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Track: Birthday
Artist: The Sugarcubes
Album: Life's Too Good

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Name: The Sugarcubes
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Biography

The Sugarcubes were the biggest group ever to emerge from Iceland, which helps explain their off-kilter sense of melody. Their 1988 debut [i]Life's Too Good[/i] attracted terrific reviews and became a college radio hit, but they never were able to recapture that sense of excitement. According to group legend, the Sugarcubes formed on June 8, 1986, the day that vocalist [a1373] gave birth to her son. Prior to that day, the members of the group had been in a variety of Icelandic bands. Björk had the longest career out of any of the members. By 1984, Björk, Einar Örn Benediktsson and Siggi Baldursson had joined forces, forming [a=KUKL] with keyboardist Einar Melax. KUKL — which means witchcraft in Icelandic — was a noisy, artsy, post-punk band that released two albums on the independent British record label Crass. In 1986, KUKL evolved into the Sugarcubes, adding Björk's then-husband Thor Eldon on guitar and Bragi Ólafsson on bass. In late 1987, the band signed to One Little Indian in the U.K., Elektra Records in the U.S. The Sugarcubes released their debut album [i]Life's Too Good[/i] in 1988 to critical acclaim in both the U.K. and the U.S. [i]Birthday[/i], the first single from the album, became an indie hit in Britain and a college radio hit in America. In particular, Björk received a heap of praise, which began tensions between her and Einar Örn. [i]Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week![/i], the Sugarcubes' second album, was released in 1989. The album featured a greater vocal contribution by Einar, which was criticized in many of the record's reviews, which were noticably weaker than those for [i]Life's Too Good[/i]. After the release of [i]Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week![/i], the band embarked on a lengthy international tour. At the conclusion of the tour in late 1990, the band members pursued their own individual interests. [i]Stick Around for Joy[/i], the band's third album, was released in 1992. Before the record appeared, a collection of remixes called [i]It's It[/i] was released in Europe. [i]Stick Around for Joy[/i] received better reviews than [i]Life's Too Good[/i], but the album failed to yield a hit single. Following its release, the Sugarcubes disbanded. In 1993, Björk launched a critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo career that was based in dance music.

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Release: The Sugarcubes - Birthday
Year: 1987
Genres: Rock
Styles: Indie Rock

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Source: MusicBrainz

LYRICS

Björk
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.

Threats worms on a string,
Keeps spiders in her pockets,
Collects fly-wings in a jar
Scrubs horse-flies and pinches them on a line.

She has one friend he lives next door,
They listen to the weather,
He knows how many freckles she's got,
She scratches his beard.

She's painting huge books,
And glues them together,
They saw a big raven,
It glided down the sky, she touched it.

Today is a birthday
They're smocking cigars,
He's got a chain of flowers,
And sows a bird in her knickers,

They're smocking cigars,
They lie in the bathtub,
A chain of flowers.