Album cover Analysis

ALTERNATIVE ROCK ALBUM COVERS

To the left shows the latest album from The Script, I have chosen to analyse this band cover as the band fall into the same genre as All Time Low.
The album shows all three band members, however Danny- the lead singer, is shown to be a larger image and essentially "makes up" the other photos this use of hierarchy highlights his importance to the band, how he is the main focus.
The use of colour is very limited and is main black and white, sepia colours. This creates a very simple minimalistic appeal to the album cover, this simplistic element highlights the alternative element of the band. Alternative albums are usually either very simple or steer the other way and are very creative and concept based almost like a piece of artwork.

 

  I chose to analyse You Me At Six as this band is almost a brother band to All Time Low they share very similar themes, values and share the same music genre also.
The album cover to the right is very similar to that of The Script, this cover is the 2011 album from You Me At Six

This album cover is much like The Script's in terms of colour and minimalistic.

However this album cover is very different to the usual covers from You Me At Six

 

 

Above show two of You Me At Six's albums, "take off your clothes" 2008, and "hold me down" 2010. These albums are very different from the Sinners Never Sleep, they are a lot more creative and colourful, they are focused highly around graphic design and creating an art piece which will stand out from the other albums. I really like this style of album cover, while the minimalistic theme looks very professional if executed well, the concept graphic design based covers are really appeal and I believe would work well with my chosen song as it highlights the colourful childish settings of neverland creating good synergy between the music video and album.

HOLD ME DOWN

The use of images overlaied creates a very engaging album cover, it gives the same effect as a music video in the sense that the more you look at it the more you see. Each photo/image in the "explosion" has a relevance to the album name/band; the image of wings and rockets (far left and right) link to the idea of being untaimed and not able to be held down contrasting the album name, however the fact that the phrase states "hold me down" suggests the idea of being unable to hold yourself down just like the uncontrolable elements of the wings and rockets.

The arrows on the bottom of the album form several lines of arrows all of which lead to the album name, this helps to focus the attention of the viewer onto the artists name, which has also been places in the centre of the albums and is on of the first things you can see. the use of a very simple background where the text is helps this as it is clearer and easier to see and read the text.

There is also the figure of a man in the centre of the album, at first it is not clear but after looking closely he becomes apparent, this could suggest the element of hiding or invisability this links to the idea of uncontrolable and mystery. The mysterious appeal also gives the artist a lot of power, while he is mainly covered could suggest weakness, hiding and vulnerability, it could show how he is in control of the situation, an army marine isn't weak and powerless just because he is unseen, often quite the opposite.