Album covers that perfectly encapsulate the music and those that don't

I just got into 2010's-present indie rock, and have been really into Deerhunter and Beach House in particular. But after listening to Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest, I couldn't help but think that the cover art doesn't match the tone of the album. I actually love the cover art itself independent of the music (and I remember seeing it over the years even though I never officially heard the music), and I believe it's dark, gloomy, and haunting yet hopeful imagery matches up perfectly with some of the songs on the album, especially Earthquake, Helicopter, and He Would Have Laughed. But it just doesn't fit with the rest of the songs on the album IMO. Most of the other songs are a little too bright and upbeat from a sonic standpoint (not sure about the lyrics though, I need to do a deeper dive with those) to match such a dark album cover.

On the other hand, the album cover for Beach House's 7 matches up perfectly with its music. It's a dark and immersive album, and incredibly cohesive with this tone. The black/white/grey color scheme of the album cover combined with the collaged woman perfectly encapsulates this tone, as well as some of the lyrical content.

We can take this outside the context of indie rock too. Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly has an excellent album cover. It's a straight punch to the gut with powerful imagery, thematically dense, and obviously touches on race and politics (and depicts real-life people/places).....just like the lyrical content of the album. At the same time, its color scheme is very dark and depressing, just like the production throughout the album (the live jazz instrumentation in particular is very gloomy).

Similarly, Kanye West hits the nail on the head with just about every album cover he does. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy not only depicts his fantasy (and some of the album's lyrical content) in a literal sense, it also looks like a painting that you would find in a museum. In other words, it is very "artsy," which coincides perfectly with the maximalist production throughout the album.

I found this topic pretty interesting because I oftentimes will give an album a listen based on its cover art (i.e. judging a book by its cover). So in that regard, the cover for Halcyon Digest certainly did its job in capturing my attention, and I love the actual songs on the album. But it just kinda bothers me how the album cover doesn't really fit the tone of the album. Anyways, what are some other similar examples, and do they affect your perception of the actual music?

Submitted October 24, 2019 at 04:54AM by VandelayLLC1993 https://ift.tt/2ocCaHs