Thursday 8 September 2016

Lower Than Atlantis, Lower Than Atlantis - Digipak Analysis


Lower Than Atlantis is the fourth studio album from the rock band Lower Than Atlantis. The album Lower Than Atlantis was released on October 6th 2014 through Sony Music Entertainment. The album charted at number 16 in the UK and has sold around 50,000 copies worldwide. 2 versions of the album were originally released; a standard version with 12 songs and a deluxe edition which contained those 12 songs with an additional 3 exclusive bonus tracks. In 2015 the band repackaged the album and rereleased it as ‘Lower Than Atlantis. The Black Edition’ which featured two brand-new tracks, three songs originally featured on the limited physical deluxe, two BBC Radio One Live Lounge covers, four brand-new covers and four alternate versions of the original album tracks.

The front cover of the digipak show an image of the band against a pastel pink background. This is different to their other front cover because they usually just have some sort of artwork; this suggests that the band is going against their usual conventions to portray how this album is going to be different to their other albums. The pastel pink background is an unusual feature for a band that makes rock music. Darker colours such as black and red tend to be more reflection of the rock genre because they have connotations of danger. However pink is usually associated more with the  pop genre, which could suggest that this album will have more elements of pop. In the image, the band are portrayed wearing all black which creates a contrast between them and the background. This could to be show that whilst there are going to be pop elements to this album there will also still be elements of their usual rock sounds. It also could suggest that while their sound is changing they are remaining the same. The bottom of the front cover has a slight fading to it, this makes the image seem more rough and worn. This makes it seem more rugged which is more reflective of the rock genre than it is of the pop genre, which tends to be more polished. In the image the band members are shown looking directly into the camera; this makes direct contact with the audience and makes it appear as if the members are looking at them personally which might make them more likely to buy the album. The members are shown with their mouths closed, this makes the look quite stern and grumpy. These emotions are generally associated with rock music and therefore shows that the album will be combing both rock and pop elements within it. Above the image of the band their is the name of both the album and the band, ‘Lower Than Atlantis’. This has been written in white font which stands out against the pink background. This again is quite quite a bright colour for a rock album but it was a common colour that the band used on their previous albums. Two different font styles and sizes have been used on this album; the ‘Lower Than’ appears in a smaller and straight font that the ‘Atlantis’ which appears in a large, wavy font. This therefore puts emphasis on the second half of their name. The wavy lines creates the idea of water and could be a reference the mythical underwater world of Atlantis.


The back cover of the digipak follows the same style as the front cover which creates consistency. The same paste pink background is used on the back as the front, as well as on the album spine. The font is once again written in white which stands out against the pink background. On the deluxe edition, the 3 bonus tracks that came with the album were written in a darker pink so highlight the difference between them and to indicate that they were exclusive. On the back cover there are a list of the songs which are on the album. There are no number next the songs, which means the audience aren't sure what order the tracks are in on the album, but just guess that they are in the order presented on the back. This isn't something that most albums do however it is becoming more of a convention amongst certain genres. All of the song titles are presented in line with one another in the centerof the cover, in order to achieve this the spacing between the letters and words is different for each song. This can make the song titles quite difficult to read because they are some big spaces between some the letters. However this does make the back cover slightly more interesting and unique which could attract a wider audience. Underneath the song titles there is a barcode which is an essential on a CD. And to the right of the barcode there are some logos of companies who helped publish and record the album and the below that is the copyright information. This information is the smallest text on the cover because it is the least interesting information however it is a require convention.


The CD for this digipak follows the same theme as both the front cover and back cover; this creates consistency throughout the digipak which is a common convention. The colour of the disk is once again pink, however this time is a slightly lighter shade of pastel pink. The band and album name appears to be in the same location as where it is on the album cover which makes it almost parallel to the front cover. The font for the band and album name is in the exact same style as the front cover which creates consistency and reinforces it as the bands logo. Once again the logos of the companies who helped record and publish the album appear on the CD; this almost acts like promotion for those companies. Along the bottom curve of the CD is the copyright information, this is written in small white font. The fact the font is small suggests that the information isn't very important and can be overlooked.


Inside of the digipak there is a booklet which contains the lyrics to all of the 12 tracks on the album. The booklet continues to use of the pink background and the white font which creates consistency across the whole of the digipak. The white font that has been used throughout the booklet, is the same font as font used on the front cover where is say ‘Lower Than’ which once again creates consistency Towards the end of the booklet there is a montage of photographs which are all different. The images show the band in photoshoots, filming music videos and recording the album. This allows their audience to see what some of the recording and filming process is like for them and gives the audience a personal view into the bands schedule.  On the last page of the booklet there is information about the band, this includes information about the members, the producers and managers. There are no thank you’s within this booklet which shows how the band are not following conventions. 

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