In my opinion, an album's cover creates a mood stronger than that of the actual music...

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Call me stupid if you wish, but I honestly believe an album's cover has more to do with the feel and atmosphere than the actual recordings do. For instance -- all of Fugazi's early music sounds pretty similar, but if I hear a song from 13 songs I automatically think "red" (the cover), and I associate all of the songs from Repeater with a white/blue feel.

In fact, I think almost all songs have a certain "color" that they evoke, but that's a separate topic.

― Michael Copeland, Monday, 3 January 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

Paratext!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

You're right. Cover art, and maybe just colour, is a crucial binding agent in albumism.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

Absolutely. I remember having a conversation with my friend about 15 years ago about how we thought certain pieces of music had certain colours. It was only a number of years later that it dawned on me that they were all just largely the colour of the sleeve.

― KeithW (kmw), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

Joy Division is another great example.

'Unknown Pleasures' is locked into that image for me.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

This is exactly why downloading music is so bad for the industry. All these errant teenagers will own and listen to whole albums without ever knowing what the record cover looks like!

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

This should be a S/D thread though.

S: Jane's Addiction: Nothing's Shocking

[Speaking of Jane's] Which mood is invoked when an album has two (or more) covers. (See also Split Enz wrt same cover, different colors.)

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

I realised this had a big effect on me when I was younger and
I had ten albums or so (mainly Beatles) which was all I listened to for a couple of years. While I was listening I would tend to have
the sleeve in front of me, and turn it over and over looking at it,
perhaps looking for some clue to the meaning of the music.
I suppose I took it that the cover, the colours, photography,
were part of the musical message.
Now I see the cover only when removing or replacing the cd, but I suspect the subconcious affect is still there.

― Bumfluff, Monday, 3 January 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

'subconscious effect' if you please

― Bumfluff, Monday, 3 January 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

I was trying to say this on the iPod thread but thought I might get beats for championing the artwork over the music, which isn't true. Music is like food. It tastes better if it looks good.
Listening to music on MP3 is like eating in the dark.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

ive been meaning to start this thread -- the stone roses album sounds grey and indistinct to me, because of the cover. then of course there's loveless, where the music might have actually created the cover. dark sideof the moon is another example off the top of my head -- the album sounds mostly dark with stabs of multi-colored light. now everything sounds like the white/blue itunes color scheme! argh!!!

― jake b. (cerybut), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

'Affect' was nice, in this case.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Records that immediately spring to mind for me are:

Bark Psychosis: Hex
Jesus and Mary Chain: Darklands
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock

The Second Coming sleeve looks does it more than the first Roses album I think.

― KeithW (kmw), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

the beatles - white album
perhaps the most apt album cover ever? the fact that the four Beatles were working very seperately at the time and creating a whole kaleidoscope of different styles on one massive album. And of course when you mix all the colours of the rainbow together, what do you get? (No, not shitty brown you rogues!)

The Gorky's Zygotic Mynci albums always remind me of different seasons or months in the year and I've come to realise it's because of the colours of their albums more than anything else.

As for Boards of Canada, who have always put a great emphasis on colour in both their music and general asthetic, genuinely shocked me when they released Geogaddi with a *gasp* RED COVER!! And while there is only a minor technical difference between this and "Music Has The Right To Children", there is a distinct mood swing between the two albums. "MHTRTC" is cool, sunny, childlike whereas Geogaddi is claustrophobic, hot and threatening.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:25 (twenty years ago)

Associates - Fourth Drawer Down and Sulk: The former as blue as that pool Mackenzie and Rankine are bathing in, the latter almost kaleidoscopically lush.

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

Mortiis, anyone?

― maria b (maria b), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

compare three mile pilot's chief assassin to the sinister's two separate artwork designs (one on headhunter, the other later re-released on DGC). i always thought the different covers definitely conveyed different moods.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000000SWT/ref=dp_product-image-only_0/104-5175842-4112702?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=5174

http://www.venus.dti.ne.jp/~lard/kaigif01/01011902.gif

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Listening to music on MP3 is like eating in the dark.

Sure, except that when I turn out the lights my burger doesn't suddenly gain listening fatigue-causing high end distortion and lose clarity.

― martin m. (mushrush), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 01:05 (twenty years ago)

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