Album Cover Analysis

by: Khalid Daley

‘21’is the age Adele started the recording of her second album, in which she has used it as the title for her album. (She had previously done this with her first album which was called ‘19’)

The word ‘Adele’ is the name of the artists, in which her name is in the same font as the number ‘21’, however it’s in the colour of white

The black and white image of Adele shows a simple structure of her natural beauty, as her hair is loose and she hardly has any make-up on

Adele - 21

The layout for songs on the album, is very simple for the buyer to see, as the number of the track is a lot smaller than the titles of the tracks itself. This makes the titles of the tracks stand out to the audience

The image for the back cover is quite similar to the image on the front cover , although the image seems to be a little bit darker. The image also shows Adele, looking directly into the camera, in which it her cheekbone (right) is blended in with the background

Adele – 21 (In-depth)The album cover for Adele’s ‘21’ is amazingly simple, in which this simplicity links into the outlet of the album as there is no auto-tune used for the songs on the album, because she is more of a soul artist.

The black and white image of Adele, shows her looking down in which she is hardly wearing any make-up and she has her hair completely loose. This signifies the true beauty of Adele, as you are able to clearly see her main features in her face. The black and white image also shows Adele in a slimming effect, as there is a fading effect on Adele’s right cheekbone which gives her a slimmer face. This is also seen in the showing of Adele’s arm.

With there being an effect on Adele’s clothing (which is originally black) it draws the main focus to her face, as it’s a lot clearer to see because there are no alerting distractions in the image.

The text saying ‘Adele’ is in capitals in which with it being white it follows the black and white concept on the album cover. However the text ‘21’ is in the colour of lime green. This shows clearly that ‘21’ is the name of the album. The reason for the album being called ‘21’ is because Adele gives the title of albums from the when she started recording it (in which she gives the age of when she recorded the album), as previously done with Adele debut album ‘19’.

Now coming onto the album, Adele’s sophomore album ‘21’ has become the fastest digital download album of all time, the best selling album of the century in the UK and also the biggest selling album of 2011 (worldwide). The success of this is due to Adele’s commitment to write an incredible record, the continuous style throughout the album and also the fact that the songs that are featured on the album have become the best selling songs of 2011. These songs include ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ . To date, the album has thirteen million copies worldwide, in less that a year.

Due to the massive success in the music industry this year, Adele was nominated for six Grammy Awards in November 2011 which included Album of the Year (21), Song of the Year (Rolling in the Deep), Record of the Year (Rolling in the Deep), Best Pop Vocal Album (21), Best Solo Performance (Someone Like You) and Best Short Form Video (Rolling in the Deep)

Ne-Yo – Year of the Gentleman

The word ‘Ne-Yo’ is a different size and style font to the word ‘Year of the Gentleman’. So in this case it shows who the artist is and it makes it stand out on the shelves

The word ‘Year of the Gentlemanis in a fancy font, which it quite effective as it shows the difference between the artists name and title of the album

The image of Ne-Yo shows him putting his hat on, in which the suit he’s wearing, mainly matches the colours on the background of the front cover image which shows that there’s already a colour palette going on in the image

The image of Ne-Yo on the back cover image shows a difference from the front cover image but yet a similarity, as both images include Ne-Yo wearing a hat. However the back cover image shows Ne-Yo in black (even though he has a pale grey shirt) in which he’s hat is also black. This can represent different things as it can show that this album may have soft and dark sides to it, when seen from different approaches

The layout of the track list is presented on the right hand side (so that it doesn’t collide with the image), in this case some songs are next to each other, due to some song titles being small

Ne-Yo – Year of the Gentlemen (In-depth)For the album cover of Ne-Yo’s ‘Year of the Gentlemen’ you are able to identify that there is a colour palette being portrayed in the image.

The image of Ne-Yo, shows him looking downwards from the camera in which he has a beige hat covering his face ( which also shows the parallel stance between both his arms). In the image Ne-Yo is also wearing a suit that features the colours of beige, cream, brown and light brown. The setting behind Ne-Yo also features the colour of brown, light cream. There is also a bar that masks Ne-Yo’s left arm which seems to be in the colour of caramel brown in which the bar next to it, seems to be in the colour of dark cream. With the text also being in black, it matches the colour of the black band that circulates round Ne-Yo’s hat.

This easily generates a colour palette for the album cover, in which this is continued at the back of the album cover (also known as the back cover).

The text ‘Ne-Yo’ are in big bold capitals which shows clear identification of who the artist in which the artist of the album is Ne-Yo. However the text ‘Year of the Gentlemen’ is in a fancy italic font and shows powerful dominance from the bolder text ‘Ne-Yo’ as the text size for ‘Year of the Gentlemen’ is a lot smaller. This shows the clear differentiation between the artists name and the name of the album.

Now coming onto the album, Ne-Yo’s ‘Year of the Gentlemen’ became one his most successful album’s to date, as it reached number 2 in the US and UK and went to become one of the most anticipated album’s of 2008. The hit singles included ‘Closer’ (which went number one in the UK), ‘Miss Independent’ and ‘Mad’. Making all three songs go Platinum (selling over one million copies) in the U.S.

In 2009, Ne-Yo was nominated for five Grammy Awards for his album. He won two awards which were Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song (both for Miss Independent). All together Ne-Yo has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has gotten three awards in total.

Ne-Yo is one of the most successful male R&B artists today, as well as being an ultimately talented songwriter and producer.

Susan Boyle – I Dreamed A Dream

The black and white glamorous photo of Susan Boyle, reflects how her image has changed (since she was first seen on Britain’s Got Talent)

The title of the album ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ represents the inspirational aspect of Susan making it into the music industry, in which she is living a dream she dreamed. The title ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ is in white (which goes with the black and white image) while the words ‘Susan Boyle’ matches the colour of the line (round the outside of the front cover). The size in the word ‘Susan Boyle is quite big as it clearly states who the artist is

The layout for the songs on the album, is structured on the left side of the back cover, in which the colour of the text is white There is another black and white image of

Susan sitting next to a piano. This image shows the continuous approach of black and white images being used as the art work for the album

Susan Boyle – I Dreamed A Dream (In-depth)For the album cover of Susan Boyle’s ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ you are able to see that there is a simple colour palette going on.

The image of Susan Boyle, shows her looking straight into the camera with a smile, while both her hands press against her cheeks on both sides, in which they are shown in a parallel stance. With the image being black and white, it adds a 1920’s glamour theme to the album cover, as Susan is wearing a shimmering black dress and a ring to accessorise with it. With the back drop behind Susan being out of focus, it draws the main attention on her when looking at the album cover.

Also with the image being in black and white, it makes Susan look a lot younger, as the shimmering black dress also makes her looks slimmer.

A slim-looking appeal, is usually the look in the music industry today, as artists want to look flawless in there professional shots and album covers, since they are mainly being advertised worldwide.

The text on the album cover is simple but quite effective. As you can see the text ‘Susan Boyle’ is in gold, in which there is a line splitting the difference in Susan’s first and last name and with it being in bold capital letters, it relates to the boldness of Susan Boyle as an artist. With the text ‘I Dreamed A Dreamed’ in small text and in the colour of white, it follows the black and white theme from the image, in which it shows a relation to it

Now coming to the album itself, Susan Boyle’s debut album ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ became the biggest selling album worldwide in 2009. In it’s first three weeks of release, it sold three point five million copies worldwide. It became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history and went straight to number one in over fifteen countries (including the UK and US). To date the album has sold nine million copies worldwide.

In 2010 the album was nominated for ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’ at the Grammy Awards. Susan has now released three albums ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, ‘The Gift’ (which has earned a 2011 Grammy nomination for ‘Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album’) and ‘Someone To Watch Over’ in which all albums have had commercial success and they have all also been number one in the UK.

Tony Bennett – Duets ll

This text, shows the artists that Tony did a collaboration with on the album, in which the audience are quite aware what The amazing picture of Tony Bennett is

built up from small individual photos, that have been structured in order to produce a big image of himself (which is incredibly creative)

The track list shows the duet with the artist that Tony has collaborated with, in which the artists’ name is in a different font and colour and the title of the track is in different font and colour. This shows the difference between the song and the artist, as with the text of the artists’ name being in bold, it makes them seem more powerful

The bold black text that says ‘Tony Bennett’ evidently shows that he is the artist of the album

The text ‘Duets ll’ is in a blue italic font, in which it shows the difference between the name of the artists and the name of the album, as the size of the text is a lot smaller

The background image shows the continuity of theme palette of blue, as you are able to see a studio microphones in front of blue velvet curtains

Tony Bennett – Duets ll (In-depth)For the album cover of Tony Bennett’s ‘Duets ll’ you are able to see that the cover itself is amazingly unique.

As you can easily identify from the image of Tony, the whole image is made up of tiny images but together, that makes one whole image of Tony himself.

This is incredibly unique, as not a lot of artists do this on their album covers, as they like to show off their facial features, or their body and flawless appearance. In this case it’s a lot different, each tiny image features Tony by himself, with someone or doing something.

To make the whole image look like Tony, each tiny individual image has been edited, in which the original colour of it has changed. This has been done so that the edited colour of the image, makes up Tony’s facial features through the different tones of shade of his face, making a lot of the colours darker and lighter than others.

For the text of the album cover, it is very different and well organised. As you can see from looking above, the text saying ‘Tony Bennett’ is in big, bold letters in which the font of it is in black. This shows a differ between the album cover and the features on the album, as the album cover name is ‘Duets ll’ it looks like the word ‘Duets’ is in which light blue italics. This definitely identifies a difference between the name of the artist and the name of the album. Also seen on the album that’s not usually seen, are the featured artists who are doing a duet with Bennett, in which the list is shown on the left hand side. The font seems to be a similar font to the one used for the artists’ name, however the sizes of the text is a lot smaller, so that it’s not drawing attention away from the bold text and unique image.

Now coming onto the album itself, Tony Bennett’s album “Duets ll” went straight to number one in the U.S charts, in which it has made him the oldest artist to have a number one album.

The album has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, in which they are for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album (for Duets ll) and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for ‘Body and Soul’ which is performed by Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse).

Carrie Underwood – Some HeartsThe text saying ‘Carrie Underwood’ is in a fancy font ( showing in italics), in which it is in the colour of black, plus it is also next to the image, which shows an obvious viewing of who the artist is

The white stem leaves that have been evidently drawn or created through technology, presents the feminine character that is seen in Carrie Underwood

The text saying ‘Some Hearts’ is in the same fancy font (showing in italics) that is used for the artists’ name; however, to show diversity, the text is smaller which it is in the colour of burgundy

The image of Carrie shows her looking into the camera and smiling, while she’s holding a daisy. This image shows Carrie turning around to look at the camera, in which there is the setting of a field of wheat behind her. With the sun glistening the left side of her hair, it makes the shot look elegant, stunning and feminine

The songs are listed in an ordinary fashion, in which you are able to identify that there are no numbers next to them, which shows the simplicity of the album and artist.

The back cover is a lot different to the front cover, as it seems that it has been drawn or created through technology. However, the back cover still continues with the colour palette of pale golden yellow and burgundy

Carrie Underwood – Some Hearts (In-depth)For the album cover of Carrie Underwood’s ‘Some Hearts’ you are able to identify a feminine approach to the cover.

The image of Carrie, is extremely elegant, stunning and feminine in which she shows the characteristic of being ‘the girl next door’ in her debut album. As you can see, it shows Carrie looking quite glamorous, as she is wearing a black dress, in which her hair has also been done to look quite curly. To go with this, Carrie is wearing a subtle amount of make-up which makes her naturally beauty. With Carrie’s head in front of the sun (as it makes her hair glisten on the left side of her face) her smile brings positivity to the image and the album, in which this sort of positivity can help the album succeed in sales.

This image can be classed as an ‘idolised’ image, as by seeing the image girls/women may want to look like Carrie (e.g. The may want to have the same make-up and hair as her, plus the same dress/style as her), while boys/men may find Carrie as an incredibly attractive girl, as she has a nice figure, smile and face.

For the text of the album cover, it is very simple as the text saying ‘Carrie Underwood’ is in a fancy font ( showing in italics), in which it is in the colour of black, while the text saying ‘Some Hearts’ is in the same fancy font (showing in italics), however the text is smaller in which it is in the colour of burgundy. This shows the difference between the name of the artist and the name of the album, as the artists’ name is a lot bigger and bolder which shows power.

Now coming onto the album itself, Carrie Underwood’s ‘Some Hearts’ was her debut album after winning the fourth series of ‘American Idol’. Although the album did not go to number one in the U.S it became the biggest /fastest selling debut album from a country artist and from an American Idol winner, in which it sold over seven million copies. This earned Carrie her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist. The album icluded her biggest selling single to date which is ‘Before He Cheats’ (in which the song also earned her two Grammy Awards for ‘Country Song of the Year’ and ‘Best Female Country Vocal Performance’.

Since then, Carrie has become one of the biggest stars in country music as she has had two one albums ‘Carnival Ride’ and ‘Play On’ and with the success of those albums it has made her the most successful American Idol contestant in the U.S. in terms of album sales.