''Hippopotamomus'' is the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by British musician

Momus Momus (; Ancient Greek: Μῶμος ''Momos'') in Greek mythology was the personification of satire and mockery, two stories about whom figure among Aesop's Fables. During the Renaissance, several literary works used him as a mouthpiece for their ...

, released in 1991 through

Creation Records Creation Records Ltd. was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. Its name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired. The label ceased operations in 1999, although ...

. The album's third track, "Michelin Man", caused Momus to be threatened with legal action by the

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

tyre company. They were angered by his use of their mascot, the aforementioned

Michelin Man Bibendum (), commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man or Michelin Tire Man, is the official mascot of the Michelin tire company. A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tire, tires, it was introduced at the Lyon Exposition inter ...

, an anthropomorphic pile of rubber inner-tubes, as a metaphor for hypersexual rubber fetishism. As a result, all unsold copies of the album were destroyed and future pressings of the album omitted the song from the album. The track was later reinstated on the ''Create 2'' compilation as part of a 2018 reissue campaign with

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...

Reception

The album received mixed reviews from critics. ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

s Sharon O'Connell compared the album to the work of

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

, speculating that the title referenced Gainsbourg's scatological, wordplay-heavy song "L'Hippopodame". '' Select'''s Ted Kessler gave the album a positive review, calling it "wickedly seductive". Critics generally noted the album's overwhelmingly sexual themes. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'''s Betty Page panned the album, giving it a rating of 0/10, labelling Momus a "perv" and "anal retentive", and taking issue with the album's themes of cannibalism, violence against women, pornography, paedophilia, and extreme sexual practices. The controversy stemming from Page's review would later serve as the basis for ''Amongst Women Only'', a 1991 documentary directed by Nicholas Triandafyllidis centred on Momus's relations with women and accusations of misogyny raised against him.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control Momus (musician) albums 1991 albums Creation Records albums