It’s sometimes hard to recall now just how much of an impact The Sugarcubes debut single ‘Birthday’ made when it’s magical off-kilter melody first hit the airwaves via John Peel’s show in the later part of 1987 (taking the number one spot in his ‘Festive 50’ that year). In particular the song’s extraordinary singer/ narrator, Björk Gumundsdottir was the subject of much wild speculation speculation in the UK music press. “Can she possibly be human?” wondered Melody Maker’s foaming Single of the Week review (repeated in NME). “A record of debilitating beauty,” it continued. “Nothing this year has had us more thoroughly vanquished.” And when the singles ‘Coldsweat’ and later, ‘Deus’ followed it, the somewhat more visceral tones of one Einar Orn Benediktsson introduced an electric counterpoint to Björk’s lustrously divine howl. Over 1988 The Sugarcubes – courted by a UK press hungry for the scoop on Iceland’s first bona-fide indie rock sensations – thrilled, confounded, irritated and intrigued in equal measure, the band regularly pushed to explode the patronizing attitudes and expectations they encountered from the get-go. Whatever, the band were undisputedly, breathtakingly different and when ‘Life’s Too Good’ dropped in April ’88, it’s wild jumble of raucous pop, skewed jazz, punk, absurdist rock’n’roll, menace, sarcasm and sublimity lived up to expectations. By the end of the year it had clocked up nearly half a million sales and The Sugarcubes had almost singlehandedly established Icelandic music in the popular consciousness. It still sounds fantastic today. By the end of ’88 all three singles had charted in the year’s Independent Top 40 best-sellers, the album going into the national Top 40 and the band making appearances in the top five of most categories in the ‘inkies’ end of year polls.
Rare is the debut that displays such fully formed talent as Iceland’s Sugarcubes’ first album. Highlighted by the Cocteau Twins-influenced single “Birthday”, two other provocative singles, “Deus” and “Coldsweat”, and by the incredible vocal gymnastics of Björk Gudmundsdottir, Life’s Too Good brilliantly shows a new band staking out its own sonic space. Einar Orn contributes an electronically reprocessed trumpet, and a few awkwardly charming and ranting vocals as well, but this is clearly Björk ‘s show: her vocal range is absolutely staggering. The CD reissue adds six extra tracks, several of which are sung in Icelandic. –Rob O’Connor
