Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
This Digipak Cover is appropriate to the target audience: followers of Drag or Witch-house music. It features a vintage looking photograph of a girl in a Graveyard, both the way she has been styled and the location are both typical of the genre's conventions of Gothic-inspired stylings with a post-modern twist of new-wave electronic/indie stylings.
The cover does not feature the band's name or album title, nor does it show the band themselves, leaving the cover specifically vague and ambiguous, something Crystal Castles and their respective Genre appear to strive for: a sense of mystery or anonymity (for example, the programmer and synth-player for CC, Ethan Kath, does not reveal his real name, 'Kath' being a pseudonym)
But this ambiguity in the band's image works for them, it allures audiences through their mystery and vagueness, adding to their image, or lack thereof.
Boys Noize - Oi Oi Oi
This is another vague cover not featuring the band themselves, but a scull edited to look like a disco-ball. This image is pulling inspiration from Gothic imagery (like Witch House) and also Electro or disco imagery. This works to quickly establish the band's style and self-image quickly and easily, without revealing too much of themselves, as other electronic musicians, Boys Noize as well as many others seem to strive for a mysterious nature and image.
Unlike CC, there is text on this cover however, it reveals the band's name as well as the CD title. This makes the CD possibly more engaging to a casually buyer, and easily identifiable to more die-hard fans. The font is similar to a comic-book style, possibly suggesting something youthful, exciting, and powerful, like a comic book should aim to be.
Metronomy - Nights Out
Also ambiguous in nature, with it's lack of band image or band name, Metronomy's CD cover here is different however, featuring an illustration not a photograph. It shows a male in a jumper leaning on a car with a grassy bank and a city visable in the distance behind him. Immediately, for me at least, i was reminded of typical workign class Britain, not with the styling of the figure, but the locations within the illustration: a countryside hill and a busy industrial looking down, and a sky filled with smoke and smog. The cover could be working to illustrate a political statement, possibly talked about through the music within the album. This could promote people to want to listen or even buy the album, due to it's message within.
M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming
Still no band image, but even more text on M83's newest album cover. This sleeve features two costumed people sat on a bed, with the title of the album and the band's name clearly viewable in bold white text top and bottom.
The photograph appears to have been taken in a child's bedroom, evident in the stuffed animals and toys on the shelves behind the girls. The cover could be linking to ideas within the music, like Metronomy, or a tip-of-the-hat to M83's previous album "Saturdays = Youth" which lyricaly dealed with the ideas of youth and aging and responsibilities. The album artwork here may be continuing that theme onto more in-depth trains of thought. The girls within the photo look saddened, yet tehy are dressed in costumes and surrounded by toys, is M83 sending a message here, making the audience ask themselves why they look so sad, urging them to buy the CD to find out.
The lighting of the photo is unusual, and not natural by any means. It would appear the lighting was chosen specifically to incite a certain emotion or feeling within an audience, possibly melancholia, like the girls, or maybe it is to trigger and though, such as "where have I seen colours like that before?". one may think of electronic devices and music, leading them to M83's brand of music.
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Least vague to painfully simple, LCD Soundsystem is showing himself in this image, though rotated. He is clearly defining himself , his name, and his album title, yet remaining somewhat mysterious like his fellow musicians by not revealing his entire face, looking away from the camera, instantly becoming 'mysterious' to the audience.
It is very appropriate to the target audience, as all these have been, quickly establishing what the music is about and why his own brand is unique and worth buying.
The choice of font on this is reminiscent of older generation computer branding typesets, for me, and it hints to the musical style, possibly sampling chip-tune or retro sounds from old computers or gaming systems. The colour makes the titles stand out from the grayscale image, drawing one's eye straight to it, aiding in drawing in a possibly buyer.
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