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''Life's Too Good'' is the debut studio album by
Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
ic
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
group
the Sugarcubes The Sugarcubes () were an Icelandic alternative rock band from Reykjavík formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1992. For most of their career, the band consisted of Björk Guðmundsdóttir (vocals, keyboards), Einar Örn Benediktsson (vocals, trumpe ...
. It was released April 25, 1988 by One Little Indian in the UK and Europe and in May 1988 by
Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
in the US. The album was an unexpected success and brought international attention for the band, especially to lead singer
Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...
, who would launch a successful solo career in 1993. Consisting of veterans of
Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...
's early 1980s rock culture, the band took elements of the
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
sound that characterised the scene, intending to create a humorous take on
pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...
's optimism, which is reflected in the album's title. Despite never having intended to be taken seriously, and because of the success of their debut and their contractual obligations, the Sugarcubes went on to release two further studio albums.


Release

The lead single "
Birthday A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many religion ...
" was released on Derek Birkett's One Little Indian Records in August 1987.Pytlik, 2003. p.38 After influential magazine ''
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' declared it "Single of the Week", the Sugarcubes, especially lead singer
Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...
, unexpectedly got the attention of the British music press. Across the following months, the band reluctantly appeared on the covers of the United Kingdom's most prominent pop magazines and experienced "massive hype" which generated a wave of interest from the press and the public.Pytlik, 2003. p.39 Despite offers by major labels like
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
and PolyGram, none of these labels were willing to give the Sugarcubes complete creative control, so the band decided to record the album themselves and release it on One Little Indian.Pytlik, 2003. p.40 ''Life's Too Good'' was finally released in April 1988. "Coldsweat" and "Deus" were issued as singles prior to the album's release in January and April 1988 respectively, while
the Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid, who are the two founders and only consistent members of the ...
's remix of "Birthday" (subtitled the "Christmas Mix") was released as a single in August 1988. "Motorcrash" followed as the album's final single in November 1988. While recording ''Life's Too Good'', the Sugarcubes had befriended Howard Thompson, who worked in
Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
' A&R division; he orchestrated a licensing deal and the album was released in the United States.Pytlik, 2003. p.42 "Birthday" proved to be very successful on American
college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
, before crossing over to mainstream radio. To the band's frustration, the American media also focused on Björk. At the end of 1988, the Sugarcubes undertook an American tour, which evolved into an international tour catapulted by the album's growing sales.Pytlik, 2003. p.44


Music

Robert Ham of ''
Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...
'' assessed: "In the hands of this pale quintet from Reykjavik, led by the intoxicating vocals and pixie-ish presence of Bjork Gudmundsdottir,
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and folk were twisted into multi-colored braids of arch pop and seamy revelations about untoward relationships between a bearded gent and a little girl, the joys of sex and gawking at a car crash."


Artwork

Paul White of Me Company designed the artwork for ''Life's Too Good''. The figures depicted in the artwork are derivations of a signature he had which consisted of a character "made up of just a face, legs and a
enis Enis is a male given name. In the Balkans, Enis is popular among Bosniaks in the former Yugoslavia, Yugoslav nations. It is also popular among Albanians. The name is a modification to the name Anis (disambiguation), Anis, and it holds the same m ...
" White stuck to using flat-color backgrounds; this discipline was born out of the need to keep printing costs as low as possible, and had previously been followed for the sleeve designs of the "Birthday" and "Coldsweat" singles. The album was issued in various color schemes, including green, yellow, blue and pink.


Critical reception

''Life's Too Good'' was released to largely positive reviews,Pytlik, 2003. p.41 receiving acclaim from the British and American press. In his review for ''NME'',
Steven Wells Steven Wells (10 May 1960 – 24 June 2009) was a British journalist, author, comedian and punk poet born in Swindon, Wiltshire. He was best known for ranting poetry and his provocative, unapologetic music journalism. In June 2006, he wrote in ...
gave the album an unconventional score of fifty out of ten, awarding ten points each for "cheekiness", "naughtiness", "sexiness", "silliness" and "scariness". Nancy Culp of ''
Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...
'' said that while the Sugarcubes' music is not particularly innovative, "their approach is fresh and their energy indisputable." ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' critic
Robert Hilburn Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As music critic and editor at the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays, and profiles have appeared in publications worldwide ...
commented that "''Life's Too Good'' has the feel of an impact album: one of those rare debuts—like the first X or
Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads
albums—that not only influence the creative underground but stretch the overall boundaries of rock." John Dougan praised Björk's vocals and the album's "strong" songs in a retrospective review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, and considered that the album "lived up to all the advance hype." Less impressed was
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
from ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'', who wrote that the band's "sense of mischief isn't just playful—it's experimental and a little wicked. It's also so imperfectly realized that you have to infer it out from underneath their breathy swoops, willful shifts and starts, and translated lyrics—so imperfectly realized that most of their fans, critics included, barely notice it."


Legacy

''Life's Too Good'' is credited as the first Icelandic album "of its breed" to have a worldwide impact. Robert Ham of ''
Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...
'' wrote: "For many listeners, the debut by The Sugarcubes was an introduction into the singular universe that is the Icelandic music scene. It’s a place where, at the time, the various strains of influence from Europe and North America collided but were jumbled up gloriously in translation." In 2014, Treble wrote that the album " enerateda larger interest towards the country’s popular and alternative music scenes alike." The album is considered a definite influence on all subsequent Icelandic popular music, and on international acts such as Savages and
Florence and the Machine Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band formed in London in 2007 by lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, drummer Christopher Lloyd Hayden and harp ...
. Since its release, ''Life's Too Good'' has generated a dedicated following, and is nowadays cited as an important
cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...
. The album helped in regarding the Sugarcubes as "the biggest rock band to emerge from Iceland." "Coldsweat" was covered by the
industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrom ...
band Diatribe on the 1993 album '' Shut Up Kitty: A Cyber-Based Covers Compilation''.


Accolades


Track listing


Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Life's Too Good''. The Sugarcubes * Bragi Ólafsson – bass *
Sigtryggur Baldursson Sigtryggur Baldursson (born 2 October 1962) is an Icelandic drummer and singer. Sigtryggur was born in Norway to Icelandic parents. He was a founding member of the Sugarcubes and has been a longtime fixture on the Icelandic punk and alternat ...
– drums *Þór Eldon – guitar * Björk Guðmundsdóttir – vocals, keyboard *
Einar Örn Benediktsson Einar Örn Benediktsson (born 29 October 1962), often billed as Einar Örn, is an Icelandic popular music singer and trumpet player. He was a member of the Sugarcubes. He served as a member of the Reykjavík City Council between 2010 and 2014 ...
– vocals, trumpet Additional personnel *Engineering – Brian Pugsley, Gail Lambourne, Gerard Johnson, Ken Thomas, Kjartan Kjartansson, Mel Jefferson *Production – Derek Birkett and Ray Shulman *Sleeve – Paul White *Copyright – One Little Indian Records *Publishing – Second Wind *Design – Me Company *Distribution – The Cartel


Charts


Sales


References


External links

* * statistics, tagging and previews at Last.fm *
Life's Too Good
' at
Rate Your Music Rate Your Music (often abbreviated to RYM) is an online encyclopedia of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also features comm ...
{{Authority control The Sugarcubes albums 1988 debut albums Elektra Records albums One Little Independent Records albums Albums recorded at Berry Street Studio