In just seven days…I can make you a great album cover!
Today is the 20th anniversary of one of the great albums of all time, a gift from Seattle called Nevermind.
The music within is timeless, but so is the cover – a striking image just as powerful today as it was in 1991. The image, like Nirvana’s lyrics, can be taken in a lot of different ways, or maybe not “taken” at all. Is it about drowning? Innocence? The self vs. the dollar? Dada? Maybe all of the above.
The enigmatic cover of one of the most moving, emotional, and riveting albums of all time. It’s a concept album – a meditation on Anne Frank, childhood, parents, war and holocaust. You’re cheating yourself if you don’t give it a listen. HIGHLY recommended.
The cover art is nearly as iconic as the album itself. Like the music within, it’s a swirling, vibrating, super-charged jolt of guitar wailing. It’s pretty great, is what I’m saying.
When Lady Gaga first burst on the scene a few years ago, I wrote her off as a passing fad. Certainly no Madonna, Cher, or Elton. Perhaps I judged an over-decorated book by its cover. Lady Gaga has become increasingly more popular and outrageous. Gaga continues to dress in the most scandalous and over the top costumes and outfits possible. Going to get coffee requires a full wardrobe department and makeup team. Behind all of the crazy outfits and makeup, Gaga has become a true champion for the under appreciated. On her latest album, Born This Way, she preaches that we were all born the way we are and that God, or ‘capital Him’, always accepts us. She has become a cultural phenomenon, and there’s certainly no denying her catchy tunes. Even the skeptics like me have started to appreciate her eclectic wardrobe. Here are a few of my favorite pieces from her collection.
Lady Gaga wore this bubble outfit during her last tour. She sported a similar look on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Gaga accepted an MTV Music Award in this red lace ensemble.
That same night Lady Gaga sat in the audience wearing this headpiece.
Gaga walked the red carpet at an event with this giant black leather bow on her head.
Armani designed this beautiful dress for Lady Gaga to wear at the 2010 Grammy Awards. This look is definitely my favorite, combining just the right amount of Gaga with Grammy.
Lady Gaga may be extremely out of the box and sometimes a little too over the top, but it doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere any time soon. While she’s here, we might as well sit back and enjoy the show!
I found myself watching a rerun of the MTV Movie Awards in an effort to lull myself to sleep last night. Instead, I was enchanted by the shows elaborate and fantastical set this year. The Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California was transformed into a magical wonderland filled with butterflies, jewels, caves, moss, etc. The creative mind behind this transformation was MTV’s production designer, Leroy Bennett. The obvious front runners in any MTV race are Twilight and Harry Potter, and the set accurately reflected the themes of these movies. The set would have fit in perfectly in any werewolf, vampire, or wizard world. Eerie trees and billowing fog created a beautiful and picturesque backdrop for the evening’s events.
Here are a few shots of Bennett’s work.
Here 35 year old Reese Witherspoon accepts the MTV Generation Award for her body of work.
This is the most recent album from one of my favorite bands, Cheap Girls. I saw them open for Against Me! in Hunstville, Alabama in January, and it was rather extraordinary. Check out the art work:
I love the faded photograph within the faded photograph, and I love the title even more. The music? Greater still. Check them out:
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.
On November 11, 2010, In Music, By Wes
You may have heard Mr. West on the news recently. His latest meltdown/outburst occurred on the Today Show and on his own Twitter feed. His new, highly anticipated album is coming out November 22nd. Coincidence?
The name of the album and cover art on the album were controversial as well. Titled “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” this was the original cover art:
Interesting to say the least. Also, Wal Mart won’t carry it, to say even less. Here’s the new cover:
Much less interesting.
As much as his personal stuff gets in the way, he’s right about one thing: You can’t argue with the music. Here’s Runaway, a new track.
An iconic musician deserves an iconic instrument; and it doesn’t get much better than Loretta Lynn and her custom guitar, with her throughout the last several decades (apologies for the gettyimages stamp):
We see it again, worn but none the worse, on the cover of her most recent album, 2004′s excellent Van Lear Rose:
She made the album with Jack White (of the White Stripes), one of the rare performers allowed to play the guitar himself, which he did in their video for “Miss Being Mrs.,” the penultimate track on Van Lear Rose.
