Momus - Humperstinck [PREORDER]

American Patchwork
(AMPATCH037: 708527260128/AMPATCH037-3: /AMPATCH037-4: )

$14.00

Release date: November 20, 2026

As an inmate in a Dickensian boarding school young Momus had various nicknames: Rabbit, Groovy, Nidge, Poof, Humperstinck. The latter not because he was unfragrant, but because he already sang, and one boy thought it might be amusing to compare him to Engelbert Humperdinck, a crooner known back then for his hit Release Me (and a bit later for Lesbian Seagull, but that's another story). Fast forward to 2026, and the new Momus album — also called Humperstinck — bristles with references to, and sonic quotations from, the work of Bowie and Eno in the late 1970s, to the tech-alienation of John Foxx, and to the Afropop of Talking Heads. There are snapshots of Kafka and Osamu Dazai, self-help songs addressed to monsters from classical mythology, Sondheim-like mixed metaphors, and observational songs about dating apps and the people who hide behind their iPhone screens. We meet quim-gobbling goblins, lost cats, past-it pervert Buddhas and the rings of perfectly ordinary hells before the album dissolves beneath the breakers. Awarding the album 9.6 out of 10, SunBurnsOut enthused: "Humperstinck is a record of incredible richness and extreme sophistication…" OutsideLeft called it "a meaty, sensuous, erotically-charged and taboo set of ideas wrapped in an approachable and glossy mask of pancake make-up and glitter." And on the Momus Bandcamp page a reviewer called Artyswe said, simply: "I think this is one of the better albums by Momus at least for many years".

1. The Very Secret Life of Me
2. Land Surveyor
3. The Clown at Battle
4. No Longer Human
5. Bastard's Gallery
6. Mixed Metaphors
7. Mr Diogenes
8. My Black Fingernails
9. The Hydra
10. Nausikaa
11. Apokatastasis
12. The Circus Ring of Hell
13. The Buddha of Pervertia
14. The Goblin
15. Lost Cat
16. The Breakers