Illinois was not only the most acclaimed album of 2005, it’s also the second installment in what may be one of the crazily ambitious musical projects ever hatched. Grandly title The Fifty States Project, it refers to Stevens intent to record an album about each of the US States. So far, he’s managed Illinois and the 2003’s Michigan.

To be fair, it’s widely assumed that the Fifty State Project is more than a little tongue-in-cheek, a good example of Stevens’ gift for self-promotion and media coverage. The cover for Illinois got a fair amount of press for all the wrong reasons, however, when its launch was delayed due to legal action from DC comics.

As rapturous reviews filled newspapers and sites across the country, fans became frustrated to learn that label Asthmatic Kitty Records had been forced to halt all retail sales. A détente was negotiated in a fairly swift fashion, with a balloon sticker employed to cover the copyright infringing superhero. Subsequent copies removed him all together.

A blogger named John, writing on beelerspace, best captured the sense of disappointment we inevitably experience when we discover just how little popular culture actually belongs to us. Writing as the news broke, he argued: “Including Superman on the cover of Illinoise was a mistake made in ignorance but also in innocence. Sufjan assumed that we owned Superman; that the man of steel was an icon that belonged to us. Sufjan’s Superman is the one of the classical heroism, the one driven by the public good, by honor and nobility, by that which is good…

“In DC’s legal universe, Superman is more like the one Frank Miller portrayed in the Dark Knight: a pawn controlled by an opportunistic, media-driven, shadow-government-cum-corporation. He’s not a hero, he’s a property…

“Sufjan’s intent – and that is the heart of what we’re talking about: intent – was to merely acknowledge the existence of Superman as an icon of America and Illinois.”

It’s a passionate case that he puts forward and one that is particularly refreshing in an age of cynical defeatism. The people at Asthmatic Kitty were a little less argumentative, merely conceding that they’d “forgotten” to check with DC. They were doubly unfortunate that DC were just wrapping up lucrative deals around the Superman Returns movie and that the album ended up becoming such a hot item so soon after release.

The cover art has also been blamed for inciting waves of mispronunciation, as the headline’s infectious call to arms has lead the album to be known as “Illinoise”.

But even without the controversy, the cover still stands as a very charming tribute to the state of Illinois. It’s a state that’s notable not only for its major city Chicago but also for being the “average state”. Widely considered a political bellwether, it is demographically diverse and culturally rich. Stevens’ cover pays tribute to icons that include the Chicago skyline, gangster Al Capone and the agricultural industry.

Superman has long been a proud part of Illinois’ history since DC decided to place the fictional Metropolis there. Life went on to imitate art, when a small town of less than 7,000 people changed its name to Metropolis and in June 9, 1972 the Illinois State Legislature passed Resolution 572 that declared Metropolis the “Hometown of Superman”. I strongly recommend a visit to the online Metropolis Chamber of Commerce.

In a subsequent release of outtakes from the album, The Avalanche, Stevens recasts himself as the superhero, pulling free of the strings that hold him up.

Should he ever release a commemorative edition of this contemporary classic, he may well choose to add an Illinois icon whose story is as impropable as you’ll find in any comic book. Obama’s unlikely to sue.

This is the third in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists

Much of Joni Mitchell’s best music concerns travel. Her classic record Blue opens with the line “I am on a lonely road and I am travelling”, while in the following tracks Carey and This Flight Tonight she leaves her lover for the allure of new adventures. In Court and Spark we meet the hero of Free Man in Paris, who misses life overseas when he was “unfettered and alive”. Hejira – a transliteration of the Arabic word for “journey” – takes this obsession with itchy feet to its logical conclusion. “I wrote the album while traveling cross-country by myself and there is this restless feeling throughout it” she explained.

The sleeve for Hejira is a great example of cover art that perfectly fits the music. Mitchell, who was a painter before she became a musician, designed it herself (we looked at a couple of her other covers in the post for The Shepherd’s Dog). “I trained as a commercial artist, as well as a fine artist. So when I began to record albums, I thought album art was a great way to keep both careers alive.”

For me, the photo  collage on the cover, with its empty road and forbidding but beautiful landscape, so aptly captures both the loneliness and glamour of solitary travel.

The icy background is from a 1976 Joel Bernstein photoshoot of Mitchell ice-skating on a frozen lake. She had just played a gig at the college town of Madison when a massive series of storms ripped through town. Mitchell decided to make the most of the misty, frozen surfaces of Lake Mendota for an impromptu shoot.

“When Joni awoke”, it recounts on her website “she donned a pair of black men’s skates, a long black skirt and a fur cape, took a limo to the lake’s edge and managed to conquer bitter winds and an already thawing, spongy ice while Joel took the pics.”

Images from this shoot would later be re-used for the 2005 compilation album Songs of a Prairie Girl.

The glamour shot of Joni’s face, with its impassive and confident expression, was taken in a studio later by Norman Seeff, the same photographer responsible for Playing Possum by Carly Simon. “Norman used a very difficult and strange psychological process,” says Mitchell. “He’d shoot forever and tried to get a shot of everyone he worked with crying. A lot of people cracked and didn’t go back. He could be a cruel overlord, but he took great photographs.”

Be it skating on thin ice or facing down an intimidating photographer, the road Mitchell travelled may have been at times lonely but it was seldom boring.

When it comes to being creative, most of us settle for a signature talent – say, drawing or juggling or composing dirty limericks. But Sam Beam (aka Iron and Wine) is one of those vexing all-rounders.

Not only did he record The Shephard’s Dog, which has introduced his music to a wider audience and received much acclaim, he’s also responsible for the striking cover art.

“I went to art school, wanting to be a painter,” he says, “and then I got into photography. Then it was movies, and I liked the images. One of the things that interested me in film was that I was communicating in images. That was something I did intuitively and could not even talk about until I started having to do interviews.”

He was content teaching college filmmaking when Sub Pop decided that his music should become much more than a hobby. Beam would go on to successfully escaped the “freak-folk” ghetto as his music matured and became at once more adventurous and accessible. This is the kind of album you can’t put on without someone asking who’s playing.

I really like the dog on the cover. There’s something about the pose that seems to perfectly capture the movement and gestures of a canine. We all love cool album covers but unless we live in a dorm, most of us don’t want them on our wall. But take the (solid) typography off this picture and I’d hang it in a second.

Here’s another painting from the same series:

This is “The Shepherd” that owns the dog. They both have those same creepy yellow round-eyes, probably because most people end up resembling their pets.

And while we’re on the subject, what is it about folk singers painting their own album covers anyway? As a singer, Bob Dylan makes a very good songwriter. As a painter, he makes a very good singer. Here’s the cover from his 10th (and some say worst) studio album, Self Portrait:

Hmmmmmm. Much handier with a paintbrush is serial offender Joni Mitchell:

Alright, art appreciation is over for the day. Time for group discussion – can anyone think of some other examples of musicians painting their own album covers?

If you were unfamiliar with Jackson Jackson you’d assume they were an African music act. But according to Wikipedia they are a Melbourne based Hip hop / Afro-Beat /Psychobilly /Progressive band. Their own Myspace page labels them
“ELECTRO-FOLK” which I doubt has its own section in the local HMV. What I am less confused about is how the album art came to be and what it means.

Jackson Jackson is made up of duo Jan Skubiszewski and Harry James Angus, Jackson Jacksons “singer-songwriter and trumpet player”. I love the trumpet player part it’s as if the singer-songwriter part wasn’t good enough.

Sleevage Fun Fact: Harry is the nephew of comedienne, actress and writer, Mary-Anne Fahey (famous for playing Kylie Mole on The Comedy Company). Anyone over 25 will remember her popularity. Watch the video below to have those fond memories crushed.

Aaron from Debaser sent me this outline of the brief from Harry of Jackson Jackson.

· The idea is to think of a flag and use that as inspiration, particularly the flags of African nations
· Mozambique flag – Hammer and sickle
· Come up with a flag that represents this album – tools/love heart???
· The Symbols on flags should reference the album name – tools for survival
· blocks of colour
· Bold text TOOLS FOR SURVIVAL, JACKSON JACKSON
· Colour ideas: British racing green, red, yellow, purple or dark blue, white

Here’s the Mozambique flag for reference. Guns, garden hoe and books? I guess literal translations of a country on flags makes sense.

And while we’re on the topic of flags I thought I’d share one of my fav which I found on Google images. The Isle of Man’s flag! What a classic. Even the term “Isle of Man” sounds funny. It’s like a Lynx or Budweiser ad country.

OK back to the program. Debaser gives some insight into their response to the brief below

“When we received this we began looking at African flags (mainly as a colour palette) and started considering the title.
We decided that everyone’s most basic and important tool for survival was their hands. From there we started to mess around with the idea of the hand forming a flag… This of course led to my hand and face being covered in paint.”

The link between the hands and body parts wasn’t obvious straight away for me but once explained this made sense and seemed obvious :) I just thought they did the hands as “it looks cool”.

Here’s the back cover and the booklet photos.

I really like the feeling this cover creates. It’s raw and feels modern yet organic. It stands up well in thumbnail too as I originally noticed this while browsing Amazon. This cover is the complete opposite to their debut album “The Fire is on the Bird” (also done by Debaser) which was a table of toys and other junk.

It was a shame Debaser missed out on their second ARIA for Best Cover art. They had two noms. The Preset’s did dominate this year. There’s always next year guys.

I think Sleevage should be on the ARIA’s Artisan jury, the choices for best cover art are always so random. Which makes sense when you see that only 0.8% of the ARIA judges are “graphic designers”. That’s 7.4 people!?!

Oh and here’s some photos from behind the scenes. It’s not one of a band being painted it’s a Aaron from debaser.

This is such great art for a heart-on-the-sleeve indie-folk album. Nothing that makes a statement, nothing iconic, just a pure – if a little cheap – visual representation of the feel of the album.

The introspection and self awareness of those halcyon days when you have had time to languish around in the grass and clover sum up both his laid back finger picking and downbeat breathy vocals.

Iron & Wine has only just made the transition to studio recordings after years as a bedroom song-writer so the expressionist painting style does capture some of his warm folksy vibe even if this album has higher production values than earlier work.

The singles from the album carry across the artistic direction using a sleeping Sam Beam as the focus. These could have been artist roughs before completing the final albums cover painting.

The Vincent Van Gogh artwork not only fits the album but the musician himself. If only for their love of beards.

Those wanting a hi-res version of the cover (sans type) can check Subpop’s media page for Iron and Wine here.

Better add the following clip from the album with it’s references to sleeping and yards for reference.

Also being sad bastard hippy music, it might send you comatose on grassy median strips. But oh what a lovely soundtrack to have to it.

While Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion was a member of now-defunct noise-punk metal outfit Test Icicles, Lightspeed Champion isn’t so much an alter ego as much as it is just Dev, the crafty singer-songwriter. His debut album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, is Americana-tinged country-folk-pop with a warm sound helped along by producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley), and it is as straightforward musically as is the accompanying cover art.

But underneath the music are emotionally-charged and brutally honest lyrics touching upon racism, sexuality, and coming-of-age anxieties; and the same contrast goes for the package with a rather traditional, 1960s-style aesthetic for the front and back, with an inside that is a more complicated collection of collage and illustration.

The front recalls a bygone era of cover art with the artist as the central figure accompanied with snazzy colours, an”Artist” and “Title” heading, and a tracklisting — almost like a program for a concert or play informing the listener exactly what is included and presenting the album as a whole, complete work.

I found some images on Amazon and in the Retro Records group on flickr, that share the same sort of essence as this album.

You get the feeling Dev is referencing this look with a wink, especially with the big-eyed bunny, bright red cardigan, freshly starched shirt, and slightly askew gold bow-tie. An indie-rock Pat Boone who writes songs entitled “Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk”?

Elvis Costello’s covers and personal style are a nod to that era as well, especially his Greatest Hits with song titles alongside the front.

The cover photography of this album and the single “Galaxy of the Lost” were shot by British photographer Ophelia Wynne and seems indicative of her sharp and direct portraiture style that is featured on her website.

The booklet veers off a bit in its own direction with more contemporary photography by Dev in the front part. The last five booklet illustrations by Matt Cooper recall a future we thought was coming back in the 80s accompanied with lyrics in a Courier font from early computing days.

The back cover of the booklet gives us what seems like the “real” Dev in an vest probably found at a second-hand shop.

And the back of the case gives us the flip side of the front with the red, blue, and black combination and title giving a feeling of closure to the album.

I’d never heard of Bright Eyes before, even with his huge back catalogue out there, but on my two day journey around Sydney to find the deluxe digi-pack version of this album I’ve had three people tell me they are big fans. This was one album I had to own, I had to experience the “Spectral Decoder” myself and also there was jack all imagery online for this album.

The album itself looks unassuming. It’s a white cover with tiny black lines on it like, which feels like an ultra complicated Unknown Pleasures or minimal Autechre cover. The central image is a sticker added to the shrink wrap or CD case which is then removed.

It’s only when you open the case and use the enclosed “Spectral Decoder” that the album really shines. The entire package contains hidden imagery and messages. I feel like a kid in the 60’s with a spy kit.

Cassadaga, is a 113 year old Spiritualist Camp in Florida. The place is known for its psychics and they’re probably overrun with Ouija boards too. Get a Bright Eyes Ouija board desktop here.

The patented technology was created by 3D Images in the UK and originally developed for “Instant Win” promotions.

Here’s a detail of the front covers lines. I have a headache from looking at this too closely.

Conner Oberst from Bright Eyes originally wanted a “Magic Eye” image for the cover, but due to the small size of the CD packaging had to find a different technique. This is one time the small size of the CD packaging paid off as I hate those Magic Eye pictures. It just reminds me of the mid 90’s in shopping centers with crowds of people around a frame saying “I can’t see it…. oh wait a dolphin jumping a teapot. Wow!”.

Where as lenticular covers can become costly, this looks to be the cheaper option (music to any record labels ears) priced between 15 – 3p per unit. I’m guessing a little more for the decoder insert but still cheap. And due to it being a new technology and underused in the industry it stands out from the pack. Look for this technology to use used in advertising campaign soon. Something for the defense force might be award fodder.

The album contains Victorian era spiritual imagery and messages in several languages. Conner Oberst wanted people to still have to decipher the text even after using the Decoder. You can read more about this in a great article on NME.

I’ve tried my best below to reveal how the Decoder works but you should really try it out for yourself.

Here’s a video someone made using it. Presented in Youtube’s blurry goodness.

Another pleasant surprise was the booklet for the album has a nice spot varnish on it. It’s nice to see they didn’t just rest on the cover’s “gimmick” and forget the rest of the package.

The cover was art directed by Zack Nipper from the band’s label Saddle Creek. Zack’s done quite a few covers for Bright Eyes (see here) and his name is perfect if he ever wants to become a porn star or Futurama character.

The album is also nominated for “BEST RECORDING PACKAGE” in this years Grammy awards. As is Menomena’s Friend or Foe we featured a while back. While it’s a tough call, I’d have to say this is my fav from the list.

See the full list of finalists here.

Here’s one of the singles Four Winds off the album.

Check the Wiki entry for the album to have all the secret messages revealed and more info.

I forgot how much i loved this cover, this album was a big favourite of mine around the time of it’s release but since then has been gathering dust in my semi-archived stack of CD’s.

The cover was painted by Wayne White, an artist i knew nothing about, which is not surprising as i know nothing about art. Seems Mr white has been using his creative talents for along time now and over alot of different mediums but it seems his practice of painting bold typefaces over thrift store paintings of American landscapes has gandered him big props in the art world. It’s as kitsch as hell but doesn’t come off shallow like a row of wall mounted ducks.

More examples of Wayne’s work.

A man of many talents, Wayne directed the video to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Big Time’

You really appreciate it when bands put effort into the packaging of their albums. Angus and Julia Stone, the brother and sister folk act from the Northern Beaches have put together a nice little book for the special edition of their new album. The special edition comes with the album and a DVD of 6 film clips.

I asked the designer what the story behind the artwork was and I got this nice story.

“While at the family farm in Nimbin Australia, shooting the video clip for “What You Wanted”, Julia discovered an old children’s book in the attic belonging to her great grandmother, at the time Angus, Julia and Mitch were working on new songs for the upcoming debut album and were inspired by the three child characters on the cover, thinking they were an ideal symbolic reference to the band and their journey. From there the name “A Book Like This” was spawned.”

The back is the only disappointing part as it’s just a crop of the front cover. Continuing the cover artwork around would have been nicer.

The pages of the book are a mix of colour and B/W illustrations. They are quite whimsical and really suit the mood and sound of the album.

The album was designed by IOSHVA, who is the brother to the bands drummer, Mitchell Connelly’s, who also happens the band’s photographer. So that’s two sets of siblings working on the album. The band also direct their own film clips too. The illustrations however were done by Caroline Pedler from the UK, who has done a few children’s books.

The filmclip for the first single “The Beast” uses the story book style.

It’s a shame this is album isn’t actually that good (it’s no Push the Button) as I really like the cover. The wooden boom box created by Todd St. John and Gary Benzel of Hunter Gatherer & Green Lady fame. In fact Hunter Gatherer have done some amazing work (a lot featuring wood) so be sure to check out their site.

The wooden boom box was originally created for the Giant Robot ANNIVERSARY SHOW back in 2004.

What I liked best about the cover was the back and the CD print. It shows the designers thought about the entire package and not just the cover. The thin hand drawn type adds a nice touch to it.

I’d love to have this wooden stereo in our foyer at the office. And while we’re dreaming get them to do up a set of wooden decks, guitar and keyboard too.

Update: I forgot that µ-Ziq had wooden record player on his “In Pine Effect” album of 1995.

When looking at Neko Case album artwork, we could split it into two “periods”: the earlier photo album covers and the newer graphic based covers. All of which are marvelous.

The Julie Morstad drawings hark back on the sort of eerie-but-nice children’s book illustrations we loved but feared as children. Likewise the art for her excellent live album, “The Tigers Have Spoken”, scares but enthralls:

The earlier death scene themes – admittedly without the blood – are memborable and curious, particularly the Chris Buck “Blacklisted” cover photos:

The “Furnace Room Lullabies” cover photo is simpler, less stagey, but tends to rely on the beauty of this “dead” women to compel us to gawk:

The allure of Neko’s cover art is that it appears to be narrative based; not just evocative of a moment or suggestive as to what the musician(s) might be capable of. Her cover art does not define the music, rather it gives us an idea of the tone – waif’s head, good looking corpse, woman under get away van, etc. – of the music and what sort of stories she might tell us. And Neko is, if anything, a storyteller.

When I think about this album cover I imagine that the three blokes sitting there are the sleaziest looking buggers around, but now, upon seeing it again up close, I realise that, though, they’d never have become Top Models they’re not so bad after all.

They do, nonetheless, epitomise the hippie in all his many grotty guises. The inside photo does them no favours:

What is striking and most impressive about this cover – from Harry Diltz – is that within the confines of their combined poses we are able to, approximately, ascertain all we need to know about David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.

Forget about the weatherboard house and the dilapidated couch – they’re nothing but props. You might be right in saying that the poses themselves are, well, posed, and, thus, not real; but irrespective of the photographer or painter’s cleverness the ‘real’ person can never be completely suppressed. Make sense? (I’m not making this up, just read Henry James’ short story “The Real Thing”.) What we see when looking at these three coke-heads is not three pals passing the time, but three millionaires in the midst of a cultural revolution, of which they are at the forefront and, yes, are most willing to take advantage of said revolution.

Too much information?

Right, all you need do is glance at Stephen Stills’s eyes – he’s the bloke in the middle – to get a sense of him. Look at him impatiently staring off to the side. Look at his jaw, a little clenched maybe? And the crossed leg, he’s the one who’s protecting himself from the situation, resenting being so close to his ‘pals’. (If you’ve heard even a few CS&N stories you’ll know they could barely stand being in the same room as one another.)

And Crosby with his fucked up mo’, freaking us all out, almost forty years later. Look at him slouching to the side (just) a little, like an annoying drunk who won’t stop pissing in your ear. See the lazy eyelids and the tiny pinprick pupils, squinty bastard! You wouldn’t trust him with your mother, let alone your daughter.

There’s Nash set apart – higher – than his band-mates, trying to project something akin to seriousness when, in fact, the man is as dumb as a sack of hammers. He had ladies and drugs and cash on his mind. My God, he sounds like 50 Cent!

And this is the idea that I like most about this cover art/photography: what it can tell us about the music we are about to hear and the people responsible for it. Often the cover tells us nothing, and this cover is misleading, in that it does not suggest harmony, when in actuality, the ten songs on the album are nothing if not recordings of perfect harmonies. Nonetheless we do learn that, though the music is all but flawless, we shouldn’t necessarily trust these hippies and all their love-one-another carry on.