Album Artwork Analysis - Bob Dylan

On this cover, the picture on it interlinks with the name of the album. ‘Together through life’ suggests a vision through the artist’s eyes about a man and a woman battling through life’s obstacles and horrors, together. We can see this with the picture on the cover as both of them are lying in the back of a car, travelling, either, away from something, or are going specifically somewhere, or they could just be generally travelling together. Most of the songs on this album are struggling love songs and so for the artist himself, he has matched the songs to the meaning of his album, obviously the couple on the front of the album are in love or in a relationship and they are ‘travelling together through life’ which s cliché to the lyrics of some of the songs. The picture is in black and white instead of colour, the picture in colour, would bring the cover to life a bit more, but the artist has decided to go for a grainy effect on it which goes back in time for album covers, as in the past all pictures were in black and white. The artist himself has been in the music industry for a lengthy time and his music is dated back to the late 60’s, so he is incorporating old traits from his old artwork, and bringing that old blues-rock genre back into his music. The overall layout is presented to the audience as a split of half and half, the text taking up one half and the picture taking up the other half, so we are not dominated by one picture. The font that is used looks like the old motion picture text on an old-fashioned theatre screen that they had back in the American 1960s as we can see that there isn’t one set of text on the cover, there is three separate looking like its in the motion of changing, like the film has started rolling on the screen.

Album Artwork Analysis - Kings Of Leon

The album cover of come around sundown looks obviously so simple on paper, but it is clever for an album cover that relates to the band, and the music. It has a distinct image, with one picture, by an American beach, edited with a yellow and orangey contrast to create a typical Californian beach look. It being edited with the orange colour is to show the visual of this coast, which is now going into dusk/sunset, and giving it a summery, sunny feel, which, it incorporates back into the title ‘sundown’, as if to say the sundown/sunrise is coming down. This picture also gives me that family feel, as if you’ve just looked into a family scrapbook from, and this is one of the pictures that they have took, on one of those old fashioned film reel cameras. The font on this cover is snazzy and has a southern American look to it, which is ironic as the band is originally from South America, so the idea is closer to home. It has a white text with a slightly orange outline, which makes it bold and doesn’t interfere with the back picture. The picture is the main attraction and the overall appearance of this album is very appealing to the eye. It’s an interesting cover that is not too overly designed or has any real true, deep meaning or representation, which isn’t bad; it just has a creative meaning to it, which is a recurring theme in the bands previous artwork. It is a simple design that didn’t take too long to create and is beneficial to the artist.

Album Artwork Analysis - Mumford & Sons

The artist on the cover is represented as if they are ‘on display’. The bands are in a shop window and are being used as a visual for a shop which seems to have the style of ‘folk’. The artist being a folk band is a good representation to use, as they are both the same. It could be said that because they are being used as a visual in this shop window, that they are displaying themselves to the general public, getting themselves out there. Making it shown that they want to be viewed, and they want their music to be viewed as well. We can see in the picture that it fits well and that they have used contemporary folk representations, such as the instruments (the guitar, banjo and cello), clothes and stance. They almost look like a busking group with the look they have here, which is often where a lot of folk bands and groups originated from, or have done one time or another in there career. The shop being plain doesn’t distract to us to the shop and so focuses solely on the band in the window. The plain white shop itself looks quite bland to the other buildings beside them which are brighter; this represents its difference and makes the audience focus down to the shop window. The style is very neat and it is using this vintage style to try and make the cover seem old fashioned and the location contributes to it, because it has the visual as well. The font is the same to, looking old fashioned, being eloquent and articulate so much that it could be a sign on the door of this shop bringing this folk look, together. It has an overall smart look

It suits to its genre as it is especially picking out all the genre traits, and you can see that just by looking at the cover.  There could be some intertextual reference to do with the band ‘selling their image and look’ in this shop window for the audience and critics.

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