After a couple of albums and plenty of touring, the Sugarcubes couldn't be expected to replicate the childlike abandon that sparked their startling 1988 debut, Life's Too Good. And what do you do after a disappointing, scattershot second album? The Icelandic sextet hired producer Paul Fox, whose specialty seems to be ironing out the quirks of idiosyncratic artists like Robyn Hitchcock and XTC, making them more consistent and commercial. But by smoothing over precisely what animates the Sugarcubes' sound – Einar's bumptious hectoring, Bjork's angelic swoops and feral growls and the band's reckless blend of the sacred and the profane – the music on Stick Around for Joy is becalmed.

Sure, it still sounds like pop as interpreted by the denizens of some strange and distant land (Iceland, for instance), but the songs are samey – jumpy drums and twanging guitars dominate most of the cuts, with Bjork's exceptional voice smothered in overdressed arrangements. In its lyrics, the band has abandoned the wildly original imagery that was its trademark; surprisingly pedestrian takes on greed ("Gold"), bad love ("Hit") and more bad love ("Leash Called Love") are the rule. That said, "Walkabout" is a nifty pop song – giddy and incandescent, it flaunts a literally earthy eroticism. And although "Chihuahua" is little more than an excuse for Bjork to roll the word around in her mouth, it's one of the album's best tracks.

"I'm thirsty for surprises/Hungry for experience," Bjork sings on "I'm Hungry." It's a lust for life that the Sugarcubes simply used to show rather than stoop to tell. (RS 625)

MICHAEL AZERRAD