I will judge an album by the cover.
 

In the "Last album you bought or downloaded" thread I was intrigued to see a reply that someone "liked the look of that" when a cover was posted. The cover art was attractive so by definition the music should be as well.

Wow I thought. This was not an approach that I had ever taken. Album art has always held a certain attraction but after the fact. Example. I heard Beirut's The Flying Cup Club after being given an mp3 file. I was so impressed with the music that I bought the CD and was equally impressed with the art. The art summed up the music.
http://frogrunge.podbean.com/wp-cont...ingClubCup.jpg

I have a great love of trawling music blogs of all genres. It dawned on me that a lot of the time I was reading an entry based on the album art alone but I was not necessarily listening to the music when presented.

So this revue thread will be different. When I find album art on a blog that I like I will also get the album and see if the music is as good, if it maybe defines the music or is just a great album cover with not so good music.

This is all subjective of course. Examples of really good art are manifold but like music are in the ears/eyes of the beholder. But it seems like a good idea and if I only get a few revues in before I get bored nothing is lost other than my already small credibility.

I hope someone enjoys this.

Wow, that is a great idea! I'm really looking forward to reading the reviews.

This thread will be a beaut :)

^ lmao!

Something particularly entertaining about my post?

I dig this idea. As an old guy, I used to discover music by flipping through the CD racks at the record store. Sometimes a name would catch my attention, sometimes the artwork. Doesn't mean I would pick it up automatically if I liked the cover. Sometimes it depended on the record label, possibly giving me a clue as to what it might sound like, or a promo sticker telling me if I like those bands I may like this, whatever. Point is, being attracted to a cover makes me curious about the music. Unless I recognize the name and know they suck.

Carry on, looking forward to it.

I used do the exact same thing. I can actually think of a couple bands I'm into that I initially checked out because of the name or album cover.

In my role as a sixties obscurity DJ, I often base my purchases on if the band had good hair and good dress sense on their album covers, it works out at about a 92.45% success rate so far.

To be serious though, the album cover is vital in my purchase decision making, I love shopping blind and finding gems that I never even knew existed. Really in many cases all I have to go off is the album cover and the record label, so I think this thread is going to be a great read.

In my 14 year old Metal phase I was guilty of this a lot but I haven't gone on album cover alone when buying music at least.

I never buy stuff on the cover alone. But sometimes a nice cover will inspire me to read up on a band and then ultimately wind up buying the album.

Sometimes even if I'm interested in a band and like their music, I won't buy it if the artwork is exceptionally ****ty. Unless they're one of my favorite bands, of course.

Interesting concept this. I can't say I've ever bought/downloaded an album on merit of the artwork alone, but nevertheless I look forward to reviews of your discoveries!

http://static.boomkat.com/images/147216/333.jpg

Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto 2008

Tracklist
01 Organs Lost At Sea 4:42
02 Soft Fuse 6:52
03 White Spray 5:08
04 Waves Sheer Light 5:23
05 Commentary 4:30
06 Allay 5:21
07 Figure's Lone Static 7:26
08 Oamura 3:49

No doubt some will look at this cover and wonder the attraction. The black text is superfluous and maybe some will see "just" a picture of the sea and the sky but I found it haunting. Maybe because I was born by the sea but have never really lived by the sea.

The sea I was born by was grey and blended into the sky. North Atlantic.
The sea I now live near is bright and blue and constant. South Pacific.

For arts and music's sake I think I prefer that grey sea against that grey sky. It is more thoughtful, more morose and gloomy. Will anyone understand this? If one is living by a grey and dank sea the bright and blue sea is always more appealing. But just maybe the constant bright sun on the constant bright blue ocean under the constant bright blue sky can lose it's appeal to those that constantly live with it.

Lawrence English is a composer living in Brisbane, Australia, my city of residence. Why had I not heard of him before? I have always tried to keep a track of the more underground members of the local scene. A man living in the sun with a less than sunny album cover. I should not be surprised. Brisbane artistes have always kicked out against their circumstances be that political, cultural or environmental.

As to the music, I was presented with what went ideally with the cover. Soundscapes that portrayed dark (shades of grey?) environments. The vast majority of the music is formless and to me comes back to a stripped back sound that is part Tangerine Dream and part Brian Eno's dark and industrial ambient minimalism. I had initially placed the music onto my walkman and in the dark walked and let the sonic sounds take me away. I walked by the river and over the bridge and by the lakes around the nearby University. I could imagine the album cover. It was perfect. 999% of this world would not have get one iota of understanding that enjoyment but that did, nor does it, matter. Unlike some ambient style music that becomes just part of the background this seemingly fills the mental silences and adds to the visual. Stand under that bridge and watch the river meander below as the night lights brighten and let sonic sounds take over.

http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/bccwr...ell_bridge.jpg


On return I found that I had to read further. I found that Kiri No Oto translates from the Japanese as "Sound of fog" It seemed rather apt. Even now as I play this record I look out the window and the non stop sunny sky is constant as usual but the formless sounds of this dark but beautiful album seem to be ideal to escape the pounding sun.

So who will not like this album? Many. The young Rocker will not understand it nor want to, the old Classicist will find it formless and accuse it of being a sham and those in between will never even want to go there.

Who will like it. The lovers of form without shape. Those that can walk in the dark and imagine grey seas blending into grey skies. The dreamers among us.

Judging this album by the cover can be considered a success on a personal level. This could be an interesting exercise.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...pL._SL600_.jpg

Form And Fate - The Form And Fate Of Lakes. 2007

01 Emotions vs Deceptions
02 Norwegian Black Metal Sword Fight To Death
03 The Ballad Of Austin Post
04 Intermission
05 It Will Come To Us
06 The Form And Fate Of Lakes Part I
07 The Form And Fate Of Lakes Part II
08 You Should Be Stopping

I once had the pleasure of seeing a glacier in New Zealand. We flew a light aircraft through Milford Sound and had the glacier pointed out to us by the pilot. Though it seemed small it was a magical experience to see and I will take that flight to the grave. So when trawling blog world I found this album cover and was impressed. Now that is a glacier. The one I was so transfixed by in NZ was a wee baby in comparison.
Where is that glacier that Form And Fate have used for their album art? I have searched via google and am unable to find an image. It would be an experience to go there.
And Form and Fate!? An interesting name for a band and considering the title of the album, The Form And Fate Of Lakes, the glacier seems appropriate.

So on to the music. How does it stack up? Not too bad. It is instrumental post rock and well played, (name a post rock album that is not well played), better with a bit of volume, (name a post rock album that is not ditto), and better through the headphones, (name a post rock album that is not ditto).

I like the track The Ballad Of Austin Post. Gently played with a clean sound that is given some grunt with the occasional feedback. It Will Come to us has some nice guitar leading the melody and a bit of drone in the background occasionally. Throughout the album the bass is generally subdued with the percussion to the foreground. The rhythm section is subtle in general though. Mix and match!? The guitars are, well....... typical post rock. Crafty, jangley and precise.

Lets be honest. Post Rock is the new Jazz. The players are always fantastic, especially live. People like me love the stuff. Maserati are the soup, Mogwai are the main course, Battles are the desert and Form And Fate, or who ever takes your fancy, is the after dinner mint. But the public at large? Nah! It is not easy on the ear. No vocals and no discernible melody. The heroes of the past sang about women and drink and drink and women and Satan and women and drink and drink and women while the Guitarists played 20 minute solos and exposed the hose pipe via the too right Levis. So that means that the likes of Post Rock wank bands with wank names like Form And Fate are going to be but footnotes in the history of local music, in this case San Francisco, while the members become accountants and dentists and later in life meet for dinners and reminisce about how they don't make music like they used to and how present day pop is so poor and it was not like that back in blah blah blah.

Good album, glad to have played it 4 or 5 times, will probably not play it again for many a long year and in all honesty l would prefer to see the glacier. (Where ever it is)

Lawrence English album sounds stellar. Do you have a link?

I do. On its way!

I grew up by a grey and dank sea myself, I totally get what you're saying. :)

Grew review, it sounds like an album I'd really enjoy.

PM on the way.

S'funny I could really explain that feeling about the seas that I have lived by and that I have visited if I wanted to write an essay or something but I don't really feel the need. I like what I have now but I also like what I had back then. It is all kinda right.
Some how Lawrence English's Kiri No Oto, on a personal level, allows my senses to enjoy the "grey and dank sea" as opposed to enjoying the almost permanent light that I live in now. No doubt if most read all this they would be contemptuous but what the hell:)!

Strange album:confused:. It has just seems to have hit a mental spot I guess.

It's gonna be funny :laughing:

To be fair I did recently download this album because of the cover (it is also a post metal supergroup of sorts-but it was sadly lacking):

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4...koceanwse6.jpg

I find that a lot of times a whale or dolphin on the cover doesn't bode well for an album. Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die is the only exception to this that I can think of.

i agree. i find the overly saturated colours the main offender in the above.

In janszoons avatar? I know exactly what you mean :laughing:

I find the above album cover quite nice.

And I think Mastodon's Leviathan is a good album with a whale.

Shit, I forgot about that one. That's a great album.

oh LEE :p:

Drei Gesellen by Liederjan. Release (Help)


Hows this for a cover!?


Some of you can laugh all you like but I like it. I am a bit of a lover of history and this kinda stuff gets me thinking. It is medieval for a start and with a saint, a musician playing 2 flutes and another musician playing a lute, it has an attraction that portrays, to me at least, the minstrel, the pious troubadour, that story teller who came to the village and entertained the peasants with tales/songs of warrior kings and damsels and castles in Bavaria. Of course one look at the cover text made me realise that it was German. Interesting. Could this be baroque and if so in the manner of Micheal Nyman's fabulous soundtrack to The Draughtsmen's Contract?

Well no! In fact I got a rather strange surprise in that on first listen I got what I would consider a folk album of songs, that if sung in English could have been any number of British/Irish folk groups. After a 2nd listen I had to go back to the blog that I found this on a read up on what was said. And a very interesting read it was. To quote the blog
Younger musicians flocked to Classical, Jazz and later Folk. We all of course know the impact of "Kraut Rock"

To quote the blog further Now that chicken drinking song with the oom pah band this ain't. In fact, as the blog says, it is "international" in style and I suspect that if this was sung in English it may have had a following among the bearded pint drinkers of real ale but it is not. It is beautifully played, in fact some tracks are live and we are treated to a tight folk group with deep male harmonies and even a capella's. I have genuinely enjoyed the album on my now total of 4 listens and have even read up on German folk on wiki.

BUT, and it is a huuuuuge but, I have not a bloody clue what they are singing about and the truth of the matter is that when it comes to folk tales of "Protest songs of oppressed farmers and labourers" you gotta know what the heck they are protesting about.

So great cover for me but not the style for the music though. Be that as it may I am a happier man for the experience of having my knowledge of German Folk music enhanced via this crazy idea of judging an album by it's cover.

Hows this for a cover =]


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6151UeRTj0L.jpg

Not my type of thing cory. Kinda thing that may have appealed to me when I was 15 and that was a looooooooog tiiiiiiiiiiiiime ago.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/new...07_200x200.jpg


how bout this one?

Good review there 4ZZZ... Sounds like an interesting one, wouldn't mind a link to this blog to say the least ;)

Keep up the good work :)

Interesting.

But I think that you are missing the point. I am looking to find my own covers via my travels through blog world. As I see the cover if I am attracted to it for some reason I will maybe write a review based on a couple of listens blind, if that makes sense, and then I will read up after those listens to find out more info on the artist. In a way it forces me to listen to the music with just the cover in mind and with no preconceived ideas as to what the music is about. Why don;t you give it a go. You may discover things that you had never thought about before, e.g German Folk :beer:

If the album was in English I would have definitely checked it out as I like Folk especially trad. Folk but the lyrics are intrinsic to the music and I wouldn't be able to fully immerse myself in it.

Coming your way old mate.

Yes I understand that totally. As I suggested in the review it leaves a hole in the ultimate enjoyment of it sadly. The interesting thing is that Zarko can put me onto an album like Truart where there are found sounds and sample of various individuals singing in a LOTE and it works. Then there are songs like e.g Michelle by The Beatles and one has no issue with it being sung in a LOTE but an entire album of German Folk?!? Really happy to have had the experience but will probably not go back there again.

Yes, it definitely is an oddity in regards to languages other than English. Sometimes I actually prefer not having the lyrics in English because then you don't get sucked into that whole world of trying to rate something based on what they say. With some of my journal entries, I have preferred another language simply because with folk it sometimes forces you to look deeper into the thing. And most of the time, English lyrics are pointless and for the sake of it (Unless its something like Hurricane - Dylan) rather than being an important and intricate part of the song.

I have quite a few albums where English is not the lanuguage but when it comes to Folk then the whole essence of Folk is storytelling. Whether that is factual or fireside myths being described and it is one of the few times that an element would hamper my enjoyment of music,.

My god that cover is atrocious. :yikes:

Never a Classicist hey?!:p:.