Judging Albums By Their Cover 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dirty Three: Whatever You Love, You Are

I look at this album cover and wonder, ‘Why can’t all album covers be this beautiful?’ The best answer of course, is that not all bands are The Dirty Three. If there is one thing that separates them from the herd, in a musical sense, is their strong sense of craftmanship. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about that term ‘craftmanship’ about how it applies to me in terms of expression and art (designers tend to dwell on such things, I think it’s a reaction against self-expression vs earning a wage).

When we’re young, everyone does art at school (and usually just for the fun of it). It’s the fundamental tool of learning how to express yourself, unlocking the mysteries of life through finger-paints and paddlepop sticks. It usually ends there with most people unless they have that spark or inner self determination to continue improving and experimenting with their ‘art-skills’ It’s unusual in that it’s one of the few things you partake in at an early educational level that is not carried through with. All kids play with balls, and through their years of learning, the ‘craft’ of physical education is encouraged, so at least you’re skilled enough to kick a football or hit a ball with a tennis racket. This is the same with reading, computer skills, spelling – it just seems really weird that most people stop at the finger-paints.

As a designer – I’m one of those kids that decided to carry that journey on beyond the finger-paints, to hone ‘my craft’ if you will. I was never really interested in the intellectual side of ‘art’ when I was growing up. It was more of a matter of seeing something and appreciating the skill that went into producing it, whether that was a cartoon, a comic book or magazine illustration I stumbled upon. I never thought of myself as producing ‘art’ growing up – if I even thought of putting a title on what I did, it was illustration, cartooning, or just drawing – my interest wasn’t in ‘art for art sake’ but in creating something with a purpose, my explorations were always aimed at the creation of comic books, picture books, posters. So before I even knew what I was, I was a ‘designer’ I guess. It’s amazing how much that has influenced how I look and feel upon the visual world around me. I don’t really differentiate between craft and art. I can appreciate the beauty of a well considered and thoughtfully designed annual report as much as I can appreciate the beauty of the strokes in Monet’s water lilies. What is the link that ties both things together for me then? The important criteria is that they make me feel something, before I delve into whether that annual report is actually clearly defining that year’s stats to the shareholders, or Monet’s tenants on Impressionism, I want to be moved by them before I wish to explore them more.

Which (long-windedly!) brings me back to the album ‘Whatever You Love, You Are’. The cover’s Van Gogh-like use of thick paintstrokes and gobs of colours instantly draws me into further examination of the albums contents. A listen to it makes it obvious this is a beautiful album that has been well served by a beautiful cover. The painting effectively highlights the emotional expressiveness of tracks like ‘I Offered It Up To The Stars And Night Skies’ but is still naive and rough enough around the edges to properly serve a track like ‘I Really Should’ve Gone Out Last Night’. The layered paint strokes are an indication of the added layers of orchestration that have been incorporated with Warren Ellis’ violin, but you’re still reminded that this is no grandiose symphony performance, by the subtle placement of the band’s name in the bottom right hand corner. The cover and the music are a perfect amalgamation of craftsmanship and art – both can be appreciated for the skill involved in producing them and the means in which they can move you, that rare accomplishment, an album cover that gives you the feel of the music before a note is played.

Filed under: Albums Covers

Do Australian CD Covers Suck?

Does the design of Australian CD covers suck, or perhaps to put it a better way, does the design of Australian CD covers pale in comparison to work being produced overseas? The latest edition of Australian Creative, in one of their usual indepth critiques says ‘yes it does’. The statement arises in their examination of that old chestnut, ‘does the increase in consumers downloading music online mean the death of printed cover art?’ I’ll cover my opinions on that matter in another article – but is Australia really producing substandard CD covers? Well, the obvious answer to that is of course that 90% of everything that is designed is substandard or at the very least generic. That applies to what is being produced overseas as well, so is Australia really the poor cousin in comparison when it comes to album art?

The article makes it sound like great CD artwork flows like milk and honey in the US and Europe, a fantastic nirvana where designer’s call the shots, producing cutting edge work for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Radiohead. Funny then, that’s not the impression that I get when I see the racks of blandness while walking into a Sanity record store.

The fact of the matter is that The USA & Europe are producing as much crap CD covers, if not more-so, as we are in Australia. Certainly, the likes of Stefan Sagmeister, Designers Republic & Kim Hiorthoy are producing brilliant cutting edge covers, none of it is finding it’s way onto the latest Britney or 50 Cent release you’ll notic though. While Sagmeister and The Designers Republic have designed covers for big acts like The Rolling Stones and Madonna, they are hardly the most creative examples of their work, could you name off the top of your head what album they did? Their best work has always been for independent record labels, even Peter Saville and Vaughan Oliver’s covers for New Order and The Pixies were done under the patronage of independent labels.

It all comes down to economy of scale. Europe and the USA obviously have larger populations, are closer to other countries and therefore have more access to diverse markets. It stands to reason then, that they have a higher number of independent records labels, putting out more product and vying for a slice of the market. Australia has a relatively small population – hence less record labels putting out less product. So it would appear that there are less well designed CD covers produced here, but in a percentage comparison, the opposite is probably the case. And what exactly does Australian creative consider as a well designed CD cover? One produced by a well known designer it seems, they don’t really set any base mark for their conclusions other that citing the obvious overseas big names, Sagmeister doesn’t produce work here so guess what, we’re crap!

If Australian Creative were seriously interested in examining whether Australian CD artwork really is inferior compared to that overseas, they probably should have looked into it with a bit more depth than just asking the nearest ‘bohemian’ behind the counter at the local record shop whether he can think of any really cool Australian CD covers.

Filed under: Albums Covers

Judging Albums By Their Cover 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fonda 500: The Autumn: Winter collection

Fonda 500’s ‘The Autumn: Winter Collection’ was really the inspiration for my ‘Judging albums by their cover’ articles. It has been a habit of mine for some time to discover new music by picking out albums that had covers that I liked, almost 90% of the time it turned out that I loved the music on the album as well. The Autumn: Winter Collection was discovered during one of my frequent rummages through the secondhand stacks at Bigstar Records. I have to admit, I’m a big fan of the ‘looks like a five year old drew the cover’ aesthetic – a style which is harder to pull off than you would probably imagine. I think I may have had in the back of my mind that this album was something that I had read a review for a couple of months earlier – originally thought the band’s name was ‘Autumn’ and the album was called ‘Winter Collection. It was only months later that I discovered ‘Fonda 500 tucked on the CD edge (what I had originally thought was the record label’s name!) I was really drawn to the simplicity of the graphics, basic black and white, handwritten text, naive imagery – it felt Autumn/Winterish, like a memory back to childhood when the seasons seemed all the more defined and more simply separated.

So how does the music relate to the cover graphics? The way I would describe the music is if a 1970’s primary school teacher, taking her classes music lesson, decides to lock her charges in the music room and tells them they have an hour to produce 12 compositions on the theme of Autumn & Winter with the instruments provided – and I mean that in a good way!

This probably falls under the genre of ‘Bedroom Pop’ usually a pejorative, Fonda 500 carry it off with a mischievous imagination. Beach Boy like harmonies, cartoon imagery, weird instruments, out-of-tune guitars, nursery rhyme like lyrics, songs about snowball fights, eating biscuits and duffel coats. The Autumn: Winter Collection validates the fact that minimal budget is no barrier to creating intriguing , lovable, melodic, confusing and frankly wonderful pop music – likewise when it comes to cover graphics.

Filed under: Albums Covers

Judging Albums By Their Covers 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Architecture In Helsinki: In Case We Die

Design & Music would seem to be a perfect match. Art and design school seem to be filled with would-be-musicians, and many a well known band has found it’s genesis in one of these institutions over the years. It comes as some what of a mystery then, why there remains so many really badly designed album covers. A lot of output from the major labels can be put down to the machinations of their marketing departments. Primarily they are releasing albums to move product, therefore they are trying to create an ‘image’ of the artist, an ‘ideal’ that their intended market (whether this be teenage girls are whatever) want to aspire to, rather than an interpretation of the specifics of the music (in a lot of cases there wouldn’t be that much to work from anyway). The independent release has a lot more freedom and hence, the results of the cover artwork should be better, unfortunately there are still a lot of roadblocks in the way to stymie this. Bands just starting out and releasing their first album are often still finding their feet as far as style and image. They are invariably short of cash and any money they do have is usually put into producing the best recording they can, using a designer for cover artwork is probably last on their list of priorities. This leaves the design of the cover up to the most ‘capable’ band member or a friend who has some artistic ability (or at least knows how to use Publisher! )

The fall-back and easiest position is to usually copy the aesthetic style of their musical idols and inspiration (as best they can) rather than establishing their own visual identity. This can work ok as long as all the members agree on this aesthetic – the worse case scenario is the ‘design by committee’. This happens when everyone from friends, family, partners, their hairdresser (she’s really artistic!) put their two cents in over the design. What results is a cover that tries to incorporate everything and please everyone, but ultimately portrays nothing other than a confusing, unappealing morass.

Sometimes bands get lucky though, and actually have a member with design talent and an individual vision – such is the case with Architecture In Helsinki’s ‘In Case We Die’. The advantages of being an independent band with their own label are self -evident on the cover. It’s doubtful that a major label would find the artwork of front-man Cameron Bird particularly marketable, even though it perfectly parallels the bands style – a handmade aesthetic. It combines childlike scribbles and free-hand fonts with a clear, colourful, hand-drawn style. The band photos on the inside cover are playfully coloured, scribbled upon and drawn around in a spontaneous, random manner, much like the band introduces unusual instrumentation and lyric structure to the songs. Architecture In Helsinki quite literally wear their independence on their sleeve.

Filed under: Albums Covers

Judging Albums By Their Cover 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jose Gonzalez: Veneer

Veneer is the debut album by Swedish singer/songwriter Jose Gonzalez, like Nick Drake before him, it is seemingly impossible to listen to his music ‘loud’. Veneer’s sparse soundscape is a showcase of Gonzalez’s hushed, double tracked vocals, haunting imagery rich lyrics and acoustic guitar virtuosity.

Just as the music is stripped back to the bare essentials of voice, guitar and occasional percussion, the cd package aesthetics are similarly kept to a minimum, giving you a good idea of what to expect when you listen to the album. A single colour on a beige uncoated paper stock throughout, is punctuated within by ethereal, whimsical illustrations, the cover in particular brings to mind an almost ‘folk art’ interpretation of the topographic like line work on the cover of Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ album. I particularly like the bizarre horse/accordion?/fetus illustration on the inside of the CD tray, tucked behind a solid black disk, almost as an after thought, an endearing discovery when you lift the cd out.

This is great music to work/create to, or simply drift off to sleep at night to. It’s difficult to craft an album of just voice and guitar and keep it fresh and interesting, as it is to craft a cd package with similar restrictions. An involving combination of soft music and soft design.

Filed under: Albums Covers

Judging Albums By Their Cover 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wilco: A Ghost is Born

I was first brought to the attention of Wilco by their collaboration with Billy Bragg on the Woody Guthrie tribute/interpretation album ‘Mermaid Avenue’. I bought their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on the strength of that, it was quite a departure – the first demonstration that Wilco’s music would be a difficult and involving journey.

Wilco make albums, not collections of individual songs. The music requires patience to get into and an album needs to be listened to right through to be fully appreciated. The album ‘A Ghost is Born’ demonstrates once again that persistence rewards the listener of their music. ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ has an interesting history. Deemed unreleasable by their label, Wilco bought the album off of them, and sold it to a smaller label (ironically, a subsidiary of that larger one, in effect they bought it twice). Wilco’s instincts were correct, it was a hit for them, the notoriety allowing them to release an even more uncompromising album in ‘A Ghost is Born’. Songs vary in length from a couple of minutes to over 15 minutes, it hardly matters though, the songs drift into one another, so by the end it feels complete.

This aesthetic carries over into the CD design itself. Never before have I come across a cd package that was so integral to the experience of the album. The first layer on the case is a plastic wrapper that has the title ‘Wilco A Ghost is Born’. peel off the wrapper and you are left with an image of a white egg on a white background, beautifully captured in all of it’s minimalist intensity. On the backside of the CD, the egg develops a crack. Pull out the sleeve, the egg has hatched and you see the two halves. The Disk itself has a yellow ring at the centre (the yolk), the disk lies on a picture of a bed of straw on the inside of the case itself. The effect is ‘the ghost is born’, and gains life when the CD is played.

A beautiful, intelligent and engaging piece of design and a real listening experience.

Filed under: Albums Covers