One of our favorite bands here at Basis Design is The Decemberists. We love the music, we love the folklore, and we love the language. Incidentally, we also love the art. Specifically, the cover art:
This is gorgeous, first of all. But it’s also married very closely to the themes of the album, as well as the setting and language used within it. The Hazards of Love is a concept album concerning the lovelorn fates of a maiden, a shape shifter, a forest fairy queen, and an evil rake. It takes place in the taiga, old and cold forest far north. The starkness of the color, the simplicity of the black night and the grey trees, conveys both beauty and menace on the cover of the album. I love it. The density of the “trees” is a mirror of the density of the songs, the repeated and overlapping musical themes, and the often challenging old-english style wordplay. A success.
This cover fits into the stark and foreboding mood of one of their E.P.’s, The Tain.
Another concept album folktale, another stark and lovely design.
The second (of three) categories for Decemberists album covers is olde-timey-ish folk art send-ups. Yeah, that’s right. Check out Picaresque, Her Majesty the Decemberists, The Crane Wife, and Castaway’s and Cutouts:
All the covers are a reflection of the band’s self-conscious literary flavor. While the music is generally contemporary and folk-rock oriented, the lyrics, the stories, and the stage banter is straight from an earlier century. I like the feel of these “jokes on us” covers, because they work as excellent (and funny) art just as well as tongue-in-cheek self identification from the band.
Then there is a third category, only broached by their most recent album. Not coincidentally, this new album is fresh and new for the band; it’s more country than anything else, and about as happy sounding as a jaybird. The title, The King is Dead, might just refer to their medieval and pre-modern preoccupations. Or it might be a play on The Smiths’ masterpiece, The Queen is Dead. Who knows? We’ll see where they go next.
