Volume please: Before we even begin it is important to note that I love Erland Oye and his big spectacled-covered face. Kings of Convenience remain some of my favorite listening and his playfulness and simple melodies were the perfect compliment to Eirik Glambek Boe’s delicate ruminations. When I saw the duo perform on their intimate U.S. tour, it was obvious that Boe wouldn’t be available for all of Oye’s adventures. Erland moved to Berlin and began quickly making a name for himself in dance circles. Inspired to take on a live act that could merge his songwriting more closely with his lifestyle, he formed The Whitest Boy Alive. Ironically, the band has since shed any notion of electronics at this point and composes in the traditional beat combo set-up.
Their first album, “Dreams,” was filled with airy arrangements and simple instrumentation, but Oye’s abundant charm and sense of melody carried the day, as did his two-note guitar figures. “Rules” is more of the same simplicity, with it’s upfront presentation and minimal playing, but it is hampered heavily by a number of factors: Drummer Sebastian Maschat seems to have forgotten how to play anything other than a disco shuffle and Daniel Nentwig uses his Rhodes piano and Crumar synth to dominate all of the songs. The Crumar provides an insanely dated sound with it’s signature late 70s – early 80s vibe and replaces the guitar parts in their songwriting.
One would hope that would provide Oye with more room to wrap his melodic and distinctive singing around the songs much like his famous DJ turns, but instead he disappears for long jags and more importantly – there aren’t really any “songs” to hang anything on – but rather limp grooves and keyboard squawks. It is a massive disappointment and a huge waste of a talented songwriter and performer.
Taken at face value there is some joy in the ultra white funk of “1517” or many others on the disc, but a band like The Changes do this kind of a thing a million times better and why would you have Oye languish in such a musical wasteland?
But what does it look like? There are two very strong aspects to this package: The first is the playful way it is created in only black and white and how that plays on the band name while somehow toeing the line between playful and serious – just as their music does. The second is something almost never seen (and certainly not to this degree) in today’s music packaging – continuity. Not only is the minimal color scheme – if you can call it that – held over from the band’s debut “Dreams” but the line art and hand-drawn type of Los Angeles-based Geoff McFetridge is as well. The group doesn’t stop there, as McFetridge outfits their website and videos to boot. The working relationship seems to be a mutual admiration society as McFetridge goes out of his way to praise Oye and states that “some of my favorite work in the past few years was for Erland and I do not think that is a coincidence.”
McFetridge is best know for his more graphic shape-based work, particularly his campaign for Pepsi One’s introduction. I enjoy his way of thinking and the simplicity that comes with his executions but if I have one major complaint in the packaging it is in the way that he has chosen to produce the final art. Working from a pen/brush and ink style that harkens back to the Push Pin school of the 60s, the whimsical little scenarios are wonderful in their own right. However, the catch is in that they seem to be drawn at different scales and thus when they are forced into the same sized panels – they show the viewer a differing line weight (the thickness of line) that can be forgiven when their might be additional elements to play off of but here – it is the ONLY visual in a barren tundra.
Also jarring is the selection of the most complex drawing for use on the cover where the brilliance and impact is more immediate on so many of those used in the interior. Having said all that, it is still a minor complaint. The blocky way of writing out the text reminds me heavily of the old drafting training so many boys were taught once they showed an ability with a pen and shapes. The conceptual images are given single pages so that they can truly make their case for your undivided attention and they deliver far more often than not. Much like Oye – they come off as simply “smart.” Particularly delightful is the way McFetridge adapts to the only instance in which his format requires it – on the disc label, with his little figure dragging his rake around the center hole. It is charming – something The Whitest Boy Alive always delivers. Now they just need a return to some structure on which to drape that charm.
For those keeping score at home: Music 5.0 Design 7.5
John Foster owns his very own design firm, Bad People Good Things and is the author of For Sale: Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport), Maximum Page Design (HOW) as well as an upcoming collection of handmade graphics entitled Dirty Fingernails for Rockport and a monograph on Jeff Kleinsmith for Sub Pop Records.
