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Artist: Local H
Release: Twelve Angry Months
Label: Shout Factory
Designer: Kii Arens
Release Date: May 13, 2008

I did a quick image search of Twelve Angry Men, because I thought this album’s title was a play off of the film and perhaps the art would have followed suit. Turns out that it seems that neither is the case. The album is about breaking up with a girl. Ho-hum.

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Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Release: Narrow Stairs
Label: Atlantic
Designer: EE Storey
Release Date: May 13, 2008

Indie rock art darling EE Storey is in fine form here with some cluttered rainbow step rectangle things. If you step back a few feet from your monitor, you can see the Jolly Green Giant genuflecting and perhaps proposing to an upright, jilted Mephisto. The red villain resolutely turns his head and will have nothing to do with the womanizing leafy green enthusiast, I’ll say!

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Artist: Wolf Parade
Release: At Mount Zoomer
Label: Sub Pop
Designer: Matt Moroz and Elizabeth Huey (artwork)
Release Date: June 17, 2008

As a general rule, I don’t think it’s a good idea for two artists to work on the same thing. It’s one cook too many in the kitchen, especially in print media. In web design there’s a little more leeway because there’s more easily defined roles (graphic production vs. coding, UI vs. databasing, etc.), but with a CD design it can take a turn for a messy worse.

I’m not sure what role Matt and Elizabeth played in doing this or how separated their tasks were, but something went awry. It’s like they began to write a sentence on each end and met at the middle, but they had different things in mind, thus rendering the combined statement meaningless. The left hand didn’t know what the right was doing. It’s like the weird kid in class that plays Mercy with himself during recess: it negates the reason for the “game” in the first place and ultimately looks ridiculous.

[hat tip: Filter]