Oskar Tennis Champion

With Oskar Tennis Champion, Momus's seventeenth album, his refusal to get stuck in the rut that traps many veteran artists has seen him work for the first time with a "reproducer", in this case John Fashion Flesh. The theory was that, where Momus has always been known for the bizarre perspectives and avant-garde philosophising of his lyrics, his music has tended towards variations on a retro synth theme, and it was past time the medium matched the message. A sensible plan and a brave one but sadly one with rather mixed results. The main effect of Flesh's glitch trappings is to breed the suspicion that the CD player needs a good clean.

Even aside from its sonic awkwardnesses, this is a patchy album. No news there; most Momus albums mix incisive pop worthy of prime Pet Shop Boys with skits that don't quite work. It's just that this is one of the albums where the balance tends towards the latter. "Is It Because I'm a Pirate" and "Scottish Lips" are just two of the many tracks that must be filed under "nice idea, but..." This is a great shame given how good the successful songs are: "The Last Communist" is one of the most accomplished forays into genuine pop Momus has ever made, a dark, almost danceable backing married to a lyric so nostalgically idealist it could convert Ronald Reagan to the Soviet cause. Elsewhere, "Pierrot Lunaire" is a jerkily macabre cousin to traditional ballads of unrequited love and "Palm Deathtop" is a genuinely chilling intimation of mortality. It's great that Momus is so determined to keep moving. These tracks affirm that he's certainly not a spent force but the album as a whole should be considered an interesting failure. --Alex Sarll

Label: Unknown
Studio: Analog Baroque
Released: 2003-02-24
Format: Audio CD