{"id":6330,"date":"2016-06-30T15:12:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T15:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=6330"},"modified":"2016-06-30T15:17:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T15:17:43","slug":"the-art-of-album-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/the-art-of-album-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Album Covers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is music an audio painting? Allowing our ears and minds to be infiltrated by sonic masterpieces?\u00a0Music is\u00a0about more than solely sound – there’s the audience element and the magical experience of live listening, music-inspired fashion movements, as well as album cover art and how digesting that visual component contributes to\u00a0a phenomenal album. \u00a0In fact,\u00a0album cover art is often the primal key to the album lock, sparking intrigue about the contents of the record.<\/p>\n

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Album\u00a0cover art has been influencing music culture for decades. For example, since The Beatles Abbey Road album came out, fans have\u00a0flocked to London to recreate the iconic cover shot, and it’s become a sort of\u00a0music cultural must. Also, for millennial music mavens, remember\u00a0pulling the cover art out of beloved CD cases and absorbing all of the artistic finds inside and how that was often a past time during listening parties?<\/p>\n

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The Beatles Abbey Road album<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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If you’re a long-time music fan or if you were at Governor’s Ball festival in NYC<\/a> this summer, you’ve undoubtedly come across Brett Kilroe’s<\/a> work as the artist has created some of the most iconic album covers over the past two decades. According to The New Yorker<\/a>, “Brett was responsible for the visual design and branding of acts ranging from Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters to Missy Elliott and Taylor Swift. The iconic cover of Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard\u2019s solo d\u00e9but, ‘Return to the 36 Chambers,’ featuring the rapper\u2019s face on a public-assistance I.D. card? That\u2019s Kilroe\u2019s work. The wildly different, equally striking English and American covers of the Strokes\u2019 album ‘Is This It’? Those are his, too.”<\/p>\n

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Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard\u2019s ‘Return to the 36 Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Strokes Is This It album<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Brett Kilroe was a GRAMMY nominated and respected designer, artist, creative director, teacher, and friend. Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Kilroe was\u00a0a resident of New York City for 23 years but remained close to his Canadian roots which greatly influenced his work and viewpoint.\u00a0After living and working with cancer for four years, Kilroe passed on March 24th<\/a>;\u00a0in his final days, he was able to express gratitude to his many collaborators and began planning an exhibition in New York City of the work they created together.<\/p>\n

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Alabama Shakes debut studio album, Boys & Girls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kings of Leon Only By The Night Vinyl Packaging; Photo: Dan Winters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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In the beginning of June,\u00a0A&E Studios<\/a>\u00a0in New York City hosted exhibition\u00a0Windermere: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Brett Robinson Kilroe<\/a>,\u00a0letting attendees steal a\u00a0glimpse into how some these covers came to life and how many talented people across all creative fields were inspired by Kilroe. \u00a0The exhibition was curated by a group of Kilroe’s close friends and collaborators who are incredible talents in their respective fields. They chose\u00a0work that displayed the breadth of Kilroe’s talents,\u00a0alongside\u00a0elements of\u00a0what went on behind the scenes in the process of taking an idea all the way to its\u00a0end product – including notes on previous drafts and proofs before printing, from concept sketches pulled from his notebooks to a scale recreation of his living room where so many of the ideas came to life.<\/p>\n

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Windermere: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Brett Robinson Kilroe, Photo: Tracy Boychuk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Windermere: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Brett Robinson Kilroe, Photo: Doug Biro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Kilroe’s admirers were able to come together to honor his creativity and celebrate the art of music during the exhibition.<\/p>\n

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Album covers have served many purposes and have transformed over time. From big splashy vinyls to\u00a0the modern digital icon we see on our phones, we can appreciate how significant\u00a0cover art can be. Brett Kilroe’s timeless legacy\u00a0of blending art and music certainly\u00a0reflects that notion and allows us to appreciate all types of music art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is music an audio painting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}