Momus: Tender Pervert

Creation 1988. CRELP 036 CD

Discogs

Momus is the Greek god of satire and mockery, an apt name for Nick Currie’s musical persona which reached its most satisfying expression on this, his third album.  It’s lyrically complex, dealing with death, ravished innocence, and on this album particularly, anger about the Thatcher government’s attitude towards homosexuality in the wake of the AIDS crisis.  In fact so angry was the (straight) Currie about this that the album was originally called The Homosexual, changed only when Creation boss Alan McGee pointed out it would make distribution difficult.

The lyrics on this album are immensely entertaining.  They’re twisted, witty stories dealing with all manner of socially unacceptable subjects very much in the vein of Serge Gainsbourg.  Later Momus albums were made, at least for me relatively unlistenable by his use of irritating DIY electropop backing.  Yes, the pastiche of the Pet Shop Boys was effective, but, well, he wasn’t very good at it.  On this album though the backing works much better with the material.

I was going to say much more about it, but I came across this on Momus’s web site which is Currie revisiting his own work a long time after the event. It makes for a really interesting read, and is certainly more worthwhile than anything I might say.

This is the original Creation CD issue. I also have the first vinyl pressing, which I’m certainly not going to rip, but it did come with an interesting bonus 7″ which I’ll post. Like so much else, it’s held up by turntable problems.