BY ROMANA BARDETTI

Music is magical. Its objective ability to make someone cry, dance, or laugh through a rhythm and the fostering of a shared atmosphere is something to be marveled at. But what about the art that represents it; the album covers that make the music instantly recognisable? Over time, the overlooked square artwork and the music rendered have developed a symbiotic relationship in which each can inform the other. In other words, the emotions and ideas evoked by a musical composition are often reflected in the artwork next to it.

In the album art of Boygenius’ recent release, The Rest (above), the musicians are exhibited in an almost dreamlike portrait, evaporating into the intensely blue sea. The celestial imagery is unnerving but also extremely peaceful, evoking a sense of nonchalance and detachment from reality. The actual musical sound follows similar themes of other-worldliness and, as Julien Baker sings in Powers, is a carefully curated ‘hum of our contact [mixed with] The sound of our collision.’ This is further reflected in the name of the album, casually uncovering ‘the rest’ of their music to the public - a true embodiment of the artists reflected simultaneously in the music, name, and art of the EP.

Photographed by Matt Grubb and Harrison Whitford, The Record, Boygenius

Even the band’s full-length album, The Record, shares the same symbiotic relationship between music and cover art, with Rolling Stone Magazine commenting on their ‘communal pass-the-mic spirit’ that is reflected in the reaching hands on their album cover. However, this phenomenon extends beyond the realm of Boygenius and the musicians within.

Photographed by Charlotte Platmore, My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, Lola Young

Lola Young’s latest album displays this relationship in full force. Her project, inspired by her struggle with schizoaffective disorder, demonstrates her intrusive thoughts and inability to always control her mind. As NME puts it, she ‘commits herself to being undone’ despite constantly recognising her tendencies to protect her closest feelings. This unraveling of a stream of consciousness in her emotive ballads and energetic melodies, together with her painfully genuine lyrics, is easily recognised in her vibrant album cover. The distortion calls to mind a sense of powerlessness and discord. She seems overcome by her senses, directly reflecting her sentiments onto the audience through the music and supplemented by the photograph, and vice versa. Moreover, the album's title, My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, is ingenious. The length causes you to feel detached from the point but simultaneously involved with the narrative being set. This coincides with its arrangement on the album cover, with the text becoming increasingly disconnected and slightly illegible. In this way, Young’s album art is securely connected with her music and lyrical brilliance.

So far, the album art presented has depicted the artists themselves; however, the symbiotic relationship of art and music is also noticeable in media other than photography, as well as cover art that does not depict the musician.

Designed by John Squire, The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses’ eponymous album holds a slight political undertone which is, again, reflected in both the music and artwork, with the band’s guitarist, Squire, painting and curating the album cover, titled Bye Bye Badman. It is noted that abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock inspired Squire with chaotic, uncontrolled lines on top of a vibrant green, said to be inspired by seafoam in a Northern Irish nature reserve. He also seems to have referenced the French student protests of 1968 with the tricolour and the depiction of lemons; used to neutralize the effects of tear gas. Their musical sound, according to Pitchfork, whilst not intensely ‘radical or even particularly progressive,’ appealed to a new generation of young people by appealing to past generations’ styles. The chaos of the canvas and the plethora of ‘stand-alone songs’ on the album create a disorderly harmony that most symbiotic relationships share.

Album covers are integral to the musical sound they inform. Whether they are a carefully constructed art piece made by a visual artist or a simple panoramic or portrait photograph, covers help to distinguish the ambiance that the musicians set out to communicate. In this way, they are interconnected and even more complex than initially thought.

ST.ART does not own the rights to any image used in this article