Colors in Album Covers
"Color can convey a mood, describe reality, or codify information. Words like "gloomy", "drab" and "glittering" each bring to mind a general climate of colors, a palette of relationships." (Lupton/Phillips 81)
Just as these words can be used to describe art, they similarly can be used to describe music as well. With this framework in mind, I wanted to showcase some of my favorite album covers. These album covers, to me, perfectly convey how the musician is feeling and the viewer is able to get an accurate sense of what the musical content will be just by looking at the cover. The artist's usage of color, images, arrangement, and placement in the album artwork all helps in providing a wholistic image of themselves and their message. All the album covers I'm using heavily utilize color combinations to create sharp focus. Moreover, they utilize the interaction of color idea that is talked about on pages 87 and 88.
The multitude of colors here feels like a visual acid trip. The sonic sensations elicited by this album take you on an auditory acid trip.
Warm, familiar, serene, and peaceful are some of the feelings these colors evoke. Similarly, this song brings forth the very same emotions.
The royal deep reds juxtaposed with the skin tones and cold blues presented on the bodies evoke feelings of helplessness. This feeling of helplessness rings true throughout the narrative of this album.
The sand here is warm. It feels like you are in an hourglass watching the sand pour in. Much like the title of the album, the music and artwork feel like a slow rush.
Vibrant oranges, deep blues, fluorescent greens, all striating into the abyss perfectly go hand-in-hand with how this album makes you feel while listening to it. It feels like a transcendent journey into the unknown.
The multitude of colors here feels like a visual acid trip. The sonic sensations elicited by this album take you on an auditory acid trip. Warm, familiar, serene, and peaceful are some of the feelings these colors evoke. Similarly, this song brings forth the very same emotions.The royal deep reds juxtaposed with the skin tones and cold blues presented on the bodies evoke feelings of helplessness. This feeling of helplessness rings true throughout the narrative of this album. The sand here is warm. It feels like you are in an hourglass watching the sand pour in. Much like the title of the album, the music and artwork feel like a slow rush.All images courtesy of apple music.
I love how you connected the art of color conveyed through the album covers and with the feeling of the music. That's such an excellent connection between the use of color and the emotions represented by it visually and musically. Loving your blog and your brain!! I'd love to meet you on campus to talk about these albums!
ReplyDeleteThe bright colors in the JMSN album really feel like they're transporting you to a vibrant, alternate reality. You picked out some really cool album covers!! I don't really spend a lot of time looking at album covers so I'm glad you pointed this out.
ReplyDeleteThis weeks reading really opened my eyes to the impact of color, and your post just opened my eyes to the impact of color on album covers and how they correlate to the narrative of the music in the albums. Im stoked to think about this as I look at the covers for all my music. I'm gonna check out a the songs you listed as well, thank you for sharing these songs and insight, its a real game changer on how I listen to music!
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