BJÖRK

Certainly Bjork fans will want to check this out if, for nothing else, to hear at this tender young age a musician far removed from an artist who has enthralled some while irking many others. There is next to nothing here in any regard to link this early recording to her more daring experiments in either in Kukl, the Sugarcubes, or her solo work. The vocals are clearly of Bjork's if only in hints and traces, but none of the vocal gymnastics that characterize her work beyond this point is on display here.

The majority of this material is unbearable. The Beatles "The Fool On the Hill" is covered as "Alfur Ut Ur Hol". Never a fan of the original composition this remake solidifies that opinion. "Arabadrengurinn" is pure 70's disco without any flourishes to lift it above being a merely serviceable example of that genre at its blandest. The instrumental "Musastiginn" is kid-show pop. Terrible.

"Baenin" is a sweet little number with only Bjork and an acoustic guitar, perhaps the least offensive offering here. Outside of that "Fusi Hreindyr" has a nice chorus melody, I admit to really liking this song (except the sax solo destroys the gentle vibe). These are perhaps the only two tracks I can ever imagine giving another spin to.

A Bjork fan should keep a copy of this recording, for completing a collection and something to spring on your friends as a "guess-who-this-is" game at parties. It is perhaps easy to see why Bjork title her first post-Sugarcubes album as "Debut", effectively erasing this ,her original debut, to the few who heard or remembered her earlier success outside of her native Iceland.