Nick Currie (born February 11, 1960 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK)… Read Full Bio ↴Nick Currie (born February 11, 1960 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK), more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a songwriter, writer, blogger and artist. Most of his songs are self-referential or postmodern.

For more than twenty years he has been releasing, to only marginal commercial and critical success, playful and transgressive albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness." He is also known in certain circles outside the U.S. as a producer. He is fascinated by identity, Japan, the avant-garde, time travel and sex. Live Momus shows are rare but when he does perform he often sings the crowd favourite 'maf' from the Stars Forever LP.
He wears a patch over his right eye because he lost the use of it after contracting acanthamoeba keratitis from a contact lens case washed with Greek tap water.

Nick Currie currently resides in Osaka, Japan.

Summer Holiday 1999
Momus Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999

Pine trees in the playgrounds
Around the empty school
A diary full of diagrams
A boy, perhaps a girl
Embarrassing confessions

Of a strange, forbidden love
On the cliffs above the river
He asks himself forever

Is there any reason not to die
If this love I feel must always be denied?

Summer holiday 1999
This rush to live
Summer holiday 1999
This wish to die
This purity, as cold as spring snow
In the wind on the island of Hokkaido

Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999

I long to see your face
From every angle all at once
Just like the faces in a Cubist composition
I remember in a film I saw they scanned somebody's brain
With a machine that let you feel all his emotion
Well I know that that was only science fiction
But I'm dying to make you feel the way I feel

Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999
Summer holiday 1999

Summer holiday 1999
This rush to live
Summer holiday 1999
This wish to die

This purity, as cold as spring snow
In the wind on the island of Hokkaido

Overall Meaning

The song Summer Holiday 1999 by Momus is a melancholic piece that tells a story of a teenager deeply in love with someone whom they know they can never be with. The song begins with a scene of an empty school playground surrounded by pine trees, a diary filled with diagrams and the enthralling yet forbidden love of a boy or girl. The lyrics are emotive and sad, expressing the pain and confusion of adolescence, questioning the reasons for not dying if the love they feel has no chance of being reciprocated.

The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "Summer holiday 1999" several times, emphasizing the theme of temporary freedom from the monotony of school life. The lyrics go on to describe the longing to see the object of affection's face from every angle, like in a Cubist composition, and the desire to make them feel the same way the singer does. The purity of their love is compared to the "cold spring snow in the wind on the island of Hokkaido."

The song is a poignant reminder of the powerful emotions of youth, unrequited love, and the uncertainty of the future. Momus, the Scottish musician behind the song, has a reputation for reworking traditional pop music by bringing in references to literature, art, and philosophy.

Summer Holiday 1999Momus Lyrics

Aldo Charles

on Morality Is Vanity

Summer Holiday 1999
Momus Lyrics