When he wrote for Ultravox, Foxx tended toward the oblique and metaphorical. His compositions, like "Lonely Hunter" from the first album or "The Man Who Dies Every Day" from Ha! Ha! Ha!, often became obscure and laughably existential. On Metamatic, none of the images insult the intelligence, with the exception of "He's a Liquid." The words on this album are fragments pieced together from a collective past. A line like "Some time ago a figure strolled along the esplanade" from "A Blurred Girl" evokes a certain misty, mushy image in each of us, and linked together, these recollections form jagged edges of the complete picture. He supplies no details but makes the gist clear. Foxx has the ability to tap our emotional reservoirs with just a few evocative phrases, like these from "A New Kind of Man:"

He feels the rain upon his face

He's young again, 19 again,

Blue hills on a distant skyline

Someone took his hand...

An underwater kind of silence--

Humming of electric pylons--

"Don't forget me" fades in static--

Another scene began...

He was a new kind of man.

"Plaza," "No-One Driving," and "A Blurred Girl," among others, succeed in part because these simple lyrics never stoop to simple-mindedness. Foxx, also varies the tracks, using his voice in more ways than you can shake a stick at. On "Plaza," he sings completely off key with a surprisingly effective result. A lot of thought has gone into the presentation of his basically unmalleable voice, and to almost universally excellent results.

Today, Ultravox languishes under the guidance of Midge Ure, imported from Thin Lizzy. John Foxx, though, was thrown out at just the right time. Numan has made him an honorary godfather figure, and Foxx plays the role well. Just when most of us thought he had gone the way of all of the honest idealists trapped in a music business they didn't create, Foxx redesigned himself for the 1980s and triumphed:

He stepped out of the film again Brushed off the dust and walked away...