Some artists are running with new media rather than fighting it. Conrad Keely wasn't busy enough with his own band, Austin's ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, and so not only does he manage all of the band's artistic endeavors, cover art included, he also shows his own art and creates work for other bands.
His most recent piece graced the cover of Age of Winters, the debut CD from The Sword, an Austin, Texas, guitar rock quartet.
"Artists have the ability and drive to create art no matter what the obstacles may be," Keely said. "And people are being just as creative now with the limitations as they ever were with LPs.
"As the fan of music that I used to be, I would get interested in every aspect of the band, including their art. If I saw a small version of the cover, I'd race online to see the big version. Especially when you have a little cover with a lot of detail, you're going to want to blow it up and say, `Wow, what is that going to look like?'"
Some make the case that the Incredible Shrinking Album Art is worse for fans than it is for bands or artists.
"I don't think it limits you as a designer," said Matador's Ohe. "I think it limits the experience of the music buyer. I've got a thousand or a couple of thousand LPs at home, and they're fun to pull out like big magazines and flip through them, look at the front cover and back cover and see what's in there printed on the insert and dust sleeve or miniposter. That's a lot of fun to experience."
Morgan Phalen, singer for the throwback 1970s rockers Diamond Nights, agrees. But as the artist behind both the music and the album covers, it's painful to see it shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.
"My brain lives in the LP generation, but I'm living in the iPod generation," said Phalen, who collects record art, physically in his home and virtually on his laptop. "So my favorite record covers are all LPs. I actually collect record covers, and I have zillions of them. A lot of times I don't care about the band. Gentle Giant -- I'm not a fan of that band, but they have great covers."
RSS