Dec Disc Rewind graphic by Michelle Fields A decade ago, The Declaration changed its music review column from "Freshly Pressed Vinyl," to the current "Dec Discs," in response to the advent of the compact disc. As a ten-year commemorative thing, we present excerpts from the Dec's last LP review and its first CD review. 7 February 1988 Sugarcubes / Birthday Although some great singles came out of England last year, the tastiest piece of seven-inch vinyl to make it across the Atlantic came from the hills of Iceland, where a band called the Sugarcubes cavorts with the elves in the shadows of haunted volcanos. A rolling, skipping drumbeat, a matching bass riff, a scattering of sparkly stardust guitar ... and a lot of space for the Voice. Any description of the Sugarcubes inevitably reduces to naked admiration for the magic of Björk, who looks like a twelve-year-old Eskimo angel and sings like a little girl lost in the joy of life. The voice flows a melody like a trail of colored eggs through the magical forest, a melody that is incredibly compelling. All the standard 4AD adjectives apply: ethereal, transcendent, etc., but in the swoops, lilts, and screams of "Birthday" there is something that exceeds the howling of Kirstin Hersh or the inarticulate sobbing of Liz Fraser. Björk's singing and lyrics have a magnetism that is matched by that of Michael Stipe. Björk is for real, Björk is sublime ... There are little flowers growing amidst the rubble and decay. -- Anon. 24 February 1988 Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians / Globe of Frogs Turning his back on the conventional pop lyric standards of lost love, political oppression, and party anthems, Robyn Hitchcock, in the latest album, expounds on the theme of what can be broadly termed organic chaos and decay. What? He says in the liner notes that he is "recoiling in disgust from the uncontrollable force of life." Not an uplifting thought, and certainly not typical freeze-dried pop fare ...Globe of Frogs seeks out that pulse, that unconscious, cuts it open and fearlessly roots around inside the viscera ... "Balloon Man," the third song of the first side concerns a rather obese man who blows up. An uptempo lighthearted tune sung in a rather flippant voice, you can't help but laugh at the absurd juxtaposition of lyrics and music. "Somewhere inside a glowing kernel of peace is an irritant -- an inflamed seed that messes up the organism." Globe of Frogs is full of the recognition that man is just such an impure organism and doesn't claim that we can or should try to cure or overcome it, just that we'd be much better off recognizing it. -- Shannon Smith

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