Brightest Young Things

By John Foster

John Foster takes music packaging very seriously. He has deconstructed the design of the recording industry through his personal work and his books, Maximum Page Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport) and the upcoming For Sale: Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW) as well as a monograph of Sub Pop’s Art Director, Jeff Kleinsmith, slated for publication by the label in 2008.

He will be poking and prodding various albums on a weekly basis so please be sure to keep an eye out!

This week’s victims:

Los Campesinos! “Sticking Fingers Into Sockets”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? If you haven’t been through this sort of thing before than I suppose so. If you own records by Bis (in particular) or Boyracer or any number of bands that have treaded in low fi, self deprecating, mildly cute rumblings underpinned by slightly off kilter driving rhythms - it isn’t a vital addition. That’s not to say that the record isn’t without its charms and the fact that it is truly an e.p. makes it a winner in my book to begin with (why can’t I enjoy Voxtrot in full length form?) The band turns a few good lines and knows how to rush to an end when the idea has run it’s course (see Boyracer) and uses its boy/girl vocal interplay like a couple finishing one another’s sentences as opposed to shouting each other down (see Bis for perfecting this technique without being too cute.) I am looking forward to the day soon when their melodies catch up to their wink wink song titles. When a band from Wales leads off with “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” and all share the same “band” last name, you have a pretty good idea what you are in for.

Credit: “art direction and illustration by monkmus/hornet inc. design – john earle/hornet inc. design producer – catherine berclaz.”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? Does not appear to be any. The process has longtime designer Cath Berclaz (Hootie, Sheryl Crow) steering at the helm.

Does the look fit the sound? I picked on Los Campesinos! for their singles sleeves in my year-end list (and rightly so) and the results continue here. The giant disco ball centered amateuresque illustration with it’s floating space world of the future seems terribly off target for a band with it’s musical roots in the c-86 British indie scene. I have a sneaking suspicion that the band feels a greater affinity with CSS than The Wedding Present and that may be true in their hearts and in their awkward moves on the dance floor but their scratched out twitchy guitar strum and thumping ramshackle drums are the heart of the sound and it is the inclusion of violin on occasion that sets them off – not any disco aversion. I suppose the seamless connection between their packaging and their videos should be commended but I have a difficult time doing so when the results are so weak and misguided. It isn’t as if these packages are being slapped together by their friends from the University; Monkmus (MD native) and Hornet are in demand accomplished directors and firms respectively. I truly enjoyed his work for Playstation but his animations seem to work best when applied to simple figures with a humanistic bent and the overall galactic battle going on here seems forced by all sides. However, the band is young and jam-packed with potential so there is hope - but from the peek I have seen of their full length out next month we might wait a little while longer to see it realized visually.

Final score (out of 10): 3.0

(oh and..."If you are in your 20s you must go see Greenland tonight at the Cat (period)")