Analysing Album Covers

Why: I have analysed other album covers to show what sort of style i could incorporate in my own and see what proffesional looking artwork looks like.

This is single artwork for ‘You Me At Six’s’ ‘Stay With Me’ single.
The artwork for the single all looks illustrated, it features a lot of pastel colours. The single also features an acoustic version of the song, which may be why there is a strong sense of pastel and softness to it; which is in contrast to the bands usual sound, which is pop-punk. The main focal point on the album cover is a cherry blossom tree, the song stay with me is basically about a relationship, possibly about loosing it for the wrong reasons and wanting it back, but having conflicting feelings about it. The cherry blossom tree symbolizes such things as hope, love and life, it also has connotations of power, from tradition in China it is said to show the power of female control and dominance, mostly feminine beauty. Clearly this ties in with what the song is about. In relation to the artwork the colours seem very feminine, and calm which again reflects the song and what it may be about.

This is the single artwork for ‘The Kook’s’ ‘Shine On’ single.
The album artwork is all in black and white and features a woman; however the photo of the woman is pieced together with other photos, mainly of the band. From looking up the meaning of the song, it is apparently about a man who is worried about his girlfriend, as she takes the influence of beauty from fashion magazines, yet he wants her to realise how naturally beautiful she really is.
The use of repeated images in this artwork link to the song meaning and even the lyrics at some points e.g. ‘safety pins holding up the things that make you mine.’
The woman on the cover may symbolize the images the mans girlfriend see’s in the magazine yet the photos that make the girl up are her true qualities and his true opinion of her.
 
This is the album artwork for ‘Bon Iver’s’ ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ album.
By looking at the style of writing in comparison to the title of the album it almost looks like handwriting that would appear in a letter of some sort. With background reading the title of the album basically expresses a the loss of a first love that you never get over, the artist said that there was nobody called ‘Emma’ the name just summed up those emotions. The whole album was recorded using minimalist technology, in a log cabin in freezing winter where the artist spent a few weeks after breaking up with his previous band, being completely alone he wrote this album. From knowing this it may be possible to assume that the photo is of a window, maybe even from the inside of the log cabin, as we can see tall trees and condensation/ice on the window. The whole making of the album was completely natural and that is what the artwork promotes, everything about it is in tune with the artist himself and it simply promotes how he truly felt and the emotion he felt through his life etc.

This is the album artwork for ‘Bloc Party’s album ‘Intimacy’
The artwork is very simple, it is an extreme close up of two people kissing. This clearly states the title of the album. The contrast to this artwork also, is that you almost feel like you are not supposed to be a part of what you are seeing, like it is ‘too’ intimate and private. Yet it could also be interpreted in the way that the band are inviting you into their music and sound, of course it could also represent the songs and nature of the album, it’s secondary genre almost.
How this will help me with my studies: This will help because it has taught me that i have to show artwork that will represent the artist and that will show me how to make a good looking album cover.