Life's Too Good

Reinventing the wheel of alternative pop, Icelandic group Sugarcubes (that boasted the mighty Björk within its ranks) burst onto the international music scene with their debut, featuring the unforgettable track ‘Birthday’. 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 latter part of 1987 (it took the number one spot in his ‘Festive 50’ that Christmas). In particular, the song’s extraordinary singer/ narrator, Björk Guðmundsdóttir was the subject of much wild speculation in the UK music press. “Can she possibly be human?” wondered Melody Maker’s foaming Single of the Week review (mirrored 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 Örn Benediktsson introduced an e