Brightest Young Things

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:

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? Starbucks and my wife have long conspired to make me full blown crazy. Seemingly once a week I come home to find some new CD lying about touting itself as a definitive look at some sub-genre or other. Put out by the Starbucks Entertainment label or Hear Music (basically the same thing) these sit beckoning you at the counter of every ubiquitous Starbucks in town. I have little trouble resisting them – although I do often pick them up to see the tracklist. Do you know why? Because I usually already own 9 out of 10 tracks. I also have designed a ton of these things and I know that they can hardly be a “definitive” representation, as they have to be put together using only the artists available through a single parent company (Universal in this case.) When you wonder where that single scene defining song is on one of these discs next time – well now you know. It wasn’t released on that parent’s collection of labels or publishers.

My wife on the other hand, loves these things. She is quick to dismiss my complaints (as she is on most subjects) and while we both know I could whip up a better mix in the same vein, we also know I am unlikely to do so anytime soon. So here we are. The post punk or british invasion or even the kids discs all seem to easy to pick apart, so when she arrived with a nice looking, low tech, reggae and ska collection, I knew it was time to let you, the readers, in on the conversation.

The compilation features some expected, as well as some inspired choices. Madness opens with “Our House” which I have never tired of. The disc ends with UB40’s version of the Neil Diamond classic “Red Red Wine” which I have never been more tired of. In-between the mega hits are the true story. Jimmy Cliff is here with iconic “The Harder They Come” but Toots and The Maytals feature the wonderful post jail “54-46 Was My Number” as opposed to their more well known material. Peter Tosh in with “Johnny B. Goode?” Two Heptones tracks? These judgments are offset by tracks by Desmond Dekker, Black Uhuru and The Melodians. I could argue about which English Beat (Tears of A Clown is included which seems like one cover too many) or The Specials (Concrete Jungle) for days. But the important thing is that they are a part of the collection.

The real jewel is the magical “Your House” by Steel Pulse. From 1982’s True Democracy album, this was a song I bypassed when it first came out, in favor of their harder hitting more political work. I discovered the band from being the opening act for my beloved Clash and was drawn to that focus of the group. on this track, they are much closer to another band they toured with early on; Bob Marley and The Wailers. Hearing this again after all these years it nearly melts me it is so gorgeous. I might even have to stop bugging my wife about buying these things. Nah…

Credit: “Design by Starbucks Global Creative”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? No. The label for the artists usually has to approve though.

Does the look fit the sound? The look truly fits the time-period when this music fully burst on the scene as it takes its lead from the DIY aesthetic of the punk rock sleeves. Showing all of the cut lines and Xerox quirks and textures is a dead giveaway. The funny thing is that the artist featured here were often housed in slick packaging to set them off from the punks of the day. These were recordings using session men and studio techniques that would challenge those ruling the roost in New York’s hit factories of the day. Many of the bands even had logos for their marketing efforts and in Cliff’s scenario - he had an entire movie as a star-making vehicle. Instead, the packaging from the faceless (but talented) creative group focuses on the connection to the music on a street level. Its not quite the same thing as putting together a northern soul compilation by showing mugshots after a teddy boy rumble, but it’s oddly in that vein.

Having said that, I do enjoy the half hazard nature of the paste-ups of the Xeroxes and the proliferation of loafers. Building a type solution of chopped out letters to make the checkerboard pattern so often associated with the ska movement, as well as a checkered border that seems as if it was low resolution image that was halftoned and printed out – something impossible back in the day. The entire thing is primarily black on buff paper but the use of red, yellow and green really make an impact when pulled out. Scanned in marker on paper to make the color, it really works on the inside panel that is only adorned with one of the quirky collages. Overlaying the color wash is a collection of photos with the speakers and street scenes interrupted by people dancing with their eyes covered by bars. This is so that clearances are not needed to use the photos but more so than serving a practical purpose, they reinforce the street credibility of the music within during it’s day in the sun.

It doesn’t matter what these people are really dancing to when they were photographed or if the loafers adorned high steppers or came right from an old catalog – they evoke the desired feeling and that’s what counts. The back and the interior booklet stick to a zine-like layout of the type and body copy. Some nice cutlines and crops help out the spare layout. The back keeps pace until the legal paragraph at the base and the intro copy at the top are the only pieces not tilted making the rest of the areas of whitespace somewhat claustrophobic.

An then an odd thing happens as the interior is bare, save for the subtitle running where the pocket for the booklet goes. After all of the work on the other portions, it almost feels like they ran out of time. This is compounded by the lazy label design for the disc that seems strangely over a flood of striking white. Just like the compilation that calls it home, the packaging is not without major faults - but in the end pulls out a winning effort.

Final score (out of 10): 6.5 design 6.5 for the music