Gorillaz ‘Plastic Beach’

In this album cover, several objects stand out; the island, the lighthouse, the trees. Most notably is the enormous elevated island, the ‘Plastic Beach’ itself, the buildings on which rise above everything else in the picture. The name of the album, and also one of its key songs, is immediately referred to on the cover of the album through the defining image of the island.

The text fits very well with the nautical theme of the album. It appears to be gently rippling, like waves in the sea. The colour scheme is also quite tranquil, with attractive blues and subtle greens, which suits the night time setting.

Muse ‘Uprising’

This is a particularly surreal album cover from a band known for its powerful and expressive songs. The song in question resembles a radio broadcast to the oppressed people, telling them to rise up against their oppressors. The image on the cover represents this perfectly. The teddy bears emerging from the ground like some sort of bizarre army is suitably surreal, and fits the context of the song very well.

The text on this cover is nothing worth mentioning. I find that this is intentional, as the emphasis is placed on the striking image instead. The colour scheme is quite dark and moody, with mostly green, brown and grey, which helps to create an ominous, somewhat sinister atmosphere about the image.

Jamiroquai‘A Funk Odyssey’

The first thing that hits me when looking at this album cover is the surreal, almost psychedelic vibes it gives off. This is obviously intentional, given the title and theme of the album; an ‘odyssey’ into the band’s defining genre of funk. The band uses the genre to represent leisure and relaxation through a groovy style of music that can still be danced to.The image of the person leaping into the foreground is another defining part of this cover. He seems to almost be suspended in that place, immersed in the vibrant colours.

The colour scheme fits very well with the theme of the album. Bright, almost neon colours, coupled with the surreal imagery, give it a sense of being ‘out of this world’. This particular album is often seen to be the band’s most vibrant and psychedelic, so this design fits it very neatly.

Hans Zimmer‘Sherlock Holmes Soundtrack’

The colour scheme is fairly subtle, with somewhat sombre colours. The background appears to be clouded, as if the people in it are obscured by something, giving this a further sense of mystery. This relates well to the movie itself, as it is a detective-thriller with a suitably mysterious story.

The characters in the foreground are quite prominent. They stand out more than anything else featured on the cover. Holmes is also standing in front of Watson, implying that he is the stronger or more significant of the two; he is the titular character, after all. The characters in the background, while still relevant to the story, are less important, and are placed distantly behind Holmes and Watson for this reason.

Jim’s Big Ego ‘Free’

This is an unusual and fairly simplistic cover. The image in the foreground looks completely out-of-place; a sofa in a grassy field. The sofa itself has three seats, which may be alluding to the band being made up of three members. The sofa also looks very scruffy and tattered with its cushions in disarray. This may be referring to the band’s somewhat disorganised and experimental style of music.

As with the image, the text on this cover is simple and somewhat minimalist. The font is white, almost clear, and seems to be faded. The colour scheme is bright, but still easy on the eyes, with an attractive green on the grass and a fairly pleasant beige-brown pattern on the sofa. The language used is also quite fitting, as it is simple yet meaningful.

Magazine Advert Analysis

The iconic image of the metal headdress in the centre of the shot stands out from the rest of the image. This seems to refer to the album being a ‘greatest hits’ album; while the band continues to make music, this particular album will always remain their greatest.

The colour scheme is quite natural, with the rocky beach in the background and the sea in the distance; a soft blend of brown, beige and white. This pleasant natural image is disrupted only by the foreign presence of the aforementioned headdress, which is attractive in its own right.

The text is subtle, but not difficult to see. The band name is written in its iconic font, as seen in every album by the band. The track list is written in a soft, appealing white font which is easy to read and suits the sandy background quite nicely.

Jamiroquai‘High Times’

The image of the artist herself is the focus point of this magazine advert. There are no other images in the advert, so this dominant image really manages to stand out and draw attention to itself.

I find the choice of colours for this advert to be very fitting. The artist in question is known for her fiery hair and quirky style. Her name literally means ‘red-haired one’ in French. The advert’s colour scheme does well to accentuate this attribute of the band that is seen as such a defining point.

The text is suitable for the advert as well. It seems rather smooth and stylish. It’s evenly spaced and softly coloured, which lends itself to making the advert pleasing to look at. The font is also consistent in both the artist and album’s name on the left and the comments on the right. To me, this advert almost appears to resemble a theatrical release poster.

La Roux‘La Roux’