PW - Analysis Of An Album Cover

The album cover I will be analysing is the band ‘The Streets’. Their album is called ‘The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living’. It is their third album which was released on April 10th 2006. The genre of this album is similar to Jamie T which is why I am analysing it, for this reason is because I can then create my own ideas using this inspiration. Both Jamie T and The Streets use traditional English conventions to portray their image.
When thinking of the rule of thirds, this album uses it well. The band logo and name is in the top left of the image. This helps the reader to ‘ visually read’ the album cover and access all the information easily. The typography is set on a bright cigarette lighter which obviously relates to the artist. It is interesting to see that the band name is in a bigger font than the album name. The artist name font is very scruffy looking and unusual. However, the album name font is very simplistic, which could show that the artist is actually very simplistic, scruffy looking and relaxed. On the cigarette lighter, there is a palm tree which looks very idyllic, however, this is in contrast with the background image of the dark street with the uncut hedge and the dark trees. There is also much more contradiction used, the artist is seen in front of the car, slightly to the left of the picture wearing trainers, however, he is stood in front of a Rolls Royce car which is very prestigious and expensive. He is portrayed to be seen as lower class as he is looking scruffy and relaxed, but he is stood in front of an expensive car which could show that he has the sort of money to buy such things like that. The lighting and whole brand image is very lo-fi. The album cover is not very glamorous at all, apart from the expensive car, which is used to contradict the artist. This also adds to the meta-narrative of the artist, as the brand image of him is built up throughout the different album covers he uses.