Sqwink Album Art Blog

This is going to be one of my shorter posts—well, more of a rant really. Every time I look on the front page of iTunes lately, I see a photo-shot of Adele, and now, her new album artwork for 19.

I’m not a fan of her music, but I reckon the Home Town single is quite good—however, this is about the sleeve (below).

I don’t have a problem at all with this cover, it’s just so boring and typical of British sleeves of the present. It is important for an upcoming star like Adele to have her face out there I suppose, but what I get annoyed with is the ‘if the face fits’ syndrome—where only the aesthetically pleasing photos make it onto CD artwork. There’s a lot of this going on in the music scene, just like it also has.

What’s my point you may ask? This album sleeve is just yet another (and uninspiring) example of how human aesthetics has been used to promote music. What if Adele was a faceless-trout-looking-ogre, but just as talented; you wouldn’t see a spotty, cold-sore covered face on the artwork would you? Well, not at least in this pop-culture.

As is, this very commonly-themed album art (albeit professionally-executed) is purposeful, yet unoriginal—and it’s like 19 Album Covers I’ve seen this week…there!

This is going to be one of my shorter posts—well, more of a rant really. Every time I look on the front page of iTunes lately, I see a photo-shot of Adele, and now, her new album artwork for 19.

I’m not a fan of her music, but I reckon the Home Town single is quite good—however, this is about the sleeve (below).

I don’t have a problem at all with this cover, it’s just so boring and typical of British sleeves of the present. It is important for an upcoming star like Adele to have her face out there I suppose, but what I get annoyed with is the ‘if the face fits’ syndrome—where only the aesthetically pleasing photos make it onto CD artwork. There’s a lot of this going on in the music scene, just like it also has.

What’s my point you may ask? This album sleeve is just yet another (and uninspiring) example of how human aesthetics has been used to promote music. What if Adele was a faceless-trout-looking-ogre, but just as talented; you wouldn’t see a spotty, cold-sore covered face on the artwork would you? Well, not at least in this pop-culture.

As is, this very commonly-themed album art (albeit professionally-executed) is purposeful, yet unoriginal—and it’s like 19 Album Covers I’ve seen this week…there!