Category: Sugarcubes

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 098: Sugarcubes – ‘Birthday’ (One Little Indian Records ’87)

Dear friends,

there are bands which by no means would have been even halfway as sucessful as they finally became if it hadn’t been for their singer, especially if said singer was female. The Sugarcubes, fronted by Björk of course, are one example, another one will follow next week.

I guess there is no need to get into full detail re The Sugarcubes, you all are old enough. It’s pretty easy to briefly sum up their career: they started out as KUKL (and had their stuff released on the label run by Crass, which I always found rather amusing), became The Sugarcubes, released ‘Birthday’ – and this record, which was pure unadulterated emotion, changed the world basically.

If you think I’m exaggerating, as ususal – well, sort of. But come on, such a singing style was, by and large, unheard of at the time. And from Iceland they came of all places – we hardly knew where this was, didn’t we? Those who listened to Peel at the time – before there was any mention of The Sugarcubes in the music papers – might, like me, have sat in front of the radio and imagined some Eskimo with quite an angelic voice (yes, I know: a) you are not allowed to call them like this these days and b) they don’t live in Iceland anyway).

But of course Björk had her haters, Mrs. Robster and Mrs. Loser being leaders of this club, I’m afraid. I never understood this disaffirmation, to me they were absolutely wonderful, the same is true of their debut album from 1988. So when the media caught up on the band, rather quickly two camps were built, and to my best knowledge there was not much of an inbetween – you either loved them or you hated them, as easy as this.

And then, soon, it was all over. Yes, I admit, three other albums followed, but to be frank: you’ll just remember ‘Regina’ from the second one, do you? The rest was, let’s face it, not good. So what happened? Well, if you listened closely to the debut album, there was this bloke in the background occasionally, disturbing Björk’s singing, so you could argue, with some strange shouting – and this chap was Einar Örk, the trumpet player.

Now, ‘Birthday’ topped Peel’s Festive 50, became a massive indie hit in the UK, a college radio hit in the USA and naturally all the media attention centred on Björk – and, obviously, quite rightly so! This very much disgusted poor Einar, the shouter, because he thought he’d deserve attention as well for The Sugarcubes being the new star in heaven. Still no one with a single brain cell left really saw it this way though and finally Björk had enough of the tensions with Einar and went solo. To even greater success, of course, so if you carried on with what she did on her own (I did not, too much other things to listen to), light a candle for Einar next time you’re in church, because at the end of the day he sort of paved her way to absolute stardom with his stupid attitude!

mp3: The Sugarcubes – Birthday

When filling the singles box I always tried to get hold of original releases of course, that’s when they were halfway affordable. But here I deliberately went for the re-release from ’88, because the ‘Christmas’-tune on the flipside is actually ‘Birthday’, but with the Jesus & Mary Chain‘s Reid brothers on guitars – and this version is absolutely stunning! So is the one sung in Icelandic, titled ‘Ammæli ‘, first issued on a 7“ in ’86 with ‘The Sugarcubes’ translated to ‘Sykurmolarnir’.

But still: the version above is the definitive one, of course. Some wise soul once wrote: „songs are rarely “out of this world” even if it is a descriptive term used quite regularly, but “Birthday” is undoubtedly otherworldly“.

Enjoy,

 

Dirk

PS : JC adds……

The e-mail from Dirk for this one arrived in the TVV inbox last Wednesday, 18 June 2025, which just happened to be my 62nd birthday….a complete coincidence according to my dear friend from Germany!!

Anyway, it gives me an excuse to redirect you to this recent post, featuring the June book of the month, and the opportunity to win a copy as I’m running a competition to celebrate said birthday.

The third single released by Sugarcubes on One Little Indian is among the most strange and yet compelling of their entire back catalogue:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Deus

To begin with, Bjork sounds as if she is simply denying the existence of God….and then she seems to be singing that if in fact he did exist then she wouldn’t mind being groped or molested by him. And then to totally bamboozle listeners, Einar comes in to say that he actually once met God.

(Bjork vocal in red; Einar in purple)

Deus does not exit.
But if he does, he lives in the sky above me
In the fattest largest cloud up there
He’s whiter than white and cleaner then clean.
He wants to reach me.

Deus does not exist.
But if he does I always notice him.
Getting ready in his airy room
He’s picking his gloves so gently off
He wants to touch me.

I’m walking humbly down a tiny street
Pulling my collar it gets bigger, woooh

I once met him,
It really surprised me,
He put me in a bath tub,
Made me squeaky clean,
Really clean.

To create a universe
You must taste
The forbidden fruit.

He said hi. I said hi,
I was still clean.

Deus does not exist,
But if he does he’d want to get down from that cloud
First marzipan fingers then marble hands
More silent than silence and slower than slow
Diving towards me.

My collar is huge room for two hands,
They start at the chest and move slowly down.

I thought I had seen everything,
He wasn’t white and fluffy
He just had side burns
He just had side burns
And a quiff
He said hi.
I said hi. I was still clean
I was squeaky clean.
I was surprised.
Just as you would be.

Deus, Deus, Deus, Deus

He does not exist
He does not exist
He does not exist
He does not exist

Quite incredibly, this was almost a hit, reaching #51 in the UK singles charts in 1988 which meant that it outperformed Birthday in terms of the chart which stalled at #65 on both of the occasions it was released as a 45. Just imagine the furore in the tabloid press if Deus had been performed on Top of the Pops!

The 12″ came with two other tracks.

mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Organic Prankster
mp3 : Johnny Triumph & The Sugarcubes – Luftgitar (12″ version)

The former is very unconventional and avant-garde, even by the band’s standards and may be a bit much for non-fans to take to. The latter is in fact the UK release of new-wave style single that had come out in Iceland the previous year on Smekkleysa Records featuring Johnny Triumph, which was a name adopted by modern poet and performing artist Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson (a.k.a. Sjón, backed by a band called Sykurmolarnir, who were in fact The Sugarcubes.

That’s you got some more bizarre facts to drop into a conversation down the pub soon.

JC

AS SEEN OVER AT THE OLD BLOG ON 12 FEBRUARY 2009

This is a single I’ve been hopeful of finding for a while, and I finally got my hands on a copy when I was out the other week with Ed from 17 Seconds browsing around a Glasgow charity store.

I bought Regina on 12″ when it was released back in 1989 as I thought that would be the way to get the most unusual version of the song – i.e. sung in Icelandic. What I wasn’t aware of until about five years later when I heard the song played in a pub I was sitting in was that the double-pack 7″ had two other versions under the title Propeller vs Jet. I was kicking myself thinking that my chance to ever own something that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the solo stuff Bjork was releasing had gone forever.

But being given a USB turntable got me collecting vinyl again after the best part of 15 years….and as I said earlier, I picked it up in the most unexpected of places.

And so, for (what was) the first time in TVV history, here’s four versions of the same songs in the one sitting. I’ll apologise if you really don’t like lobster……

mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Regina (extended)
mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Regina (Icelandic vocal)
mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Regina (Propeller vs Jet Part 1)
mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Regina (Propeller vs Jet Part 2)

Here’s the other two tracks that were put on this limited edition double-pack:-

mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Hey
mp3 : The Sugarcubes – Hot Meat

They are strictly b-side material, quite experimental in nature and with a vocal delivery that would subsequently become familiar to music fans all over the world.

I should also say that the sound quality of the recordings of the Propeller v Jet versions aren’t great….not the best vinyl pressing I’ve ever bought.  You’ll likely need to turn the volume up.

JC

I’m sure many of you know that Bjork enjoyed a fair bit of fame pre-solo career with Sugarcubes, who until the recent emergence of Sigur Ros were probably about the only Icelandic pop act many of us could name. They formed in 1986, and went onto release three LPs on One Little Indian to mixed critical acclaim.

The debut LP Life’s Too Good was almost universally praised, with most focus being on the extraordinary vocal style of the gorgeous looking female lead singer. Indeed, lead-off single Birthday, was voted #1 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1987. Surely the only ever record about a love affair between a five year old girl and her 50-year old neighbour…..if the tabloids had been able to make out the lyrics there would surely have been an outcry.

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Birthday

All of this attention and focus on Bjork didn’t sit entirely well with Einar Benediktsson the other vocalist in the group. The follow-up LP Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week! featured far more of his contributions than before, a situation that led at least one reviewer to advise listeners that if they wanted to remain fans of the bands there were a number of tracks that the skip button had surely been invented for. The first single lifted from the LP brought Einar’s talents to the full:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Regina

The LP did climb in to the Top 20 of the album charts which created a situation where the band were in a sort of limbo…..being just too successful to be simply a cult indie band, but unable to make that leap into pop stardom via Radio 1 daytime exposure and Smash Hits magazine.

The next LP, Stick Around For Joy, took a fair bit of time and money to make…much of the recording was in an expensive studio in New York. It was far more of a pop album than any of the previous efforts and it did yield a cracking Top 20 single and an appearance on Top of The Pops:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Hit

Things might have turned out differently for everyone if the follow-up single had enjoyed similar success, but despite it being even more commercial than Hit, it sold dismally:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Walkabout

Two more flop singles followed, shortly followed by the inevitable break-up not long after. Bjork of course released a debut LP some 18 months later that turned her into a global superstar.

On 17th November 2006, Sugarcubes reformed for a one-off concert in Reykjavik to mark their 20th Anniversary. At the time, in a posting over at the old place, I did express a hope that maybe in 2011 for the 25th Anniversary they might briefly reform and tour. It didn’t happen and I’m guessing Bjork has a big enough pension fund to ensure it never will.

Sigh.