***

NAKED

(Red Ant)

This quartet may get pigeonholed as another alterna-band, but like Stone Temple Pilots, Naked are really a talented hard-rock combo who like to lace their songs with moody atmosphere. They specialize in two kinds of tunes: straight-ahead guitar rockers and restrained, moody numbers heavy with flanged electric guitars, strummed acoustic guitars, and delicate keyboard textures. The rockers are good, but the melancholy tracks are what distinguish Naked, particularly the slow-building urban desperation of "Red" and "The Great Escape." With "What About You?" Naked marry the two approaches, segueing from quietly tense verses to explosive, rage-filled choruses. It's a truly effective use of the old tension-and-release mechanism.

-- Bryan Reesman