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"