Just over a year ago when Radiohead had grudgingly accepted its role as critical darling du jour, Matt Mahaffey (aka Self) was just stirring from a long night's unrest in his Tennessee home studio. The result was every bit as pre- millennially tense and electronically uptight as OK Computer, only this 35- minute- long bedroom manifesto was cheeky.

"Joy, the Mechanical Boy" is hardly as paranoid as the android, but behind the frenetic Soul Coughing- esque bass loops, C-3PO bleeps and overdubbed lyrics is a tragicomic tale of a poor lad who can't stop raving. Funnier, though still sinister, is the chorus of "Kiddies:" "Let's go trick or treatin'/ Dressed up like Marilyn Manson/ Snatch up all the kiddies and then hold them all for ransom," backed by a haunted Casio.

Strangely terrifying is the answering machine message from a Self fan that kicks off "Cinderblocks For Shoes." The girl starts by telling Mahaffey how much she loves him and finishes by cackling, "I know where you live and everything! Ha ha ha ha ha!" It's a frantic dichotomy that continues into the song's trapped resignation.

Yet, for as helpless as Self can sound, none of these songs are over four minutes long, and none of them have anything less than energetic rhythm and sampling combinations that betray the panic. I used to have this sensation that I was having a heart attack when I got stoned, and yet as freaked as I was, I couldn't stop laughing-- that's what Self sounds like, only Mahaffey has the heart attack and leaves the laughing to the listener.

-Shan Fowler