Sqwink Album Art Blog

Arcade Fire released their first self-titled EP (Arcade Fire EP) back in 2003 (Image 1). Since then, Arcade Fire have become a very successful band indeed, propelled by their first studio album Funeral (Image 2) in early 2005. Now, in 2007, they are set to release Neon Bible, an 11-track album which, judging by first single ‘Intervention‘, should only strengthen the support for this unique indie band.

The Review of Neon Bible Album Art:

Since Arcade Fires’ ‘Neon Bible’ CD won’t actually been released until March, I can only review the circulated image of the cover. The first thing that I noticed is that there is no text - No ‘Arcade Fire’ or ‘Neon Bible’ displayed at all on the album art. But as stated, the album hasn’t been released yet, so It’s entirely possible that the band name and title is to printed onto a transparent sticker, which is stuck onto a clear jewel case (CD casing or tray case) for the retail stores (Many CD releases have used this method, look at the self-titled ‘Supergrass Album‘ from 1999, for example). My first impressions of the CD Art was a bit of a mixed bag. I was at first rather impressed with the evident glowing Neon Bible imagery, but then totally uninspired by the unappealing white border imposed by the designer - I’ll get to that soon.

There are many other bands who have decided to have album art that is subjective to interpretation, illustrations to be mused over and photography that is so distressed you can’t make head nor tale of it. Neon Bible is not one of these designs:

The ‘meaning’ of the album art is self-evident. The album is named ‘Neon Bible’…and guess what? The album sleeve displays photographic imagery of a neon Bible - although there IS added significance to this imagery. Arcade Fires’ Neon Bible website “neonbible.com” displays a repetitive animation of the pages of the Neon Bible lighting-up in subsequent motion. The actual album sleeve simply displays 3 frames of this animation at the base, centre and top of the CD Cover, which represents the animation in motion.
This in itself is visually pleasing; the actual conceptual base of the album sleeve is relatively sound. Yet it’s not the concept of any given art which is the sole reason for good design, rather the delivery of a concept. Sadly, the delivery of the ‘Neon Bible’ notion has been recklessly misguided by those terrible-looking, unsightly white lines. These lines adhere to some sort of framed-pattern, but do nothing for the concept of the art and nothing right for aesthetics! The lines also appear crudely ‘drawn’, with no anti-aliasing applied to them (I’m not suggesting that anti-aliasing is mandatory, but in this case, it would be suitable).

Conclusion:

So, what do these lines mean? Are they there to annoy the viewer or is there a hidden meaning here? They do nothing but detract from the conceptual base of the whole cover art - the three frames of animation of the Neon Bible. In conclusion, I’m perplexed at my own opinions on the cover. This is an Album sleeve that is a juxtaposition of cleverly implemented conceptual imagery and crude line-art. Although, when I ask myself what shines through the most - it’s the Design Concept. The concept being a clear representation of the name of the album…Neon Bible. I’ve said this in another album review of mine, but I’ll say it again anyway because it holds true: cover art is exactly that - ART. Art is subjective and open to interpretation, conjecture and opinion. To put my final opinion into one final sentence looks like this: Good concept, poor delivery.

On a final note, images 1& 2 in this article (above) show the Album Art for ‘Arcade Fire EP’ and ‘Funeral’. I quite like these album covers - and you can see the graphical progression from the earlier EP to ‘Funeral’. I’m wondering now why this progressional had moved from Illustration to controversial photographic cover art. The musical style of Arcade Fire, in my opinion, had stayed the same, so why has the album art evolved in such a way for ‘Neon Bible’?

For more information on Arcade Fire, there is a great blog on Arcade Fire at Steriogum.com for the latest news on ‘Neon Bible’ and related stories.
>>Article by Andrew Kelsall, Sqwink Design

If your design-tastes are anything like mine, you’d enjoy the delights of an album cover that is tantalizing, provocative or at least visually-stimulating. At first glance, the Album Cover Art for Yours Truly, Angry Mob ticks none of the right boxes - and you can’t help feeling let down.

Image 1 shows the new Kaiser album cover in all it’s ‘Duo-Tone Glory’. My first impression of this CD Sleeve was ‘is that all they could come up with?’. Yeah, I thought there’s a sense of ‘Britishness‘ all over it, yet I felt is lacked real substance.

Being an indie-Rock band (or some may claim Post-punk revival band), the Kaiser Chiefs second high-street album should definitely be popular, but a major percentage of this derives directly from the visual representation of their music, sound or style. So naturally, I’d think that the album ‘Yours Truly, Angry Mob’ would propagate an interesting or visually -stimulating design offering. In my opinion, ‘Employment‘ (image 2) was quite an original design concept, albeit uninvolved. It helped propel the Kaisers into super-stardom, whereby the Cover Art defined the indie-rock Jounré. I didn’t think the new cover had any real concept, until recently…

Before I started writing this review, I constantly peered at the new album sleeve - looking at the typeface style, color and photography. Even though the cover is a relatively simple one, I found that there was a hidden quality within it..an almost subliminal serperiority. I found that the real ‘force’ behind this design is found in the glaring eyes of Kaiser Chiefs singer, Ricky Wilson.

This glare, or stare if you like, is what actually not only sums-up the Kaiser music-style, but the very title of the album ‘Yours Truly, Angry Mob’. It is this what holds the key to the delivery of the design styling, and as mentioned, the sense of Britishness.

In conclusion, I think there is more to this design than meets the eye. The album art looks like its taken 10 minutes to knock-up - but you don’t actually know how long the journey was to get to that point. After careful review, I think its a fair, not brilliant design, but it does capture a slice of the British music scene. If I were to give it marks out of 10? A six would do it.

>>Review by Andrew Kelsall, Sqwink