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:

The Notwist “The Devil, You + Me”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? The Notwist managed to completely reinvent themselves from nosierockers to electro-rockers to something altogether unique with 2002’s “Neon Golden.” The follow-up to that masterpiece has been long awaited. So much so that when word came that “The Devil, You + Me” was on the way, it seemed that the anticipation had turned to shrugs. I think a lot of fans wondered if they would ultimately be disappointed in anything coming after: similar to the pressure on a smaller level to My Bloody Valentine working on post “Loveless.” It turns out we need not have worried.

At heart, the songs on “Neon Golden” seemed to be acoustic-based strums, despite all of the programming percolating around them. Here, that feeling comes right to the forefront. The most exciting part of the record is actually that with all the time spent working on it; the band showed so much restraint. The electro elements that helped define the last album are slimmed down here to mostly window dressing. They are just as likely to place a treatment on Markus Acher’s imminently listenable vocals, as they are to tamper with a drumbeat. With Acher’s greater command of writing in English, the lyrics are less obtuse (well… a little) and despite being simple, they carry a great deal of weight. His habit of repeating key phrases with a minor change in melody and key pulls you in a hypnotic manner.

The record holds to its low key moodiness with the lead off single “Good Lies” and the brooding symphonic twinkle of “Where In This World” and then the clicking joy that is “Gloomy Planets” with it’s clean guitar and distorted vocal. “Alphabet” serves as a build to its blast of noise and breaks up the party - but not in a rude way. When the light, ethereal title track follows, it makes it all the sweeter. “Gravity” intros with an almost mathrock guitar pattern, but builds its spine along a simple picked bass progression on acoustic (a favorite trick of The Cure) as “Sleep” uses picked guitar and the occasional bass note to make its way to the swirling lines of “on and on and on and on someone will sleep for me. Is it all just letters and bones?”

The only minor misstep is “On Planet Off” which veers a little too close to Linkin Park style programming in tonality. “Boneless” brings us back with its straight ahead beat, reminding me how simple all the parts are to their songs and yet only The Notwist put them together in such an engaging manner. Closing with “Hands On Us” which is the closest sounding track to the previous record, and then the two-minute “Gone Gone Gone” which uses backing vocals to strong effect and gently ushers us out. If another six years produces a record of such simple beauty, I will be more than willing to wait.

Credit: “Design and cover artwork by Yokoland.”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? Doesn’t seem to be.

Does the look fit the sound? The Norwegian firm Yokoland does capture the mood and detached artiness The Notwist embody. Started as an extension of their own music label by Espen Friberg and Aslak Gurholt Rønsen, the design team knows the industry and genre extremely well. Their work has a vivid nature in its use of images and colors, which is often used in conjunction with hand drawn type and manipulated found images. Somehow, they take disparate styles and blend them together in a fashion all their own. In their use of simple elements to make something unique - they are the perfect foil for the music within.

Pondering my purchase of the album, I spent a little extra to get the deluxe edition, which is made as a small book (trend alert!) which is very well manufactured. In an act of synergy, I knew that I wanted to own this version based on my using the microsite the label had set up to sample the album prior to its release. When you clicked on each track to hear it, an image came to color the experience. These were mysterious and gorgeous and engaging and oddly suited to the music playing from my computer speakers. Just as I had hoped, the packaging arrived bound with the lyrics facing the images, as well as graphic elements and bars of color interacting with the viewer. It carries an ethereal quality, but doesn’t go all the way into 4AD territory, as it still keeps things relatively clean and simple – again wonderfully paired with the music.

It’s not totally perfect as the cover is adorned with my pet peeve sticker with the title on it (and choked out with the heavy black printing) but this is likely the label more so than the designer’s choice. There is also a tendency to crowd whitespace a little in awkward ways and not provide consistent spacing or centering for the images on the facing pages. This all seems intentional and not a lack of attention to detail, but it also adds a little tension that I don’t think enhances the design. In the end, it is just a little nitpicking (what I am here for) but a beautiful package to serve as a home for a quietly impressive batch of songs.

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

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