From: Joe <jabeine@ouray.cudenver.edu>
Subject: "Birthday" 1988

Here's what I thought of the Sugarcubes' debut single, "Birthday," in 
1988.  This first appeared in The Album Network.  It was later 
reprinted on the cover of the promotional CD single for "Birthday" 
(Elektra PR-8002-2)

The bass rumbles low and hard, wobbling, teetering on a slow edge.  Then 
you hear the sweet, joyously romping voice of Bjork.  She magically fuses 
child-like innocence with chaos.  And she's singing lyrics that are so 
odd, words you've never heard before, yet they make complete sense to you 
because they take you somewhere you've not yet been.  And you want to be 
there.  "She lives in this house over there, has her world outside it, 
grapples the earth with her fingers and her mouth--she's five years old, 
threads worms on a string, keeps spiders in her pockets..."  When Bjork 
sings the song's wordless chorus you can feel her reaching.  And you know 
what it is she's longing for, yet you can't quite grasp it either.  So 
along with her you keep reaching.  This is "Birthday," a song from the 
Sugarcubes' startling debut album, Life's Too Good, on Elektra.  The 
Sugarcubes are from Iceland, that mysterious glacier and volcano covered 
island in the North Atlantic where ghosts are real and little girls 
listen to the weather.  And rock music is made without rules.  The 
Sugarcubes' strange sounds are so inventive, so provocative, so 
gloriously different.  So alive.  If you want to be mischievously 
mystified Reykjavik style, then peer into the music of the Sugarcubes.  
You just might see a ghost.

The above is copyright 1988 by Joe Beine.  It can be distributed on the 
Internet for noncommercial purposes only.  Any other republication 
requires my permission.
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