“NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA” BY JENS LEKMAN

This album cover depicts the

artist, Jens Lekman, having his hair cut

by hands that appear to be coming out

of clouds. This is a reference to the

opening lines of the track Shirrin;

“When Shirrin cuts my hair it’s like a

love affair.” Quite simply this album

cover represents Jens Lekman’s love of

telling stories in his songs. If you look

closely at his shoulders it would appear

that the picture of him has been printed

in black and white and then been

painted with watercolours to give it a

calm and faded colour scheme. I don’t

think there is very much to say about

this front cover other than what is

obvious about it – it looks nice and is

abstract enough to let you know that

you are probably going to be in for a

slightly unconventional listening

experience, without being too eccentric.

“IN RAINBOWS” BY RADIOHEAD

This album cover is an explosive

display of colours (quite literally you are

in a rainbow) and sets the mood

perfectly for an equally colourful and

varied listening experience. I think the

reason why the artwork works so well is

because you could not describe the

music visually in any other way - the

powerful reds represent the hyperactive

mania of the song Bodysnatchers, or

the passion of All I Need, while the

blues and oranges evoke the peaceful

mental image of “Ripples on a blank

shore,” mentioned in the song

Reckoner, and the lighter blues remind

me of the sparseness of 15 Step. Overall

I would put this up there as without a

doubt one of the best album covers of

all time.

“MOVEMENT” BY NEW ORDER

This album cover was created by

graphic designer Peter Saville, and is

not only bold and iconic, but I think it

perfectly describes the music. Inspired

by a piece of artwork by futurist

Fortunato Depero, the album cover

displays a sense of sophistication in its

slick design. To fit the cold and

industrial sound of the album, the band

decided on this fairly minimalist front

cover, which only contains the band’s

name, the year of the album’s

release, the name of the album, and the

record label, Factory, and the number 50

(Factory Records issued each of their

products with a catalogue number)

against a cold blue backdrop. The

apparent simplicity and emptiness of

the artwork suits the sparse production

of the album.

“SMILE” BY THE BEACH BOYS

Everything about the album Smile is

happy, and this album artwork, drawn

with childlike naivety, represents the

innocent and purely joyous music the

album contains. The album cover has

been made to look like a warm and

welcoming shop front, and the two

cartoon characters (as well as the fairly

over the top amount of smiling mouths

contained in the image) do everything

they can to offer a warm welcome into

the album. The album cover makes

reference to stereotypical American

ideals (the idea of a happy couple

offering a smile to passers by) and the

way the cover is drawn is obviously

meant to look like a child’s drawing.

American life and Childhood (more

specifically a child’s relationship with

their parents) are two of the

predominant themes in the music.