Customer Reviews

Here Today Tomorrow

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

(sorry, long review!)

It's hard to pick favorites with this cd.
One of the things I love about it, is it seems to have more of Einar's odd amusing quips, that I love. :-) they are very plentiful in this cd. But sometimes the music plays so loud, you can't really understand until you read the cd sleeve. And sometimes they sing them differently then what is written...

In "Nail" Bjork begins singing "When I've been just by myself, I start thinking too much...." Einar joins in the background: "I just go out walking with my favorite piece of wood with a 4 inch nail driven through it... somehow people don't seem to like me, I don't know why..I just met them." (Bjork) Can't you see?
(Einar) Ahh!!!
(Bjork) Sir, this nail of yours is rusty, it's evil!...I can't deal with it!
(Einar)Oh, I know, it's stupid! Sorry!

"Pump" Bjork starts sings "eat me love, leave nothing behind. Swallow me, all of me..." Einar then shouts "I hate you! I really do, I think I do" (Bjork) I need you closer, I want him now, EAT ME LOVE! (Einar) never say love to anyone!

Or Bee, In which Bjork begins singing: Who is it? Who'll get the sting? Who'll get the stripes black & yellow? A dangerous creature, chattering wings, flashing antennae, who is it? It buzzes fine, the bee. Buzzes fine, stings deep.

(Einar)I play a frightening little game, I eject myself myself at scary speed in front of cars and go: Blaaaaaa!"
...The cars freeze from fright, when they see my beautiful body and tongue, Then I speed away...noone catches me, I'm the fastest bee in town!"

(Bjork) Oh, hot bee, buzz to me. I want to be stung! I want to be out! Here is the honey, you're it.

The lyrics for "Shoot Him" aren't included in the booklet...but they're some of the funniest..and strangest...:-)
Shoot Him: Einar sings: "there were four of us, one of us was the landlord. We were on a drinking spree...I washed my landlord, he was covered in gravy...The others were amazed at how dirty he was..but I said, he never took a bath, he never takes a bath..so why don't we just shoot him? (Bjork joins in) Why don't you shoot him? why don't you shoot him? why don't you shoot him?....(Einar) I said, that's no polite manner to behave in, or something like that..I was too drunk to remember. I said he can't survive the cold water, he'll die! he'll die! They said, no way Jose! I said my name ain't Jose..he said yes it is......

"Hey" A very fun song, Bjork really belts it out!, at one point Einar yells to her "You give it to em!" in English :-), but both it & "Dark Disco" are mostly in Icelandic

One of my favorites "Hot Meat". Is a very twangy version of "Coldsweat" sung a little slower and a lot funnier than the original, Einar sings in a silly sort of southern drawl/icelandic accent. :-)"Well I'll be damned, if this ain't the country western version of Coldsweat, I heard it years ago...it's bad *someone shouts "yee-haw!"*

-----It also Includes a nice addition of strings and bass (sax, trombone,trumpet) & also what sounds like a mouth harp that provides the "twang" for "Hot Meat"

The future and space seem to be recurrent themes in this cd. In "Speed is the Key" Bjork sings: "I'm a spacegirl, pass me that aeroplane..I've got to go now, speed is the key.

Or in "Dear Plastic" Einar sings: " I was born aeons ago, before anything human was known. My friends the alchemists told me everything was natural, and will always be that way. And possible to make gold from dirt...
I believed I was their dustbin for knowledge, took everything and digested. Of course I became big, bigger and very, VERY STRONG!!..
Today I'm old and withering away. My friends the alchemists long disappeared into dust..I no long get anything fruity..The only thing I get is spacefood on a tray!"

Also in "Planet", which is one of my favorites (it has a nice sweet tone) Bjork sings :" The planets & me, we get along so well together. Gliding down imaginary rollercoaster paths along the sky. I can do somersaults around Jupiter if I feel like it..

"A Day Called Zero" seems to be about an post apocalyptic world :-P (Bjork): "a day called zero is the day we'll all relax, the mountains will tumble with a long & heavy thump! Dust spreads on the sky, so the sun will grow pale. Oil tanks tear open, and the city livens up.... A day called zero will be such a buzy day...controlling a bulldozer, I will improve my town, stacking concrete slabs." :-)

"Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week!" is very fun and enjoyable.....

This is an extreme example of happiness... loudness, love : lust... I love, lust for this album.

Einar has a stronger part in this Disc as compared to the Sugarcubes' first album, Life's Too Good, and he is, as always, hilarious and fun.

This album is better composed than Life's Too Good, and it seems more thought out and much, much more 80s.

Tidal Wave is a hilarious song with two different themes (Björk singing about the dangerous tides, Einar sreaming about sniffing diesel)

Regina is another song that starts out sounding like it will yeild terrible crops of sugar energy, but whips you back into a very sweet melody and a 'haha, Regina!' that's to die for!

Speed is the Key, a wonderfully upbeat song that sums up this album with a simple 'I must energize'!

Dream TV warns of the evils of television as stealing your dreams... it's a sad tale told with an upbeat tune, pumped with happiness... and hilarity. one of my favorites.

The beginning of Nail reminds me of KUKL more than anything, but it proceeds to become entirely Sugarcubefied as the song is an interesting tale... 'that's nonsense!'

Pump.... one of the only sad songs on this album (still told with a somehow upbeat melody) about a girl who only loves the man who hates her. sad sad.

Eat the Menu for an incredibly invigorating Sykur-High! one of my favorite songs about nothing... nothing but a menu...

Bee is probably my favorite off the album... Who is it? seems it's a bee. This song's really catchy, i find myself humming it whenever i get the chance.

Dear Plastic puts björk's philosophy about the world into song... that plastic is natural, and everything humans create is natural, it was meant to happen. another nifty, yet pointless ode to an inane object (with a long history). Sykur heaven!

Dischord is 'Shoot Him'. fun. about shooting him.

Water is calm, like water. Einar is not screeching during this one. he's quite soothing. like water.

A Day Called Zero is the day when this song will speak of the poor human condition. It's great fun, though. fun fun.

Planet, the song that everyone should worship as the universe. she longs to see the universe, and to be a cell. reminds me of timothy leary's psychedelic experience.

Hey!

Hot meat's the country western version of coldsweat... a real chiller.

I love this album. I feel it to be an essential part of anyone's björk/einar/sugarcubes collection because it's a crafty and catchy hunk of history worth biting and chewing... it tastes sugary and gives a nifty happy feeling afterward. a happy album for people who love sad music.

The Sugarcubes' 2nd album is less a follow-up to LIFE'S TOO GOOD than a lyrical and stylistic ode to Bjork and Einar's old band, Kukl. The heavy back-and-forth vocal interplay between Bjork and Einar on HERE TODAY, TOMORROW, NEXT WEEK is very reminiscent of the last Kukl album, the brilliant HOLIDAYS IN EUROPE. And the lyrics are beyond wonderful. Pure poetry. This cd is worth buying for the lyric sheet alone. When Bjork and Einar sing completely different competing (and often ridiculously silly) lyrics at the same time, at first listen it is a bit disorienting, but after a few listens it sounds perfectly natural. You begin to realize that Bjork is the singer and Einar's gritty voice is a complimentary instrument, like a lead guitar. A lead guitar that makes sounds that resemble words. The Sugarcubes' style was truly original. And this album captures The Sugarcubes during their most musically adventurous time.

Although not every one of the 16 tracks on here is a winner, I think there are more great songs here than on LIFE'S TOO GOOD and STICK AROUND FOR JOY combined. 'Tidal wave', 'regina', 'planet', 'a day called zero', and 'speed is the key' are especially wonderful. And the darker 'dream tv' and 'shoot' are a throwback to the days of Kukl.

The instrumentation and form is less interesting and diverse than Bjork would end up being, but the threads of Bjork's philosophy that have survived up to Homogenic, are already in evidence at this point (1989). The admiration of Plastic, in "plastic" is a precursor to "modern things" on Bjork's "Post" (1995), and the apocalyptic "a day called zero" recalls much of Bjork's prophetic rantings. [I say "recalled", as I, like many other people, heard Bjork's solo work before I ever heard the sugarcubes] Enfin, I love the song "speed is the key" because it reminds me of a friend of mine, and I love "planet" because it is beatiful and exuberant.

Easily the best sleeve to don a Sugarcubes album also easily dons their worst album. Never a strong musical group by any means, there still was something to like about them. First and foremost, Björk was there to like. The music has its ups and downs. I hate to sound like I'm jumping on the bandwagon, but it's true; Einar really is untolerable on this album.

To give Here Today Tomorrow Next Week some right, it has its good material to speak of. The best song as far as I'm concerned is "Dream TV", a terrifically catchy rock number with wonderful vocals by Björk. "Planet" is another good number, understated and interesting. "Speed is the Key" has some quite feet-tapping elements to it. "Water" is half-decent, half drifting into nothingness.

HTTNW is a funny album. It seems to harbour no clear musical style, but seeing how almost all of the band used to be a punk band called Kukl, that's to be expected. I hate to sound negative, but most of the material simply is very weak. This clearly was never a strong songwriter's unit and it shows. "Regína" [sic] and "Speed is the Key" somewhat make up for this with their catchiness. "Dear Plastic" and "Eat the Menu" are forgotten immediately.

The biggest and most understandable criticism concerns Einar, the ever-talking "vocalist". This is easily his most irritating contribution. Here there is not a song without him. What makes it unbearable is that instead of his rather amusing monologues on Life's Too Good, most of the time he's screaming things that really get on one's nerves. The first sentence you hear when you pop in the album is "The diesel is so nice", where Einar goes on about sniffing diesel (I am completely serious) while Björk sings about a tidal wave. He even tries to ruin the exquisite "Dream TV", but fortunately the loud music and Björk drown out most of his shrieking. "Nail" is another ultra-irritating contribution of his. And if you're no fan of Einar's, you better skip the final three tracks, one of whom ("Hot Meat") is nothing more than a reworking of Life's Too Good's "Coldsweat" only with more of Einar's rantings. "Speed is the Key" is about the only track where the marriage of Björk's vocals and Einar's rantings truly works.

What ultimately drags Here Today Tomorrow Next Week down is the overall flat roster of music, in spite of some good stuff in-between. "Bee" sounds like an early version of Stick Around for Joy's "Happy Nurse", only not as memorable. The three final tracks of the album feel more like filler than anything - a distinction the sleeve seems to share, as those are the only songs (asides from "Shoot Him") whose lyrics aren't featured.

Björk would certainly do better. If you're not as demanding towards the music as I, perhaps you'll get some fun out of this album. It has its moments. The overall impression it gives me, though, is not a very positive one. Hence my score.

THIS CD COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD, BUT IT IS RUINED BY HORRIBLE, OVER THE TOP, MALE VOCALS.

This is the Sugarcubes second CD. It was released in 1989 and is just under 40 minutes long. The sound quality is very good.

The CD is dominated by the vocals of Einar Mellax, who just screams. It is worse than German heavy metal. It is just noisy and many times it is out of place. Half the time he is screaming over the vocals of Bjork Gunmundsdittar.

I don't mind male vocals and I don't think the group needs to be totally dominated by Bjork. On the Sugarcubes first CD, there were wonderful duets between Bjork and Einar.

This album was recorded during serious turmoil in the group (it was worse than Fleetwood Mac). Couples were breaking up and regrouping with others (including guy on guy). There were serious differences in the artistic direction of the band. It ended up with Einar just screaming his way into the lead role.

There are some very good songs on this album, where Einar is a little more subdued. And all of the songs would be great if the were remixed and Einar was deleted.

It is the year 2001, and I just got into the sugarcubes, because I was a bjork fan. When I first listened to this band I thought Bjork was the greatest, aside from that Einar Orn character. But as I kept listening to thier songs, Einar and Bjork make a GRrrrrreat team! The Sugarcubes music is something TOTALLY original! Just listening to the SugarCubes is equivalent to watching a Ren and Stimpy or Cow and Chicken episode on Cartoon network, that said...the listener is in for some CRaZy times. But with the same (...) being released over and over in this day and age. If yall are tired of music nowadays, try looking at some of the Sugarcubes stuff. IT's A breath of FRESH AIR! Whenever I go to my graphic courses I always bring my Sugarcubes CD's with me and pop them in the computer, my teachers either say one of two things when they see that CD laying there......"WOW! Great music...those were the days." or...."You actually like them?...they were annoying." All the Sugarcubes CDs are Great but if I had to pick one cd that i couldn't live without, it would no doubtedly be....Here Today Tommorrow Next Week. All the songs get me soo hyper I do ninja flips hither and tither. THE must listen to songs are,Tidal Wave, Dream TV, Eat the Menu, Bee, Dear Plastic, A day called Zero (0), and the My ULTIMATE FAVORITE TRACKS ON THIS CD...Speed is the Key and HEY! Bjork's vocals on "Hey" go right to one's heart. Even though it's an Icelandic song, I feel its' vibe...such is the power of music no matter where you're from. How lovely. :)BTW, Did you know that NO DOUBT gets some of their ideas from Bjork and the SugarCubes? It buzzes fine, the Bee. HOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Rock on fellow Cubes and Cubettes!! Independent Musiq Rox.

Bjork, Einar Orn and co. set out to make an album as good as Abba on this, their second set as Sykurmolarnir, The Sugarcubes. Aside from the fact that Abba could never hold up under the test of time, being somewhat disco-oriented, their pop element is what the Sugarcubes were aiming for, and they far exceeded the level of magnificence they wanted. Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week is fun, it's intelligent, and it's danceable, and for those that don't dance and prefer their music a little more strange, well, it's still the Sugarcubes, in their prime. This is some of the most bizarre pop out there, and this is really why they have endured in the consciousness of so many. It's not that they were just a pop band; it's that they were so experimental WITHIN the pop structures of their songs. This album is a must-have for songs like "Speed Is The Key", "Planet", "Regina", and pretty much the whole thing. Go. Buy. Now.

The song titles alone make this an incredible album, like "Chihuahua," "Bee," and "Eat The Menu." They're all great songs to listen to. "Planet" is possibly the best track to me.

I have never heard a critic do anything except rip this album apart. To be honest it really is baffling. It has songs like, "Regina", which has the funniest line in music when the guy says what Bjork is thinking. The non-sequiter is, "I really don't like lobster." Not only is this line laugh out loud funny, but it is delivered after the music builds to a crescendo and is very powerful especially when you figure out the song is about the fading life of a woman. This song alone is worth the price of admission. There is so much more though. You get the delightful pop of "Bee". They even reverse my bias towards dance songs with the fun "Hey". There is also philosophical pop that is awesome and includes, "A Day Called Zero", "Nail", and the introspective ballad, "Planet". You also get songs about passionate sex like, "Pump" and "Hot Meat". These are the highlights and I am only scratching the surface. I recommend this album whole heartedly.