Momus has decided to make his back catalogue from 1987 to 1993 available as free MP3 downloads, together with his own retrospective thoughts on each track. Look on his works, ye songwriters, and tremble! In all my years of writing and mixing with songwriters, I’ve never come across anyone with such literary accomplishment together with musical skill and of course the provocation of his sexual and sometimes violent lyrics. Why isn’t he my favourite songwriter? It’s a heady brew and I can only take a little at a time. But ‘most admired’ – probably.
Although he still puts out albums, he’s now a writer, journalist and prolific blogger on matters of art and politics. And look how he responds to fan comments on the blog. Someone asks him if he can remember the chords to a song from a 1987 album, and instantly there’s a YouTube video of him sitting in his flat with a guitar telling you the chords!
He’s covered two of his 1980s albums so far:
Tender Pervert (standout tracks for me – A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy parts 17-24, Bishonen, I Was A Maoist Intellectual in the Music Industry)
The Poison Boyfriend (Three Wars, Sex for the Disabled)
Astonishing stuff.