Analyzing CD Covers – 2: Pink Floyd - The Wall (Album)

Pink Floyd is the band we chose to do a music video for, with their song ‘Brain Damage’. This isn’t the same album that our song is from, but the album artwork for this particular Pink Floyd album is very interesting.

Front Cover

The front cover of this album is fitting with the title, it is basic and decisive and this is what makes it good. It is unique in its own way, yet still conventional with how album covers are portrayed. The band and the album title are scribed into a black and white background that is the pattern of a wall, making it parallel to the album title. This is a conventional method, yet effective because the idea behind the album and its title are made clear to the buyer, however it is important to use this theme at a constant method all the way through the album artwork. The style of font that the writing is displayed in represents one of a scribble, relating it to a signature of some sort, maybe of the band, giving it a more authentic feel.

  Inside Artwork 1

The first inside artwork of this album is very basic. It continues the theme of the black and white brick wall, which is important because this theme is an effective selling point. It makes the album clear and conventional, using the title as an advantage. There is a good sense of authenticity with the small logos found on this part of the album cover, including a small message form the band about why they made this album, along with a barcode and a copyright message, leading to a good sense of ownership.

Inside Artwork 2

The second inside artwork of this album is the CD and the picture of the CD found behind it. The CD once more continues the theme of the wall and its conventional style, which is effective. In the same scribbled font there is a track list on the CD.  This is a good selling point because when the CD is left in a player, without the album cover, people can still see what songs are playing even if they do not have the CD case with them. For a CD, the face of the disc seems quite busy, and informative, without being overloaded with information. It is well organized and the space on the disc is used well, but the fact it has a lot of information on it makes it unconventional and it is common for CD faces to just have a picture on instead. There is also the title of the album, which is to be expected for the CD face, and a small message again scribbled around one half of the disc, explaining copyright details of not copying the disc ect, again important for sponsorship and ownership.

 

Back Cover

The back cover of this album is also very busy looking, with several features. The main feature is the track list; of two separate CD’s written in the middle of the page, in the same scribbled font against a black and white wall background, a theme that is seen throughout this album cover. There is a small message from the company ‘Columbia’ which can only be presumed as some kind of producer of the CD highlighting copyright issues and warnings, which is important for the band and the respect of their work. Dividing the two tack lists is an image of a creature, small yet very effective, as it is the only color on the whole album cover. The colors red and yellow are used in small amounts to connote danger and a sense of warning about what can only be described as some sort of parasite. It dangles down from the top of page, coming about a quarter of the way down, and its unexplained presence is one that makes this back cover an unconventional one. As apposed to other areas of this album cover, the title of the album is only scribed in a small font on the back cover. The last feature, is another image, this one seems to be a cartoon of an old man, with a disgruntled expression on his face. Again, the presence of this image is unexplained but it does give the album cover a unique, and unconventional style. Drained colors are used for this image to make it blend in with the black and white theme used throughout the album artwork.

Billy Greenall.