by Brian BeattyFor his first solo effort, Slapp Happy songwriter and guitarist Peter Blegvad hooked up with producer and XTC frontman Andy Partridge for a collection of relatively simple pop songs. Of course, with Blegvad it's never quite that easy. The literary bent of his lyrics and the layer upon layer of synthesizers and strings make this album the ideal that an entire genre of new romantic posers never quite matched. Unfortunately, as good as this album may be, those layers of synthesizers quickly dated, leaving The Naked Shakespeare to stand as a period piece of what Blegvad was up to between his stints as an art rocker and a folk-rocking singer\u002Fsongwriter.