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.