeback! Britiske Matt Johnson alias The The viser med en stribe trusselsbilleder fra skæringspunktet mellem en kaotisk verden og jegets indre kampzone, at han stadig er en sangskriver på kogepunktet."
WEEKEND AVISEN

"Man keder sig ikke i selskab med Matt Johnsons projekt The The. Matt Johnson og The The er på en gang melodisk og kantet, og Matt Johnson formår at få en stor lyd af enkle arrangementer med en besætning af bas, guitar og trommer, som draperes af hovedpersonens markante vokal."
FYENS STIFTSTIDENDE

"Matt Johnson oplader sin karakteristiske røst, og fjerner enhver tvivl om, hvorvidt The The har noget at byde på i det nye årtusinde."
HERNING FOLKEBLAD

"Som sædvanlig stikker britiske Matt Johnson hovedet frem med brækkede lemmer, nye skader på krop og sjæl og selvfølgelig også med en, som vanligt, rigtig rigtig god plade. Visse ting ændre sig bare ikke, dette er en plade, der vokser og vokser, og når jeg udleverer fem blendere nu, i dag, ved jeg jo godt, at jeg om to måneder vil give den seks."
- BLENDER MAGAZINE

"The The spillede efter selvtillid og karrierefremtid i København. De fik begge ting foræret af et taknemligt publikum,, der kastede sig hovedkulds i armene på en af rockens få rigtige vedkommende kunstnere, Matt Johnson."
BERLINGSKE TIDENDE

"Den storladne "Global Eyes" var et flot stykke rockmusik med Earl Havin som en groovy indpisker, mens Eric Schermerhorn lod sit ambitiøst anlagte guitarspil komme bedst til udtryk på den næsten heavyrockagtige "Boiling Point. Og så viste Matt Johnson med balladerne "Soul Catcher" og "Weather Belle", at han stadig evner at skrive disse små iørefaldende, men bestemt ikke ufarlige ballader."
JYLLANDS-POSTEN/MORGENAVISEN