For my second year at university, I have decided to keep a blog about my assignments. I’m going to be both reflecting and sharing them throughout the year and talking about my experiences of attending uni remotely.
The first assignment due for this semester was for the topic ‘Mediating Music’, we were asked to analyse an album cover of our choice using theories and create a presentation. We decided to use Life’s Not Out to Get You by Neck Deep.
There is a lot going on in the cover and a lot of aspects to analyse, I struggled to keep within the time limit for this assignment for that reason, so for this post, I’m just going to focus on a few of the symbols, the colours and an overview analysis of what the album sleeve might be portraying.
The album cover appears to be depicting mental health and potentially the inside of the boy’s (bottom left) head. I can infer this from the amount of fire in the scene as well as the prominent use of eyes which could suggest anxiety and paranoia. He seems to be looking across the scene towards the white house on top of the mountain, white often suggests purity and safety so this might be where he intends to get to, and the rest of the scene is everything that he feels stands in his way. The rest of the scene portrays the trials and tribulations of life and how even simple things seem difficult.
The presence of the castle and the graveyard in the scene suggests that these are areas in his mind. A castle is usually a stronghold with fortified walls, this may be a part of his brain that he blocks off, a part that is secured and barricaded from the rest of it. This could be a part of him he doesn’t let people into, somewhere he puts his vulnerable feelings and emotions. A graveyard is a burial ground which could also be a part of his brain he puts things he doesn’t want others to know or even things that he wants to forget and bury away.
Fire is one of the main symbols of hell, this coupled with the Devil like figure on his shoulder suggests that the boy feels like he is in hell, or his mind feels like hell because of all the manifestations it creates. Interestingly there is a robin sat on the Devil’s shoulder, in Christianity, there is a story of a robin that tried to remove a thorn from Jesus’ crown but in doing so got pierced by it. There is a quote from Mother Theresa that says “Each of us should try and be that bird — the little robin. When we see someone in pain, we must ask ourselves: ‘What can I do to give them comfort?”.
The main colour scheme used in this design consists fundamentally of primary colours, which are said to represent the body, emotions and mind. This further suggests that the artist is trying to present mental health and the inside of the boys head. Red appears consistently across the scene which has connotations of anger, pain and danger, it can also mean passion and energy though. The red seems to pick out the key features of the artwork which create synergy, for example, Neck Deep’s logo, the fire, the devil, the robin, the boy’s face and the red roof of the house.
Blue on the other hand is featured a lot less than the other colours, which could be because the colour often symbolises calmness, tranquillity and stability. They may have chosen to use less of this colour to show that the boy doesn’t feel like his life consists of those things and that his mind isn’t calm or stable, though at times it might be or may appear to be.
There is a lot more that can be said for this album cover and many different interpretations can be made but these are the main things I found interesting in analysing it.