Sugarcubes "Life's too good" (the bonus-tracks)
When I write this review I act from that everyone who reads it already owns
the One Little Indian-release of the album "Life's too good" and is planning
on buying the Electra-release to get the six bonustracks. My mission is to
find out if it's worth the money. Well, this is what you get if you buy the
album once more for the bonustracks: Four non-LP-tracks (One non-LP-track
is taken from the band's first single "Einn mol'á mann". The others
are B-sides from the "Life's too good"-singles (I think)) and two remixes
(I have no idea where they are from). The non-LP-tracks are all much punkier
than the original album-tracks. The first one is called "Cowboy" and you've
already got that track if you own the "Live Zabor"-video. If you don't own
that video I can tell you that "Cowboy" is probably Sugarcubes' craziest
song ever. It's not a song that comes creeping nicely to you, it's running
over you like a wild maniac. Einar is really going to town at this one. He's
screaming like somebody's trying to kill him. "Cowboy" is breaking every
possible speed-limit a song can have. Even if Björk hasn't got many
lines I really like it. The second one is called "I want...." and sounds
very much like "Traitor", the opening track of "Life's too good". It's a
little bit worse and it's in Icelandic but except from that there aren't
many differences. The third non-LP-track has got the name "Dragon" and it's
a really weird kind of "beauty and the best"-duet between Björk and
Einar. If you like the punkier side of the band you will probably love this
song. It's crazy Icelandic punk so pure that it could have been Kukl. The
song is in Icelandic and it's really weird and really interesting. The fourth
non-LP-track is called "Cat" and it also appears on Sugarcubes' first single
"Einn mol'á mann" together with an Icelandic version of "Birthday"
called "Ammaeli". "Cat" is also in Icelandic and it's original title is
"Köttur". It's strange, really experimental punk-pop with a melody that
sounds frighteningly much like a children's song. Not as good as the rest
of the non-LP-tracks.
Two remixes can also be found as I told you before. The first one is a really
mediocre "Coldsweat"-remix where all the original charm from the song has
been erased and replaced with typical synthetic pop from the 80ths. The second
one is much better. It's a "Deus"-remix that gives us an elegant theme-work
between synthetic string-imitations and real string-instruments. Probably
the best Sugarcubes-remix ever, at least much better than the insignificant
remixes on the remixalbum "It's it". So my answer to the question if the
bonustracks are worth one more album is finally yes. It's not often you hear
bonustracks as good as these ones, at least not as long as they're not foreign
single-hits from movie-soundtracks or something like that (the bonus-tracks
on the re-release of David Bowie's "Tonight"). You can always try to sell
the One Little Indian-release after you've bought this one. Then you won't
loose to much money.