Sqwink Album Art Blog

I looked on the iTunes Store today, and noticed a couple of new album covers with two distinct, poler opposite approaches to their album art.

Firstly, I saw the sleeve for I want you to know that there is always hope by I Was A Cub Scout (below), and remembered thinking how unimaginative and boring it was—yet I do like some of their creative music!

Second, I stumbled across the album artwork for The Feelings’ Join With US album, despite the fact I’m not a fan of their music (below), I was still rather impressed with their album cover (I’m not saying that I should like the music of a band to like their album art—I’m just merely pointing out the irony here, lol). There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into this artwork; it’s commendable that some bands clearly acknowledge the importance of this visual medium.

The feeling and I Was A Cub Scout are relatively new bands, and, as can be seen in the images, have vastly different aspirations when it comes to marketing their music. Well done to The Feeling, woe to the Scouts!

R.E.M’s new single, Supernatural Superserious, is taken from their 14th studio album, Accelerate—which incidentally has great album art. However, the sleeve for the first single to be plucked from the album is rather uninspiring (see below).

Firstly, I don’t know what it actually is - apart from the typography, obviously. Secondly, with the Accelerate being so good (look out for my future posts)…why is this a shambles?
To give this piece of album art 4/10 is a gift. It’s not totally rubbish, but being a sleeve for R.E.M—it could have been so much better. It may be supernatural, it may be Superserious…but it’s definitely not Sleevealicious!

I’m used to hearing a new Hot Chip track—and then at some point discovering the album artwork which represents it. These CD covers, such as Hot Chip’s The Warning, Colours and Over and Over are both bright and colorful. These covers are what I’m used to seeing—and what I imagine their work would look like in future releases.

Now, with the release of Hot Chip’s new album Made in the Dark, these connotations of what the cover-style is expected to be like are blown away (see above).

In a nutshell, I think this album artwork is both bland and dull—but still quite imaginative in a very niched-sort-of-way. Don’t get me wrong, just because Hot Chips’ previous albums have been colorful doesn’t mean they have to stick to that style forever, I just think that in this case, they should’ve done.

Overall, the real question is—Does this album art represent Hot Chip’s music and style…well yes. It may be bland and may be boring, but it is different, it is unique and is recognizable as a Hot Chip CD cover. At the end of the day, that is what sleeve’s are all about—selling the music.

So has the designer put a lot of thought into this design? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes. Was it made in the dark? Er, you tell me!