Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

This is an analysis of the new 'Arctic Monkeys' album Favourite Worst Nightmare


Images: The cover is really captivating. It contrasts the dull and grim terraced houses of Sheffield with interesting, colourful and mad artwork. The plain grays and blacks of the building and sky offer a stark contrast to the vibrant, bright, multi-coloured animations stuck inside the house.


The actually album itself is more exciting than a regular plastic CD case. It is a fold-out cover with many compartments to hold a lyrics list as well as photographs of the band.


The inside sleeve offers a more detailed version of the cover imagery - lots of very bright animated cartoons boxed inside a dirty house. This contained expression of colour suggests that the band (like the creatures) are ready to break free and let everything out. It offers a burst of energy, suggesting lots of noise. The manic pictures suggest distorted music and can be linked to the rock/indie genre (which is is from). It shows a band full of energy.

Text: The name of the band, 'Arctic Monkeys' it exaggerated in well stylised artistic writing. The name of the album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' is also done in this syle. This name is a good one because it is a padadox, juxtaposing favourite with nightmare. This makes the consumer think and want to purchase the album.

The Text itself is positioned in the top left hand corner of the album which is generally where a consumer looks first to identify who the artist is. By doing this we are immedialy aware of whose album it is. Similarly the bright orange contrasts with the dull grey sky and makes the writing stand out even more. This is repeated on the tracklist on the reverse of the album.

The text itself is seperated from the image which makes it stand out more. You don't confuse the artist of the album name with the album art which can be really frustrating when you are in a shop looking for a perticular CD and you can't find it.

The quality of the album cover suggests that the band is mainstream - nice glossy cardboard cover, well made and presented neatly and professionally, a high quility animated piece of artwork done with professional printing ink.

Album Cover Research

Typical Features

Front
The name of the band/artist.
The name of the Album.
Album art - usually a picture of some sort (photograph/animation) representing either the artist or something about the album's name or what the songs represent.
Often a sticker on the front saying 'includes all the hits...'
Usually a 'parental advisory explicit content' logo

Back
A ordered tracklist of all the featured songs.
Often artwork, usually similar or continuing the artwork on the front cover.
The name of the record company who produced the album.
The name of the record label who promotes the band.
The year the album was released.
A bar code.

What is the point of an album cover?

Lets you know who the artist is and what the album is called.
Often artists make their covers as creative and visually excellent as possible so consumers will immediatly notice it out of a group of CD's.
It can advertise the genre of the music.
It can show characteristics of the band and make them seem appealing.
It lets you know who produced the band. If they are a new, unheard of band then if you recognise the record label you may want to hear them.
It lets you see what tracks are on the album - ones you may or may not recognise. It advertises all their hits so if you've heard a song on the radio you can buy the album if that song it on it.

The Maccabees music video

The Maccabees are a great new indie band who are young and vibrant. Their music has an original sound and they have cleverly marketed themselves, connoting themselves with drawn cartoon characters. Their music videos are equally as fascinating and all of them up to date has been made using stop-start animation. Like Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run they have created a story line to go along with their video using this unique style. However, unlike wallace and grommit they don't so much specialise in claymation (using clay to make their videos) but more simply move objects around, recording and pausing, recording and pausing, recording and pausing to make a quility music video.



After seeing this music video it inspired me to make a really quick and loq budget stop-start animation video to the tune 'I don't see the attraction' by a new indie group 'Open with a Joke'.



White Stripes stop-start animation video

We Are Scientists music video

Basically this is a great idea for a music video. We are Scientists based their video for their hit single 'Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt' on a maniac in a bear costume chasing the band around city locations. It is a simple yet genius idea in that it is easy and cheap to do. The band are scared for their lives as they try and run/hide from the bear in order to escape.



The video would work really well with a fast and upbeat tune and we could have fast cuts and tracking shots to build emphasis and suspense.

We could put a twist on this video by making the action more exciting. Although the idea is good, the video itself is a bit plain as all the band do are run from the bear. Our creative minds could come up with something better.

Album Ideas

Here are a few examples of possible ambum ideas. Taken from established bands, they give an insight into different but easy styles that are effective and easy mimic.


This is 'Dizzee Rascals' album cover for 'Boy In Da Corner'. It isn't perticularly difficult to create as it is merely a pholotgraph with an edited background. It is effective in its simplicity and the bold black writing stands out in contrast to the yellow. The picture also fits the genre of the music, grime.















Although this artwork isn't from 'the maccabees' album cover, it is a cover they relased for the single 'first love' which i really like. The whole thing has been done on the computer and is drawn on (as if a child has done it). Contrasting to many album covers with photographs, this cover is effective because it is original and the drawn picture is vibrant and stands out.














This is 'The Stokes' newest album cover from 'First Impressions Of Earth'. The simplicity of the cover makes it a really effective one. Not much has actually been done to the black background other than a few inserted pictures but yet it still works. The albums name is written on all 4 corners of the cover.












The Rakes album cover is good because it is prodominantly composed of a single photograph taken of city landscape. Unlike Dizzee Rascals album where a man has been cut around to fit a created background, the rakes album just puts a picture in the middle of the cover but it still works well.















The Braverys album as you can see is more complicated than any of the other because a mythical beast has been drawn which would be very hard to do, especially in such detail. However, the other picture is a simplified version of the braverys cover and i think this works just as well. Although there isn't as much intregue and detial, the bold black and blue colours contrast and make the album stand out.

Posible Tracks

Possible Tracks - None of these tracks have official music videos so they would be good choices (and i think they are TUNESSSSSS). They also all belong to clear music genres.

Lethal Bizzle - Hitman
The Strokes - I Can't Win
The Killers - Change Your Mind
The Maccabees - All In Your Rows
The Rakes - Terror
The Strokes - Take It Or Leave It
The Bravery - Public Service Announcement