by John Bush Foxx's solo debut after leaving Ultravox!, Metamatic, achieves the same emotional transcendence as his previous group's early highlight, Systems of Romance, despite a new reliance not just on synthesizers, but on a musical framework dependent on them. On Metamatic, Foxx cultivates a curious air of disinterest that never seems truly bored, but is much more extreme than even his unarguably distant vocal style for Ultravox!. It holds up as one of the peaks of the early-'80s fascination with emotionless, Kraftwerk-inspired synth pop.