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

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