Paramore Album Covers

These are Paramore's previous album covers in order of release. All of them have very specific iconography with the Paramore fandom. This is probably partially due to the invasive use of colour.

'All We Know Is Falling' features the stark contrast of a very bold red featured in the sofa against far more desaturated greens and blues.

'Riot!' has an equally, if not more so, loud appearance as the black and white is accented with a rusty red. 'Brand New Eyes' does not have such and aggressive use of contrast but it is still very prominent. The yellow and black stand out enough as it is but the grey background then sets the wings apart from it again.

The layout is also a key part of the appeal. In 'All We Know Is Falling' the layout is very clear and simple. The focus on the sofa at a fairly low angle makes the title appear elevated and more prevalent - especially as the shadow of the tree on the left of the sofa makes it appear in the centre of the setting rather than just at the front of it. 

The layout of 'Riot!' again is simple but with purpose. The band members are slightly off centre, at a slight tilt to the right hand side; the biggest 'RIOT!' does so also. This eliminates any sense of perfection. Also, having the contrast turned right up on their images and creating the black and white effect makes the band seem somewhat integrated into the background. This gives us a sense that they really embody the message they are trying to convey, that they are a part of Riot! and that they remain involved in their music.

Even 'Brand New Eyes', with it's clean cut first appearance, upon looking further, embodies non-conformity. Though the text is neatly placed in the corner, the blue pins that run horizontally do not do so perfectly. Also, a seemingly random green line runs vertically (but still with a slight diagonal tilt) somewhere between half and a third of the way across the cover.

These covers appeal more to a particularly visual stimuli. their purpose is to peak interest in the album itself rather than sell the artists (identifiable by the lack of a clear band image). You get the sense that the music is the main benefactor as these images are designed to create visual music synaesthesia on a smaller scale than a music video would. As backup to this, in the music video to 'Misery Business' featured on the 'Riot!' album, the word 'Riot!' is written repeatedly on the walls featured in the majority of the background, as well as on the floor and on some of the instruments. Also, as I have mentioned before, the mirrors on the back of the 'Brand New Eyes' album are featured in 'Playing God'. There is also clear imagery and lyrical reference to butterflies in 'Brick By Boring Brick' - another main track on 'Brand New Eyes'.

For my album cover, I could then consider incorporating some of the imagery I plan to create in my video into the artwork.