Time Capsule: The Sugarcubes, Stick Around For Joy

On June 8th, 1986, Björk Guðmundsdóttir brought two things into this world: her son Sindri and her short lived dance punk band, the Sugarcubes. While they’ve since faded into relative obscurity, they’re arguably still the most notable pre-Sigur Rós band to come out of Iceland. Their third and final record, Stick Around For Joy, scored them their biggest hit, coincidentally titled “Hit,” as well as an opening slot at some U2 gigs during the Dublin band’s heyday. While “Hit” in a vacuum has aged gracefully, the rest of the album is largely a miss. There’s a reason much of this record has not stood the test of time, not to mention being undoubtedly eclipsed by the one-of-a-kind excellence brought upon by Björk’s solo work.

I’m a casual fan of Björk’s and love Vespertine as much as the next micro-bang-donning white girl, but my knowledge of the Sugarcubes has never gone much farther than simply knowing of their existence. Stick Around For Joy has an unignorable achilles heel in co-vocalist Einar Örn. With the exception of his verse on “Hit,” every time I glanced ahead on the Genius page for a track and saw a verse of his was coming up, I braced for impact. His contributions range from absurd to uncomfortable to just plain unserious. At the end of a now archived 2007 profile with Björk for SPIN, the author described this record as sounding like “uninspired B-52’s”—which I would agree with, had Björk not picked up the slack that Einar left behind him.