Digipaks By Evan Banks 13J

George Ezra is an indie artist, which is represented well in the front cover of his album ‘Wanted on Voyage’. This is because the album cover is unlike any generic album cover of other artist; this is shown by the fact that it is not only George Ezra in the cover picture as he is surrounded by many other people whom have no connection with the music. The picture is taken from Ezra’s hit single ‘Budapest’ which is about how he would be willing to give up anything for a certain girl in his life, even things he doesn’t actually have; this is portrayed by the picture as there are many different types of people with many different objects that don’t actually belong to George Ezra. The back cover of the album is very minimal, this may be considered as a feature of an indie artist; this is because an indie artist tends to go against the conformities made by other artists. For example, other artists may have a back cover which has a lot of information about the album and the artist themselves, and may even include other information about each song; this is the opposite of what George Ezra has done with the back cover of his album ‘Wanted on Voyage’. ‘Wanted on Voyage’ – George Ezra

‘Ghost Stories’ - Coldplay This album front cover is very simplistic and doesn’t include a lot for the audience to look at. This a common occurrence in albums of Coldplay’s music genre, which is alternative. The angels wings shown on the cover also link to the name of the album, ‘Ghost Stories’, as some people believe that when people die, they turn into angels. This adds a sense of happiness that may contrast with the name of the album, as when it is first seen it may be considered to be quite a bleak album. The back cover of the album carries the same house style as the front, displaying a scenic view with the sky with stars and sea in shot. This view is significant to the name of some of the songs included on the album; for example the songs ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ and ‘Oceans’ both link to the view that is displayed on the album cover.

‘AM’ – Arctic Monkeys This album cover from the Arctic Monkeys album ‘AM’ does not fit the requirements of a conventional album cover. This is because the cover doesn’t display the name of the album anywhere on it; this is because Arctic Monkeys are considered to be in the ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ genre and a typical characteristic of these genre’s is to not to conform to requirements set by conventional album covers. The album is also named ‘AM’ which is an acronym of the name of the band, ‘Arctic Monkeys’, this ties in with non-conventional album cover as a sign that the band are self-assured that everybody knows who they are, meaning that they do not need to promote themselves as much as other bands on the front cover of their album.

‘Hozier’ – Hozier This album cover is a very surreal and artistic cover; this is because it displays a painted picture of a man stood in a room, with many sections of the picture replaced with things that shouldn’t be there. For example, the man’s face has been removed and replaced with another painted picture of a coastal view, along with his left shoulder which has also been replaced by another painted picture. The album cover does display the name of the album in the bottom left corner; which is also the same as the name of the artist, ‘Hozier’. This suggests that the artist knows that he is not very well known so needs to promote his music and his name.

‘Bad Blood’ - Bastille This cover for ‘Bastille’s album, ‘Bad Blood’, shows the lead singer of the band running down the middle of a road lit up by a car’s headlights. Despite being an ‘indie’ band, this album cover does meet the requirements of a conventional album cover; this is because it displays both the band’s name and the name of the album using the same house style that is used throughout the band’s branding. This consistent house style of font and using a triangle to replace the letter ‘A’ will make people recognise the name when seen in different places. The back cover of ‘Bastille’s album also carries on the house style from the front cover with the use of the same font. The back cover also shows the opposite angle of the road from the front cover, this is because it displays the car with the headlights driving towards the man running away in the front cover. The song list shown on the back cover of this album displays the lengths of each song in minutes and seconds, this is not common in many album’s and displays the band’s ‘indie’ reputation.