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) – out in October! As well as a monograph of Sub Pop’s Art Director, Jeff Kleinsmith, slated for publication by the label in 2009.

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:

Lykke Li “Youth Novels”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? Lykke Li is the epitome of what can happen when world-wide bloggers latch hold of an artist who has only had one song posted to their myspace in a lot of ways - yet she is unique in so many more. It’s true that many of us heard the name but had little to associate it with. She became swept up in the Bjorn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn and John fame) caravan, singing the female part to “Young Folks” live on occasion and the backing vocals for the Yttling produced Shout Out Louds recent effort. This only served to build a buzz about her but to her credit, she didn’t rush product into the streets to capitalize. Instead, she hunkered down with Yttling and truly crafted her best effort. Now she sends out a debut album that is at the odd crossroads of 2008 - brand new sounds to some and to others it feels as if we have been waiting forever. The important part is that she delivers the goods on all levels for both sides.

My only major complaint with the album is unfortunately a big one. The first song is still extremely important in my opinion - and here she lays out the only real clunker in the spacey, wandering “Melodies & Desires.” Sounding like an outtake from some knob turners like The Orb, it also does little to let you know what follows in any way what so ever. I have my fingers crossed that everyone makes it to the joyfully simplistic bass pluck and click clacking percussion of “Dance Dance Dance” that follows. Just acoustic instruments and Lykke’s beautifully clear vocal coo sends you into another world. Combining a busy little horn piece via saxophone and 50’s style backing vocals (synthesized Yttling I do believe) to round it out - the track is an utter joy and beckons you to a country of origin that you are unsure of, but you know it will be worth the visit. It’s effortlessly cool - and how many things can you say that about today?

“I’m Good, I’m Gone” is still spare, but more dance floor oriented. “Let It Fall” saunters in with roughly sampled drums that only serve to highlight the simple accents from the bass and intertwined vocals. “My Love” has a pastoral guitar line heading towards a choral burst and reminds me of Grizzly Bear in the way it reinterprets 60s folk and r&b and sends it skyward into space. One of her earliest tracks, “Tonight” is an update on the formula that sold boatloads of Ronettes records. It is simply wonderful and draws a funny parallel as Yttling is like a Swedish version of Phil Spector these days - without all the insanity (as far as we know.) It is followed by the charmer that is “Little Bit,” a come on of the pretend shy variety, the song mixes rudimentary drum pings (digital cowbell and steel drums?) with an acoustic guitar flourish and shows the strength of a strong melody. You also realize that Li’s range is pretty limited but it is rather the charm in her voice that sees her through - and this song is nothing if not charming!

“Hanging High” is a low key, mournful number (every record like this should have one) segueing into flamenco guitar picking for “This Trumpet In My Head” featuring a sad trumpet (of course) line but it is clearly filler. “Complaint Department” slow burns back on the dancefloor with a snaking synth bassline and it has some playful production but isn’t really needed. “Breaking It Up” brings it a little harder with just handclaps and could pass for an 84 Madonna demo. “Everybody But Me” pushes the synth flute a little too far forward and drowns out a solid melody and vocal back and forth from Li. “Time Flies” finds her pushing the high whispers and with the piano and orchestral drums belies a Kate Bush influence. It’s nice but too derivative. “Window Blues” closes out with a big gloomy plod and misses out on the fun we’ve had up until now. The sweetness that is tracks 2-8 more than makes up for the missteps and I can’t fault her for stretching her talents out. This sort of record doesn’t often grab me so it is no small feat that she has charmed me to the core; I will be hoping for more of the direct and playful direction as she moves forward.

Credit: “Artwork: Sandberg & Timonen, Photographer: Mancus Palmovist/Adamsky”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? No. This looks very much in keeping with the firm’s previous work.

Does the look fit the sound? The design is where this record really nails it. All of the releases leading up to the full length have played on this assortment of images and held to this style. It is telling how important the photographs are to the look in that the stylist, hair and make-up crew receive credit just behind the designers and photographer. The images have just enough interest and oddness to grab you even in a rough black and white state. Made up to resemble a clash of Audrey Hepburn and Space Oddity era Bowie, Li gives off a playful, yet arty and mysterious vibe. For a chanteuse for the future it is the right way to go, whether calculated or not. My instincts tell me that like-minded creatives have found one another and naturally created just the right look organically.

The low tech use of the images is what really makes this packaging so special. You can see that the images have been cut up and re-assembled by hand. The overlay of the cut lines throughout only serves to heighten that feeling. Formerly the hallmark of punk sloppiness – here it serves to add a layer of texture and sophistication. The choice of an uncoated paper stock rich in fibers and pulp bits simply makes the booklet and turns large washes of tan blocks into textured wonderlands. Nothing is left to chance as tiny words are singled out for printing in magenta (wise as it is tiny type – more on that in a minute – and needs to be a single color from the 4-color process mix that makes millions of colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black – hence CMYK – in order to pull it off cleanly.) “Love” or “I” or “Lost” take on a new life and meaning with this tiny highlight applied to them.

I am not thrilled with the use of heavy tracking with this typeface and it is much stronger in all caps than lowercase (only used for the lyrics in the booklet.) But the layout of the text is playful and enjoyable and the compliment of the thin font and the use of heavy white rules more than makes up for it. However, the credits are printed in this font in a tiny fashion almost to the point of being unreadable in sections (the accents required for Swedes doesn’t help matters) and my eyes remain pretty spry but had to adjust for a second. I hate to complain about small type as it is the final frontier for designers but I was left with no choice.

Sandberg & Timonen work often with the fashion industry and their amazing use of photography really shines through here. Toeing the line between haphazard and sophisticated with their collages, they always seem to land on the side of sophistication. Lykke’s songs and Yttling’s production do much the same, always cool sounding and worth the listen and on more than one occasion simply dazzling.

Final score (out of 10): 8.5 design, 7.5 for the music

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