Holidays in Europe

Kukl | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 20, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: One Little Indian Us
• ASIN: B0001XAQ1E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,518 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dark Side of Bjork, May 14, 2000

By 

Matthew Hall "shimmershark" (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought) (Audio CD)

This brutally intense concept album sounds like it was recorded yesterday, not 1985. Bjork and Einar Orn shared vocal duties in the experimental rock band KUKL before forming the slightly more mainstream Sugarcubes in 1986. So HOLIDAYS IN EUROPE is full of the same wonderful Bjork-Einar vocal interplay that was so omnipresent on the first two Sugarcubes albums. The lyrics, mostly in English, are straight out of a nightmare. Musically it is like nothing you've ever heard before. An apt description of Kukl might be *The Sugarcubes on acid*. Highly recommended for any fan of the Sugarcubes and Bjork, or for anyone interested in timeless experimental music.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Track Listing!, July 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought) (Audio CD)

Here are the track titles according to the vinyl version. Hope it's of help.
1. OUTWARD FLIGHT (psalm 323)
2. FRANCE (a mutal thrill)
3. GIBRALTER (copy thy neighbor)
4. GREECE (just by the book)
5. ENGLAND (zro)
6. HOLLAND (latent)
7. AEGEAN (vials of wrath)
8. THE HOMECOMING (the night, this is what she sounds like)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most original album ever made, August 22, 2001

By 

FilleManquee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought) (Audio CD)

The first time I heard this album, I gasped. So this was the album I had waited for to hear in my whole life! My musical tastes range from industrial, goth, black/death metal, avant-garde, experimental pop, dance, techno etc. but this is (both lyrically and musically) the most extreme and intense album I have ever had the pleasure to hear. I am a fan of Björk and while I think that her latest stuff (Homogenic and Vespertine) is great, Kukl is the most uncompromising and experimental music she has ever been a part of. Siggi (from the Sugarcubes) is an amazing drummer and the guitar player, Gulli, with his own way of playing, also shines. Einar is brilliant and matches Björk perfectly.

The lyrics are surrealistic, very dark. "Man on the Cross" mocks Xianity and in "Latent" Björk tells how it feels to be raped. The music is very chaotic, experimental... it's like combining horror movie music with jazz together with punk and hard rock. Every song on this album is excellent moreover.

The only group that comes near the sound of Kukl is Şeyr, not very odd, since it was Kukl's predecessor featuring the guitar player from Kukl, Gulli and the drummer from Kukl and the Sugarcubes, Siggi.

And Kukl in Björk's own words, well in an interview from AUGUST 18 2001, The Times, she says: "But out of all the bands I've been in until today, K.U.K.L was the most like a blueprint for my music-making. And for the six of us, we all quit the bands we were in and it was almost like a cult - talking about polarising. Birthday [the first Sugarcubes single] was like a cute little candy-bar compared to what we were. I still meet people that saw us and say "that is the best concert I've ever heard in my whole life", or "that was the worst pile of rubbish". It was like five times more extreme than the Sugarcubes." [...] "For me personally I was missing them [Kukl]. But it wasn't like a joke [as the Sugarcubes] - jokes are great, right? But it was from the heart, it was serious".

Oh, and Björk had a tattoo behind her ear done (a symbol representing chaos) supposedly, so she wouldn't forget her years with Kukl.