Tuesday 27 December 2011

Coldplay - Paradise


The cover art is an interesting one, as on a first look it looks like your average run of the mill abstract art but what makes it more appealing is the artists (whose name I can't find anywhere on the internet) use of subliminal messaging and its links with the Mylo Xyloto theme and the abstractness of the name of the album itself.

Overall the cover is quite a simple one, it is an abstract piece that enmeshes different shades of blue with randomly placed bold brush strokes of black, white, magenta, pink, yellow and green (Colors which were put to good use in the 'Every Teardrop is a Waterfall' video). In the bottom right corner the word art appears written in light blue color against a backdrop of whiteness. If one looks closely one can see a barely visible phrase written in a light graphite grey
 The message reads Glowing in the Dark.


The name of the artist and the song is written in translucent soap bubble like fonts (similar to the albums cover), which apparently is the unicycle riding elephant's hand(paw?)writing as its seen on the placards he hold while busking in the video, with a similarly styled butterfly fluttering just above the text. Below the text a crayon art of another butterfly and an Archimedean spiral is portrayed, both are a recurring theme in not only this song and its video but in concerts, wardrobes and official webpage.


 
Official Webpage


On Guy Berryman's sleeve
 My initial opinion, when I started writing this review, of the cover was a negative one, based on the creative streak that the video carried I was thinking that the cover might have been much more than what it is, but as I got deeper into writing it and researching for it I realized that this cover makes an important piece of a jigsaw puzzle built around the theme used  by Coldplay to promote this album. In conclusion, the cover art is a brilliant one in my opinion although it might not be initially patronizing but, like a Van Gogh art piece, it grows on one as one studies it.

Sunday 25 December 2011

Little Mix - Cannonball

Little Mix made history on 11th December, by being the first group to win The X Factor in its eight years run. Their debut single, Cannonball is a cover of Irish singer, Damien Rice's song.

The cover is predominantly black & white with bits of it in colors. The group is present on the cover in walking posture. The band's name is on top in different colors. "The X Factor Winner" logo is present in a slight tilt, giving it an appearance of a seal (emblem). The title of the song is at the bottom, in black.



The girls are mostly in black and white, except some of their clothing and accessories are in colors. The band name "Little Mix" also has a pencil-sketch shadow. This is giving the cover a nice little touch, as if the girls are coming out of monochrome into the spotlight and yet-to-show their full colors (read "potential"). Which is true in their case, since they have only been covering others' songs and we have yet to hear their original stuff.

On the downside, there are couple of things I disliked about the cover. First, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock (girls on the right) are both sporting half-shaven hairstyle, which we have already seen on Cassie and Rihanna, and more recently on Willow Smith and Cher Lloyd (another X Factor participant). I am not personally against the hairstyle, although I do find it a little risky. But my main complain is, why two of them?
Secondly, Jesy's outfit is poor. It simply makes her look chubby. Skin-tight leggings for her is a bad idea.

Despite its small shortcomings, I like the cover for its classy appearance and light shades of colors (easy on the eyes). And the girls showing off lovely genuine smiles. Overall, a decent cover.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

The cover is a simple front-facing photo of Lana standing behind an off-white background. Her name is written to the left of the photo in semi classical fonts. The names of the two tracks which make the EP are written in ordinary fonts.



What catches the attention immediately are her artificially pouty 'fake' lips, (which are creating quite a buzz in the indie music blogosphere), the floral head wreath and the cross necklace. All of this goes well with her soulful so called 'gangsta nancy sinatra'-esque voice and her enticing 1950's looks, which she has been wearing in her introductory makeover ever since she has donned the spotlight. One thing that deserves a mention here is the artist's fascination with  flowers. In her fledgling career, flowers have been a part of her outfit on many different promotional photographs, videos, concerts and promotional events.





To conclude it all, the cover bodes well as her portrait of flame haired, wide eyed, pucker lipped and floral encrusted dame, altogether, fits with her deep voice and her overall public persona of a post-war era cinematic beauty.