The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"

I've always thought The Shins' Wincing the Night Away album art was really cool. The color scheme is simple and the designs on it are very abstract, yet eye catching. I've been trying for so long to figure out what exactly it is on the cover, but I've prett ymuch accepted it as just an interesting design piece with a series of shapes and lines. The bottom figure has some kind of plant radiating out, with a series of tube-shaped figures coming out of the one on top. Everything appears to have been drawn in with a pen, and overall the abstract album art is eye catching, despite it's neutral color scheme.

Cris Cab's "Red Road"

Cris Cab's new album Red Road just came out pretty recently and is definitely worth posting about. The album  design here is pretty different from anything else I've posted about. It's so simple, yet still looks really cool. The background is a black and white photo of a street view, but what grabs the attention is the way the album title is written. I love that only a red transparent shape is used in the middle of the cover, with simple fonts announcing the artist and album name. Just this one shape adds so much to the art, mostly because it is the only part of the design with color. Furthermore, Cris Cab's signature scribbled across the top adds something extra makes it feel more personalized.

Beach House's "Bloom"

Beach House's album Bloom utilizes various design elements in its album cover, the most prominent of which is movement. The way the circles are arranged and sized, they appear to be radiating out from the bottom of the album cover, creating the allusion of movement. The effect is overall pleasing to the eye, and all the more prominent with the contrasting color scheme of black and white. The element of space is present in the design as well, as the rows and rows of circles appear to be stretching out towards the top edge of the album cover from a long ways back. Overall the design here looks great and the way the different design elements interact make the album art all the more unusual and interesting to look at.

Sea Wolf's "Get to the River Before It Runs too Low"

Sea Wolf's Get to the River Before It Runs too Low has utilizes the element of symmetry in it's album cover to an extent. The first thing you notice is two chairs that appear to be a reflection of each other over some invisible horizontal line. Behind the chairs is an interesting shape that looks almost like a diamond because it consists of several shapes within it. At first glance it's easy to think this is also symmetrical, however, when you look closely you realize it isn't exactly the same on both sides. The combination of symmetrical and asymmetrical elements makes for an interesting album cover.

Death Cab for Cutie's "Codes and Keys"

Death Cab for Cutie's Codes and Keys has a really unusual design for the album art. The main focus is on what looks like a key from a keyboard of the pound (#) sign. Here, however, the "key" has some kind of texture and the # is carved through. Something about the contrast between the rough texture of the key and the lack of texture/ color where the # is really appeals to me. I think it's because the lines of the # are sharp and clean, with smooth edges, and the contrast between this  and the rough texture is really interesting.

The Shins' "Port of Morrow" continued

After writing about the back of the Port of Morrow album, I felt obligated to talk about the front cover as well. The design overall is interesting, but to be honest I have no idea what's going on in it. (I think that's the point, it's supposed to be fairly abstract.) At first glance, the dark mound in the center looked somewhat like a mountain, with the grey sky and stars, but now that I look up close I see that it could be anything really. There's some interesting lines going in different directions all over the dark mound that you don't notice until you look closely. Overall I think the design is interesting and I like that it's so open to interpretation.

The Shins "Port of Morrow"

The Shins have been one of my favorite bands for awhile now. When their latest album Port of Morrow came out last year, I listened to it repeatedly. Though the art on the album cover is interesting, the back is what really caught my attention. It consists of a series of warped ovals that seem to resemble pebbles, an idea further pushed by the distressed aspect and speckles throughout the back cover. The songs are all listed, one on each pebble, which I found really interesting because most albums list the songs in the same, ordinary way. I really love the arrangement of the back and the simple color scheme. 

Foster the People's "Torches"

After mentioning it in my previous post, I felt it was necessary to give Torches a post of its own. As you can see, its a simplified version of Maroon 5's Overexposed. The characters drawn in have a similar style, but Foster the Poeple sticks to just black white and a golden yellow instead of the many hues and shades utilized in Overexposed. My favorite thing though about this album cover is the font choice and style. I love how "Foster the People" is all one word, with 'the' less bold so as to separate each word without using spaces. Something about seeing the same font used throughout one design but in varying weights has always been eye catching for me. I also love that the album title is written in a narrow typeface with a lot of space between each letter, and that the only color on this album cover comes from the drawn-in torches and the word itself. It shows another way to connect the two, and just as the complicated design of Maroon 5's Overexposed worked for that album. The simplicity of Torches design works in this one.

Maroon 5's "Overexposed"

Maroon 5's Overexposed album art reminds me of a trippy and more colorful version of Foster the People's Torches. It's basically a collage of faces, shapes, mountains, and weird drippy substances coming out of a mouth that is attached to a nose and eyes, but no face. It's a little overwhelming to see so many brightly colored objects/ people all at once on a CD cover, but for some reason I'm really into it. Maybe its the color scheme I love, which consists of varying shades of pink, purple, orange, yellow, and turquoise, or maybe its the 3d aspect of the text that caught my eye. Either way, I think this design is really interesting.

Keane's "Spiralling"

Why are all Keane's album covers so perfect. Though Spiralling isn't technically an album (it's the one track promo CD that came out before Perfect Symmetry), I couldn't not share it. As I said before, I have a thing for geometric design. However, I also really have a thing for triangles. It's such an unusual shape, and when incorporated into design the end result is almost always visually stunning. The random positioning and angles of the triangles gives the impression that they are "spiralling" out, which I can't imagine is unintentional. I love that Keane's album cover designs all metaphorically reflect the album title in some way, but this one does it best. The transparency effect in the type and in some of the triangles is a nice extra touch, and overall I really love the design used here.

Keane's "Perfect Symmetry"

I spent my whole morning working on my campaigns for P2 with my Spotify set to play anything by Keane. This was how I discovered their album Perfect Symmetry. I have a thing for geometric design, so I was immediately intrigued by this cover. I love the use of triangles and how they each show a different part of an image, almost like a puzzle. The font choice for "Keane" is perfect with the geometry of the background, and I like the the album title is smaller and simpler beneath it to balance everything out. The aptly named album title reflects the design style, further showing how every aspect, from the font to the art to the album name, all complement eachother for "perfect symmetry."

OneRepublic's "The Good Life"

OneRepublic release the single "The Good Life" ages ago, but the art that came out with the single is still noteworthy. The plain black background makes it easier to draw attention to what appears to be splatters of paint running down the middle. The bright colored cluster contrasts well with the slightly dulled down greener cluster below it. The title is off center and the color of the font is somewhere between the bright and dull paint clusters, giving the impression of a gradual change.

Coldplay's "Mylo Xyloto" Continued

To add to my last post on Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, I have attached another version of the album art to compare. The same vibrant graffitti image is used again. However, in this album it makes up the letters instead of the background. Furthermore, only two letters are used, giving it a simpler look than the design in my previous post. The foreground appears to be a metallic silver color with a paperlike texture and dark shadows where "MX" is cut out, giving the album a three-dimensional feel. I really like the look of this design, especially how the complicated graffiti art is balanced out by the simple silver  foreground of negative space. It was hard to choose but I think I like this version better than the one in my previous post because it is slightly simpler and easier to read.

Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto

Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto album has amazing art. The  background is incredibly colorful and vibrant, composed of what appears to be grafitti art. The grafitti collage makes for an interesting background full of interesting shapes and designs, as well as saturated colors. The album title is spaced over three lines in the center, and I really love the choice of font. The letters are outlined rather than filled in, allowing us to see more of the background grafitti art. The choice to use bubble letters was perfect because it allows for more of the art to be seen, and the white outline contrasts nicely with the background so the album title is readable and and works well with the background colors

Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I wrote not too long ago on one of the Modest Mouse album designs, but I am now using this post to recognize another. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank utilizes several different design elements. The background is a deep blue with distressed edges to give it an aged look, and the focus is on a parachute with an anchor attached. This image is interesting because it represents sinking and flying simultaneously, implying the struggle of being stuck in the middle of a difficult situation, something everyone can relate to. The font choice for "Modest Mouse' is more decorative, while the album title is simpler and sans serif. The two contrasting types balance each other out nicely, and further emphasizes how the album art represents the struggle between simple and complicated, sinking and swimming, new and old, etc.

Flying Lotus' "Cosmogramma"

Flying Lotus' "Cosmogramma" has a very interesting design. This one uses a vanishing point in the center of a a circle to create lines radiating out from the center of it, creating an interesting perspective. It could be interpreted as a sun almost, and the round objects off to the side give the impression that the design is a minimalist illustration of outer space. With the lack of color, the art is simple yet interesting. It has a very outer-spacey feel to it, but I think it has a unique aspect and a good end result.

Starfucker album art

I'm crazy obsessed with Starfucker's album art right here. Here's another unique perspective piece, this time a two point perspective with both vanishing points on the art. Then, each side is segmented into different shapes of all different colors. I don't think a color repeats once here, but each has similar ones used more than once. The font is also interesting and complements the rest of the art well. I like that they didn't keep it simple to contrast against the design.

Muse: The Resistance

This is definitely my favorite album art that Muse has ever done. Another interesting take on perspective as was done with the Strokes album I wrote about in my last post, except this one utilizes a different shape and appears to have a vanishing point in the middle instead of  off to the side. The colors all work well together, with the lighter/ brighter ones towards the bottom, giving the impression of a light source. Earth is at the center of the vanishing point, and there's a pathway extending from it with a silhouette of a person, but we can't tell if he's walking towards or away from Earth. Overall a really cool work of album art.

The Strokes: Angles

Another genius work of album art by the Strokes. But before I get into that, I need to talk for a few sentences about how awesome the song "Machu Picchu" is off this album. Go listen now. And you're welcome. Anyways, once again the strokes have an awesome color scheme on this album, with few colors but all contrasting well against each other. This is one of their more geometric album art pieces, each shape at a hard angle with an interesting perspective. Looking at this, I can understand how the aptly titled album complements the design of the album art.

The Strokes album art

The Strokes' self titled album has crazy awesome art. The bottom corner has a bunch of swirling lines that are all turquoise with a soft glow that contrasts against the golden yellow background. The hard lines in the middle and towards the top are straighter and break the background up into different shapes. The color scheme is perfect, I love the way the turquoise looks against the yellow. It reminds me of the famous clock in Prague, but I'm not really sure why.

Incubus: Monuments and Melodies

Not only is this one of my favorite Incubus albums, but the art on it is pretty incredible. It looks to be comprised of a bunch of curvy lines to indicate water but the way the lines are all broken up creates interesting shapes in the background. The piraña (I really hope I spelled that right) has the same, drawn-in look and as a whole looks cool against the background. I love that the colors are all kept simple in this, with just one shade of blue, and the band name in a contrasting color to make it pop.

Keane's Under the Iron Sea Album

I'm slowly starting to realize that my blog, which started out as an analysis of various pieces of geometric art, has turned into my take on different album art. This next post furthers the my affirmation. Anways, here is the album art for Keane's Under the Iron Sea, which I'm really in love with. The colors all work well together, and are most likely the reason I love the art so much because it showcases turquoise, which happens to be my favorite color. The sea creature vectors are comprised of some interesting shapes and have an interesting look when put with the water shapes. I'm also really obsessed with the font used here. Simple, but with an creatve touch on some of the letters (slash one letter, the curve on the A) to keep it interesting

Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs

Death Cab for Cutie's album art for Narrow Stairs is an interesting piece of geometric art. Unlike most album covers I have seen with geometric design, this one sticks strickly to one shape. Narrow Stairs is made up of many rectangles of all sizes, colors, and textures. What I find so interesting is it starts out on the left side with mostly cool colors, but pops of red and warmer colors make an appearance as you get closer to the right. I love the combination, and you can see the album art below. The album itself isn't too bad either.

Modest Mouse Album art

I've always really loved Modest Mouse, but I think they're album design is really cool as well. Good News For People Who Love Bad News has a simple design, turning a plain green wall into a "dart board." However, the darts all have a feather-like quality, though they clearly puncture the wall. There is also a small shadow between some of the feather darts that is shaped like a bird in flight. What I really like though is the line detail where the dart and wall meet. This adds something to the art and something about all the lines being parallel to eachother gives the design a more complete look. This is an example of simple album designs that can get away with being too simple.

Muse's "The 2nd Law"

Muse's album art for "The 2nd Law" caught my eye when the album was first released. Just from the name, I pictured something sciencey, and Muse managed to incorporate that aspect beautifully into the art for this album. The main focus appears (to me) to look somewhat like a brain, though it's a brain I've never seen anything like. There's a hairlike texture to it and the neon color scheme contrasts nicely with the solid dark background. Even the album title has the 'sciencey' aspect, looking somewhat like the signs an eye doctor has you read off of. I can't imagine this being an easy album cover to design, but it ended up looking awesome.

Guster's "On the Ocean"

I have so many good things to say about this album cover it's unreal. I love it. Everything about the art ties in perfectly with the album title. The color scheme is restricted to shades of blue with some black here and there, making watercolered-looking lines to reflect an ocean, and the cover appears to have a texture as well. My favorite part is how the lyrics are on the cover and how the arrangement of the words goes with the current, making every letter a different shape and size. I also love how the focus is always drawn back to the center, where there is a sailboat that has the album name and artist. I can easily say this is one of my favorite album cover designs.

Brad Paisley's "Wheelhouse"

In my first blog post I briefly touched on my obsession with the country music genre, despite its general lack of creativity when it comes to album art. However, my favorite country artist Brad Paisley showed the world  it's possible to deviate from the typical  album cover when he released the album art for his new album "Wheelhouse." The sunset contrasts perfectly with the ocean, and the arrangement of all Brad's guitars and band equipment is really amazing, giving a unique perspective. Best of all, Brad is diving right into the center of it all, hinting that "Wheelhouse" (which won't be released until April 9) will bring even more of Brad's incredible guitar solos in the songs on this album. As if I wasn't excited enough for "Wheelhouse" to be released, seeing the album cover is getting me thinking that April 9 can't get here fast enough.

Young the Giant's "Young the Giant"

Young the Giant's self-titled album was released in 2010 and has some really interesting geometric design aspects to it. The focus is on a series of triangles that form pyramid shapes while its surrounded by circular shapes that convey flatness. Though the album art utilizes both 3D and 2D elements, the combination works really well. The shapes all have an interesting texture and design to them, often overlapping to create new shapes altogether. Another really interesting thing about the album art is the color scheme. Overall, the cover art is composed of various shades of greens and blues, though there is the occasional pop of yellows and reds that all look really great together. The music on the album isn't too bad either, by the way.

Jason Mraz's "Beautiful Mess: Live on Earth"

Jason Mraz always has, and always will be, one of my favorite musicians. I'm a proud owner of every album he has released, and after seeing him in concert, can attest to what a great performer he is when singing live. This is one of the reasons I was so drawn to his live album "Beautiful Mess : Live on Earth," but another reason is how incredible the art is. It's an interesting take on his album "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." except all the simplicity of that album cover is gone. This one takes on an almost "Dr. Suess-y" style, with colorful and random objects spilling out of his head. The background, which was white before, now has a watercolor feel, and the entire album appears to be completely drawn by hand. To me, the added color and depth is a reflection of the experience you get when seeing Jason Mraz's concert. It's an accurate depiction; Jason Mraz's concert was like nothing I've ever seen before.

Guster's "Easy • Wonderful"

I've always really loved Guster's music. I used to listen to 'One Man Wrecking Machine' on repeat when the song first came out, and it's still one of my favorites. Apart from their great music, Guster also has a notable cover for their latest album, "Easy • Wonderful." First off, the color scheme is bright and vibrant, which I love. The focus is on the color wheel in the middle, but what I really love about this cover is how it looks like it was drawn and watercolored. The color smudges on the neutral background add something interesting to the design, and I love that the colorful border looks like it could've been done with colored pencils. I feel like this makes it a lot more interesting than just computerizing it for sharper edges and straighter lines. It gives it a sort of vulnerability, which I can also feel when I listen to the songs on the album. I love how well the album art reflects the songs on that album.

Quantic's "The Best of Quantic"

Quantic's album release of The Best of Quantic showcases some seriously incredible album art. The colors are strictly red, orangey-yellow, and turquoise, with a cream colored background and blacked text/outlines. The shapes created in the cover vary from triangles to circles to random shapes, but the layout is random and works well. some shapes have a rough texture on top that looks a lot like crayons and contrasts in an interesting way with the smooth surfaces of the shapes. I'm not even exaggerating when I sat I can't stop looking at the art, I'm blown away by how cool it looks.

Cris Cab's "Foreword"

My fascination with album covers started a few years ago. I'm not exactly the most organized person in the world, but I am all but OCD when it comes to my itunes music library. Everytime I download a song I have to edit the info to make sure not one piece of information is missing, from the album art to the song's release date. I'm also a music junkie and add new songs all the time, so I see quite a bit of album art. Back in the day I used to listen strictly to country music, where album covers typically consist of a photo of the artist and not much else. However, when my music taste began to evolve, I took note that many artists outside the country genre have more of a design aspect to their album art. 

I discovered Cris Cab's music about a year ago (if you have never heard of him, you need to youtube his cover of "Pumped Up Kicks" like, yesterday). He has an album called Foreword with a cover that caught my eye. It's another geometric design piece with a single triangle that appears to have many more broken up shapes within it. The colors appear to be yellow, magenta, and cyan, but all with some level of transparency to create different shades where they overlap. It reminds me of looking inside a kaleidoscope, which I think is why I like it so much.