Read “The Importance of Album Art” and “The Shins Heartworm Cover Inspiration” in Lesson Three folder. One gives you more to consider when analyzing album art, and one is an example of what an analysis might look like.
please read question title carefully and there is 3 attachment and follow the instruction from the guideline
The Importance of Album Artwork
Considering the relationship between art and music in a digital age
· By Deep Shaw
As the laws of physics suggest, you’ll see things before you hear them. That’s no different when it comes to listening to an album or song, as more often than not, before you press play, the first thing that will catch your attention, is the accompanying cover art. In this article, I’ll explore the relationship between music and artwork, detailing its importance in heightening the listener’s experience, but also, how artwork has changed and will continue to change in the digital age.
Relationship Between Artwork and Music
Whilst it may appear that an album is centred around the music alone, the artwork adorning its sleeve is essentially the equivalent to a book’s front cover. As a result, artwork and music go hand in hand. Our very own
Hannah Thacker
has already
highlighted
how music videos are an integral part of the music industry, and the same goes for the artwork of your favourite album, EP or song. The artwork serves as a portal into what the listener can expect from an album, and even what kind of musician lies behind the creativity. Strong album covers make a statement, because after all, this imagery is an opportunity to make the right first impression.
Take the George Condo painted artwork for Kanye West’s magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which depicts the rapper, nude, straddled by an also naked winged creature. In an interview with
The New Yorker
, the artist claimed that the cover was in fact designed to create controversy and that West wanted “something that will be banned”. That’s exactly what happened, because the album’s striking cover was banned in the US. Despite its outlandish look, there’s more to the artwork that meets the eye. The lurid scene (coupled with the album’s title) toys with the concept of fame – a recurring theme on the album in which West explores its darker side.
Furthermore, the use of a single colour, can be enough to trigger a certain feeling or emotion. Nowadays, with such leaps in technology record manufacturers are able to produce a kaleidoscope of vinyls of all colours and patterns. Thus, the physical vinyl itself, becomes part of the artwork and in turn, part of the collective musical experience. London’s
Ben Khan
, whose 1992 and 1000 EPs were released on limited edition emerald and purple vinyls respectively, mirror the vibrant atmospherics of his music. Likewise, the cover arts for both EPs incorporate an intricate floral pattern to accentuate the subtle complexities in his soundscapes.
Evolution of Artwork
Before the Internet, music could only be purchased on a physical format, and therefore, packaging and the presentation of an album was paramount in ensuring its commercial success. Artists had a 12 by 12 inch cardboard canvas or a 4 by 4 inch plastic jewel case to embellish albums with artwork that would entice listeners to pull off a shelf to admire and ultimately buy. Nowadays, album and single covers appear as tiny squares on our music libraries and streaming sites. Yet, despite this miniaturisation, these visual aids still hold a relevance.
Electro-indie-pop outfit
Lewis Del Mar
(made up of Max Harwood and Danny Miller) who created quite a buzz with debut single “Loud(y)” last year, have embodied this approach. For each of the four tracks that make up their incredible self-titled EP, the duo painted red and gold stripes over scenic photographs that they took in Nicaragua and Panama, where Harwood’s parents live. At first glance, this doesn’t appear to have much meaning. It’s only when you press play, that the imagery falls into line, which seems like a wholly different approach to the physical format days where the album cover was much less likely to be obscure. In such a short space of time, the duo manage to pack in an amalgamation of genres; stirring together hard-hitting hip-hop and electronica with bursts of alternative-rock influenced guitars and drums. When taking this into consideration, the notion of mixing paint and photography reflects the duo’s ability to mix these different musical art forms. Lewis Del Mar even
hand-painted the vinyls
for their EP, with the same red and gold striped motif, to continue this idea of experimenting with different mediums of art.
Moreover, on his 2014 album Xen,
Arca
explored sexuality through visceral, otherworldly soundscapes. In order to bring his vision to life, the Venezuelan producer teamed up with long-time collaborator and designer Jesse Kanda to produce evocative
posters, videos and artwork
, with an aim for everyone to feel “simultaneously attracted…and repulsed”. The fluidity and sensuality of the women depicted in these pieces juxtapose the clattery, fragmented production, but together, they form an odd, but seamlessly symmetrical aesthetic. The same goes for R&B songstress
FKA twigs
’ magnificent LP1
artwork
(also designed by Jesse Kanda). Its stark, contrasting colours echo a sense of empowerment yet also a certain vulnerability – both of which are highlighted in Twigs’ exploration of love, sex and femininity.
Do We Still Need Album Art?
As I have suggested, music is not just an auditory experience. It’s a multi-sensory affair which triggers all kinds of feelings and emotions. When listening to music, we want to feel a certain way, to be transported to an entirely different place, and an album’s sleeve, can help to do that.
Take
Leo Kalyan
for instance, whose music and artwork gel wonderfully together. The London based singer and producer creates lush soundscapes, brimming with waves of electronics and synths to serve as the perfect backdrop for his velvety falsetto-laden vocals. Self-described as “oceanic beats” on his SoundCloud, the artist’s accompanying artwork, hand-made by Kalyan himself, follows a consistent collage motif in which the singer juxtaposes warming reds, yellows and oranges with cool blues, greens and greys. Looking at the single cover for latest track “
Daydream
”, which merges a bright blue and grey sky with molten patterns and sketches of birds (which relates to the birdsong that can be heard throughout the track) in order to truly bring lines like “In my daydream I’m as free as bird… where the ocean and horizon are blurred” to life.
The sensation of touch is also something that enhances the listening experience. Despite the recent surge in music streaming sites, vinyl sales have continued to rise over the past five years or so, which has given artists the freedom to work on a larger canvas. Regardless, there’s something special and deeply personal about placing a 12” onto a turntable and listening to an album whilst having the sleeve at hand.
On most deluxe releases, artists tend to include accompanying artwork, photographs, lyrics booklets, all of which are designed for interaction. An example from last year would be SOPHIE (one half of
QT
) who released PRODUCT, his mini LP, in a number of interesting ways. To mirror the rubbery and synthetic textures of his candied electronic glitches and twitches, the producer decided to use
silicon
, instead of the traditional jewel case, to package the discs. This also brings us to one of the most under-discussed aspects of vinyl covers’ aesthetic appeal and that’s the texture. Some sleeves are made with a glossy exterior, while others opt for a rougher, parchment style. Recently, the biggest trend in terms of the feel of a sleeve has been for cut-outs, as seen on Jamie xx’s In Colour with an off-kilter rectangle, David Bowie’s Black Star with a large cut-out star and
The Lumineers
’ Cleopatra, which uses the
cut-out technique
to remove the armour from their female cover character. That last example in which the outline of the woman’s face and arm, and the band’s name, are cut out accentuates how the album, is centered around this one character.
Even though album artwork is now (mostly) reduced to a tiny tile on our screens, it’s still such an important aspect of the creative process of creating a world for a particular album. So, in order to answer the question of whether we still need album art, I’ll leave you with a thought: imagine what it would be like, if all of the CD’s, Vinyls, digital albums you own, didn’t have any artwork on them.
The Shins
‘ ‘Heartworms’ Cover Inspiration: Japanese Yokai Art From a Cartoon Network Whiz
3/20/2017 by
Zack Ruskin
Marisa Kula Mercer
James Mercer of The Shins
Singer James Mercer & album designer Jacob Escobedo go behind-the-scenes on the creation of the striking artwork.
The Shins have long used kaleidoscopic illustrations for their album covers — artistic embellishments of nature that exist somewhere between the everyday and the fantasies of Dr. Seuss. Their debut release, 2001’s Oh, Inverted World, depicted the simplistic blooms of a plant, while its follow-up, 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow, was a brightly colored paper-cut landscape. For 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, The Shins frontman James Mercer turned to his own brother Robert, who delivered a surreal archipelago of islands — a piece of a map to a place that does not exist.
For The Shins’ last two albums, Mercer has enlisted the services of designer Jacob Escobedo, perhaps best known as the VP of design/creative for Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. “Working with Jacob is just the easiest thing in the world,” Mercer enthuses. “It’s always very rewarding. You just feel like he’s got your back.”
The artwork for Heartworms — the Shins’ fifth album, released March 10 — marks the indie group’s most striking imaging yet: a surreal design born of the LP’s thematic contrast. “After hearing the album, I had this vision of worms overtaking a lush garden, pouring out of a dead heart,” says Escobedo.
The Shins, Heartworms
Before achieving the final product, Mercer sent Escobedo photos of algae formations on glass as inspiration. The artist says he “couldn’t quite make it work,” but eventually Escobedo offered a design inspired by 19th-century Japanese yokai art, which depicts “evil spirits and monsters.” The style has been a long-time obsession for Escobedo, who also is influenced by Penguin Books sci-fi covers and French surrealist Yves Tanguy.
The cover speaks to Heartworms’ duality, where darker songs that dabble in the psychedelic pair with the softer, folk-inspired sound that first brought The Shins to prominence. For Mercer, the results were beyond satisfactory.
“There’s beauty in it — I’m thinking of the look of those flowers, and the colors that are so gorgeous — and then there’s this specter of a human skull and the grotesque image of the heartworms coming out of him,” he says. “There’s heartbreak on this record, real heartbreak, and there’s uplifting moments. So yeah, he really nailed it.”
Essay #2: Analysis of an Album Cover
Rough Draft Due:
Final Draft Due:
Description:
Album covers are a chance for artists to set the stage for their music, to convey a key to understanding the tone and meaning of their thesis and songs. As Michael Renaud, the creative director for Pitchfork, said, “The album cover remains a powerful factor in how we make sense of a record—whether it’s presented via gatefold vinyl or shrunk all the way down to fit on your smartphone screen.”
The ability to critically read and interpret visual images, both their overt and subtle messages, enables us to draw meaning from them in ways not necessarily obvious to the passive observer. In this essay, you will analyze an album cover to gain a better understanding of the artist’s musical intentions and the ways it might carry cultural meaning under its surface. You’ll be analyzing your album cover by breaking it down into components, looking for relationships between those components (color, text, pictures, etc.) understanding how each component contributes to the obvious and subtle messages of the album and drawing conclusions about their significance.
Guidelines:
Pick an album cover that has a complexity that would work for an in depth analysis. Some covers may be too simplistic or straightforward to require much interpretation. The album cover may include a visual image combined with written text.
Writing Issues:
· Analyzing visual images and written text. Relate the album cover to the songs on the album.
· Considering both the explicit and implied meanings and messages of the album cover and how they are communicated.
· Include any information from the artist, or other credible sources about the album cover.
· Analyze how the cover prepares the audience for the music. Think about who its target audience is and what it’s saying about the musical genre.
· Describing the album so that your readers can see what you see.
· Figuring out a structure for your paper that will enable you to talk about all of these component parts.
Writer’s Voice:
It is an academic paper, so use a formal voice as you would for most of the other papers you write in school. Avoid using “you”. Write in the third person whenever possible.
Length:
Approximately 3 pages, or 1,000 words, double spaced. 12pt font, Times New Roman. MLA formatted. Cite at least one outside source.
Running Head: ALBUM 1
ALBUM 3
Name:
Professor:
Course:
Date:
Pink Floyd was in a band of students when in polytechnic. The type of music is the dark side of the moon with an iconic album. A lot of intrigues were created when this album landed in 1973. The designer is George Hardie, who presented the prism into the design and other ideas. It influences its audience through features like water, light, and darkness.
This album illustrates the side of the moon that cannot be viewed from earth. It is a triangle in shape with a prism and a spectrum of light. The artist of this album is Aubrey Powell and Thorgerson, who were from the art design group. The aspiration is a photograph of a prism colored beam that was found in a book with photographs.
The album cover message is a philosophical and physical idea that contributes to insanity and ultimately unfulfilled life. It illustrates the living of life not fulfilled. The dark color symbolizes insanity, and the light depicted by the moon is an illusion.
The album cover is a collection of songs that shows the pressures musicians face in life. It includes other topics of wealth, madness, and armed conflict.
It was for a general audience and those that perceive life to be difficult for them. The audience responded positively, and there were so many reviews as it was praised for decades. However, it has been hailed by critiques from fans and other musicians. This album is very influential, and every generation has identified it with new appreciation from the aging population each year.
It is clear that the album uses features like light, darkness, and water to bring out its meaning. Through these symbols, the appropriate reflection of musicians that feel their lives unfulfilled is represented. However, it has not provided a way for how this problem can be solved.
Reference
Retrieved from