The Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part 2, has a really cool abstract design, I'm not even sure what the image is of but it's just loads of different coloured and sized squares placed around each other to make a crazy pattern. The back of the case is simple and just has the track listing in bright red which looks cool. The band and album name is placed at the top in the frame surrounding the image, all in caps and squashed in as one word, with the band name in red and the album name in black.
The cover is a slip case and the CD and booklet are contained in the pull out fold out case. The design of this is even more bizarre, filled with odd sketchy doodles of characters with descriptive names (such as "pirate" and "S.Claus".) The middle of each side contains the band and album logo just in case the random doodles make you forget this maybe. The Booklet continues this by being a fold out poster with more doodles (including the beastie boys) on one side, then the song lyrics and credits in multicolour on the other side (each members lines in the songs are colour coded which is really cool). The casing is nice and smooth and despite the bizarre imagery, it looks nice and shows why having music in a physical form is still important to graphic design! The bizarre imagery also shows the Beasties have a sense of humour and are just trying to entertain and have some laughs.
Foo Fighters: Wasting Light, is a black fold out card case. The image on the front is a multi coloured montage of the faces of each band member which looks like it has a halftone silk screened effect. It's not set out in your typical way either and looks quite unique compared to the usual band image on the cover. The back cover is mostly black but contains an incredibly blurry image of one of the band members playing/performing ( I can only tell because of the slightly visible half of a guitar head) it's done in the same effect as the cover and then we have the track listing. The inside of the case has another half tone/ silk screen shot of the band in the recording studio and the CD and booklet are contained in each half.
The booklet has the FF logo and again looks like it has been silk screen as the pattern is contained but has splodges of paint. The pages then have different colour shots of the band in the same style as the case, but the images still each have their own different quality. Then all the credits are at the back in a typewritten style. It's a really nice design, mainly focusing on photography of the band, but reproducing it in a colourful pop-art style. "Wasting Light" is the eighth album by the foos and it shows they are dedicated to their fans and like their artwork to be as interesting as their music, I could say the same about the Beasties too.
Rise Against: End Game, has a more traditional approach, a jewel case so that the front cover is the booklet and a photo on the cover of a boy travelling through fields wearing an american flag. We then have the band name at the top in bold caps and the album name in caps but in a very thin font which looks almost hand written. The back cover is an enlarged section of the front cover, but missing out the boy which is the main image. The track listing is then in the usual place in black text.
The booklet carries on a similar style of photography to the front cover, almost telling a narrative of the boy wandering through fields, lost or running away from home. The photography is quite blurred and has a powerful and emotional feel to it. There is also the song names and lyrics which are placed around or on top of each image, as if to make a connection to the name of the song and the image. The typography is aggressive/punk style which fits with Rise Against's music, I would say the imagery is kind of a contrast but possibly illustrates how the band feel towards America? Lost? The final spread has a blurred/faded shot of the band walking through a similar backdrop to the boy again linking them to what the boy represents. It's fairly simple imagery but it does provide a narrative and some deeper meaning. The inside of the case continues the imagery but has a large quote from John Stienbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which is to do with fighting injustices, a similar message to most of Rise Against's music.
So three albums all recent and each using a different style of design to link with their music. Whether it's random pixels and scruffy cartoon doodles for the Beastie Boys, stylised and artistic photography of the band for Foo Fighters, or a photographic narrative to link in with the music for Rise Against, it seems that for real bands album artwork is still important! And as a graphic designer it is nice to still be inspired by a medium which encouraged my career choice back when I was a teenager.
