Album Cover Analysis: Symbolism and Self-expression in Music

Introduction

First impressions, although shallow, will always play a major role in human judgment. That is why in the case of music albums, a lot of attention is paid to the album cover design because of its representation of both the music and the artist. For many, the album cover art is the first piece of the musical package that they are exposed to, leading listeners to immediately form preliminary opinions of the artists and their music. This can significantly affect how an album is received, especially if the artist isn’t well known at the time of the album’s release. An album cover that adeptly takes advantage of this phenomenon is Aphex Twin’s album named after himself, Richard D. James, an album cover analysis that showcases a photoshop experiment on a photo of himself resulting in the widely recognized infamous face of electronic music. This album was released in 1996, around the time Aphex Twin was gaining traction and getting many new listeners. In this paper, we will look at the cover art for Aphex Twin’s album, Richard D. James, and analyze its use of symbolism and self-expression in effectively directing the consumer’s opinions on him and his music.

Impression of Richard D. James' Album Cover

On first inspection of the album cover, the viewer is met with a sinister smile, invoking feelings of unease and distrust. Richard likely intended these immediate feelings to be brought up due to his long history of mischief towards his fans and the people around him. He says he has “been banned from message boards” and “kicked off straight away for winding up other people” on forums about his own music (Stubbs 38). Additionally, he even went out of his way to release an album for the purpose of bothering another artist, Craig David, with the comment that it was “a total aggro thing”(Lester). This behavior is represented in the album cover where the most distinctive feature is the smile, exaggerated and stretched until it no longer projects positive feelings. The pointed corners of the mouth and deeply curved lips resemble the makeup of an evil-clown which represents his prankster-like tendencies. The strongly set wrinkles and crow’s feet by his eyes suggest that the facial expression is always being displayed, demonstrating that this personality trait isn’t just for show, but permanently ingrained in his identity. By including these elements in his album cover, Richard establishes a major part of his personality with the consumer.

Role of Album Cover in Music Interpretation

Looking past the smile, the viewer continues to feel discomfort when noticing other subtle traits that make the photo of him look almost but not quite human. Alongside his prankish behavior, he also has a history of being extremely eccentric. A specific quote showing his strange thought process was “I was thinking, 'What's the scariest thing you could think of?' And I ended up imagining people coming into my house and doing hideous things to me, tying me up, stripping me naked, and squirting this foam into my mouth and down my throat, shoving it up my nose, into my ears, [and] jamming it into my tear ducts” (Lester). An example of downright unexplainable behavior was when he opened a concert for Bjork and then just went and hid behind a plastic tree (Aaron 32). His weird behavior usually leads fans to jokingly suggesting that he might not be human, a notion that is expressed through his album cover and music. Specific parts of the photo that alters Richard’s human appearance are slight editing to the skin, facial hair, lips and teeth. The unnaturally glossy skin, uniformly distributed facial hair and extra white teeth lead the viewer to think that his face might consist of some artificial materials. His discolored lips make them seem organic but lifeless, as if the rest of Richard’s body is missing the circulatory system to pump blood and oxygen into his lips. All these traits of the photo build up a feeling of the uncanny valley, a feeling of unfamiliarity with things that closely resemble and imitate humans but not well enough to be actually be human. This feeling is something that is reflected in Richard’s music, because the consumer knows Richard composes his own music but the complexity and strange style makes the music seem more machine generated than human generated. With these traits in the album cover, Richard sets an expectation of the music to be something unique and strange, like his own personality.

Conclusion

With so much packed into just the album cover of Richard D. James, it becomes easy to see how powerful the album cover is in affecting how the consumer receives the album. In the case of Richard D. James, Richard chooses to make his album a work of self-expression, revealing core personality traits to consumers. Although, self expression is only one angle to approach music album cover design and artists can convey something meaningful through other angles. Some examples include Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover hinting at the inherent urge for humans to chase money or Pusha T’s Daytona album cover documenting and publicizing the tragic reality of drug abuse. Regardless of the method, the design of the music album cover will remain a massive platform to spread ideas, stories and culture to society.

References

1. Stubbs, David. “We Spoke to the Mysterious Master of Aphex Twin.” ​Loud and Quiet​, 12 Dec. 2014.
2. Lester, Paul. “Windowlicker: How Aphex Twin's Face Became an Icon.” ​The Guardian​, 7 Mar. 2017.
3. Aaron, Charles. “5 Things You Didn't Know About Aphex Twin.” ​Spin​, 16 Sept. 2014.