Yolandi
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Post by Yolandi on Jan 13, 2022 8:53:18 GMT
Does anybody else see a number “1” below the heart? Might be just me, but is it possible to speculate this could mean this is album number 1 of a back 2 back album release cycle? 👀 omw I can't unsee it now! |
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theblueearl
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Post by theblueearl on Jan 13, 2022 8:59:01 GMT
I don't think it's a number as 1, it's just a wet paint dropping
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katy
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Post by katy on Jan 13, 2022 9:02:33 GMT
Re the “1” below the heart, I think it’s just meant to look like the string of a balloon, like the heart is a balloon round her name, rather than anything cryptic. Avril isn’t that organised  |
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Jinkxx
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Post by Jinkxx on Jan 13, 2022 9:56:45 GMT
Why does she not have red dipped hair on the cover? It's always that the cover has her plain blonde hair and when a cycle start the colors are there, look at GL with green/pink and now she has had rainbow hair and red dipped hair but not on the cover. Would be cool is she had such hair on this cover!
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StrongSweet
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Post by StrongSweet on Jan 13, 2022 9:56:49 GMT
It's just part of mimicking spray paint, no specific hint in my opinion Oh, it does hint something else but "1". It looks like the dropping of blood down from the tip of the heart - heartbreaking and bleeding i mean... she's literally looking at the album title tho haha. I do think that maybe it's bit dark in that zone and that myabe whote would've stood out more but that would've broken the color scheme consisentcy and making the red brigther is just a no-no. They did all they could i guess. What bothers me about the 'Bite Me' cover is probably that the ground and the background wall are miles away different and seems disconected somehow. I thought she just looking at where the light illuminating from... Anyway, that area has no light reflection likes directly photoshop some flated hue on it |
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ame · 雨
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Post by ame · 雨 on Jan 13, 2022 9:59:49 GMT
(ok this is going to be a long post so skip it if you're not interested) READ ONLY IF INTERESTED IN THE ALBUM COVER ESSAY (lol). But let me explain to you why this is her best album cover so far (from a photographer point of view, but not meaning i hold the truth or that my opinion can't be biased, i'm just talking from my experience and all that i've learned in the past 8 years doing photography)
- THE POSE: Now, it wouldn't be an avril cover album without a weird pose, would it? which is what i'm starting this essay with: her pose. That's the worst and probably the only "bad" or "not so good" thing about the cover. It's unconventional and a bit distracting and kinda shocking, now do i think that's a bad thing? -no. Her pose is pretty much memorable and it does give that first impression suprise which is good for the regular consumer or for streaming platforms such as spotify which is a dark-based theme meaning the constrast in colors will stand out, and also for stores where you just see a red spot with a lady in it spreading her legs across the picture: it works as capturing your attention. My critic comes from another place tho. I think the pose could've been better. just that. There's many dynamic poses to capture attention and this one is not the most flattering one nor it does give any sense to the meaning of the album, but then again: it's creative and original and i appreciate that they took the risk and go with something different and challenged themselves.
- THE COLORS: let me tell you that she made the best decision when she chose to go with red instead of any other color and here's why: red is a classic color, it always has been, it's elegant, aggresive, romantic and classy (perfect for the album theme). and the most improtant thing: it doesn't age. Other colors like blue, green, yellow or even white, function by trends, this decade is this shade of blue popular, but then the next decade it won't be. If you're somehow interested in photography or have been using instagram regulary i'm sure you could've seen the "blue nature" trend, where all the photographers tended to edit their pictures to make the nature (leaves, trees, grass) look more blue-ish instead of green. Now that trend is dead, now it the "warm and desaturated" greens that are trendy. That's just a small example but it happens with all the colors except 2: red and black. there are no other 2 colors in the whole chromatic circle more "classic" and "timeless" than red and black. It's really hard to mess up those 2 colors (yes, there are ugly shades of red, but it's hard to mess it up). Look at some of the biggest brands in history and they had at least one element of red, which is also the color that stands out the most. It gives the cover longevity and it can be considered beautiful in many years from now without a problem. To give some perspective, look at TBDT cover. The colors are awful. That wall is white.... but you're not seeing white, you're seeing a blue-ish tone of white, which is the result of a bad white balance in the camera settings or in the editing postproduction (or maybe both). Now the picture was taken by Deryck and he's not a professional so there's an excuse and maybe you could argue that the "vibes" were about being punk and not professional, which i get that, but a bad white balance can't be excused with such a lame argument in my opinion.
THE FONT: is great (?) like... i don't really understand why so many of you don't like it? it's pretty gothic and emo, and "sad" fitting the concept really well. Now... the thing that i didn't like at first was that her name was in 2 different lines (which is a first on her album titles) but then i saw why it was like that. The album title (plus her name) are supposed to represent a balloon, so i guess that's why her name is in 2 lines. And there's also the connection with the ballons in the picture. And as someone also said, representing this "celebration" that love just sucks. It's a pretty decent explenation to me and i don't need more than that to be honest.
THE COMPOSITION: the composition as mark said does feel a littel bit empty below her legs pretty much dividing the composition in 2 but i highly disagree with the album name placement since where it is, it's the onyl place where they could've put it and made the most sense out of it. let me explain: the composition is pretty straight foreward, central and lineal. you can divide the picture vertically into 3 parts and you'll notice her face, her hand and the ballons are in the center row. now, the left row is where the shadow lands and the 3rd right row is where the album title is. Meaning you have information all across the album cover where the shadow is not an "important" piece of information but with the album title being on the right side it gives a good balance to the cover.
Now the spreading legs across the cover may seem like a problem but it sort of gives an imaginary line as well, a diagonal line from the left corner to the rght corner. it's not a perfect line but it does the trick and with the backround lines where all the wall meet in the corner also helps to give some horizontal lines and stability to the picture. Overall, her spreading the legs it's almost acting like a piece of relief in comparisson to all the information you get on the upper part. Plus the parental content thing being in the left corner and very important: in black (to not break the color scheme) also gives another little element to balance the picture even more (with her left leg being sligthly closer to the camera, aka, lower in the composition frame). And also very important: the parental content thing connecting in a diagonal line with the album title as well.
This is literally the best composition we ever got from her (at least in a cover album). It's literally her best cover from a photographic point of view. and here's why its better:
- TRASHING THE OTHER COVERS: LG: the outfit is meh, the title album is hard to read, and while i like the effect of people moving and her standing still, the left part of the cover feels empty since there is no one there, therefore breaking the balance and making it look weird. the upper part is warm and not blue like the rest of the cover, breaking the color scheme and no, it's not intentional. They took the picture, applied a fancy effect on it and call it a day. It's "legendary" only because it's LG and it's not a bad cover, but it's far from being perfect. It gives the early 00s vibes and that's why it looks cool.
UMS: this had the potential to be her best cover and yet it's not. The black and white it's unnecesarry and it doesn't look good with the red elements. There was another 2 or 3 pictures almost from the exact same angle but slightly different with a little bit more of movement that would've made her look way better and not like she's hunched lol... and those pictures were also in color, they had a blue-ish tint to them that would've complimented the red elements way better since they are almost complementary colors. Therefore, ums had a great potential but it was not executed well.
TBDT: wrong white balance, they cropped her left shoulder for some reason? the wall.... the wall is terrible. i do like the idea of her grabbing her pink strak and her look but that's all.
GL: this could've been her best cover but she screwed up once again by choosing the wrong picture. The concept is flawless, very well executed, the lighting is perfect, her dress, her hair, her makeup, everything is beautiful except for one thing: her awful frog pose. like.... what the heck. anyways, there were many better picture from that photoshoot that could've made a better cover album and that's why it's not her best one. and i also kinda hate those little drawings acting as a frame... it's childish, distracting and outadet.
I don't think there's need to explain the terrible covers for AL and HAW so i'll leave it here.
So i know it's a long post, sorry about that but i just wanted to praise her and her team once again for doing such a great job. They clearly took the time with this one and even tho i have praised it so far, it's not perfect... no. But from an artistic and photographer point of view: it's a good picture. It's well executed and well edited, no weird colors, no werid retouches, nothing awful to complain about. Maybe a part of me wished it was something "more" and that maybe it had some more details or elements to it but maybe they tried and didn't work. As i said, it's probably not the best cover album in the world but it's definitely her best so far, and plus: an album cover doesn't have to be complex, it has to stand out, and as i said earlier, just by using red as the base color, it already stands out a lot. I have only good thigns to say about her and her team with this one, where maybe they didn't handled eveything perfectly since the era started but they clearly had some more artistic creativity and put more effort than ever into this project and it shows. And i'm thankful that she's finally taking a little bit more care of her visuals.
Sorry for the long post, oopsie.  i hope this helps to understand better what i mean (?) i'm not sure how the website where i uploaded the picture works so tell me if you're having problems. 😬 |
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Jinkxx
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Post by Jinkxx on Jan 13, 2022 10:01:00 GMT
^ I can't see the picture on a desktop windows 10 computer at work now. (also in the first post from gabbox I can't see the cover on this computer) |
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ame · 雨
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Post by ame · 雨 on Jan 13, 2022 10:04:26 GMT
^ I can't see the picture on a desktop windows 10 computer at work now. (also in the first post from gabbox I can't see the cover on this computer) what about now?: EDIT: oh God... ok, that's big 😂😂 i.postimg.cc/cZwMSghV/a8.jpg |
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StrongSweet
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Post by StrongSweet on Jan 13, 2022 10:26:52 GMT
^ I can't see the picture on a desktop windows 10 computer at work now. (also in the first post from gabbox I can't see the cover on this computer) what about now?: EDIT: oh God... ok, that's big 😂😂 i.postimg.cc/cZwMSghV/a8.jpg What kind of hierarchy is that you show in the middle top illustration? lol I don't know, there's nothing wrong you show us but the hierarchy is kind of funny, even you and me can't find a word to describe. |
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StrongSweet
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Post by StrongSweet on Jan 13, 2022 10:53:21 GMT
^ I can't see the picture on a desktop windows 10 computer at work now. (also in the first post from gabbox I can't see the cover on this computer) what about now?: EDIT: oh God... ok, that's big 😂😂 i.postimg.cc/cZwMSghV/a8.jpgInteresting, I think you can overlap her eyes with your line in that corner to corner visual flow. And for the diagonal composition, I don't even think the "corner to corner" is tied. I would exclude all the text graphic and reamin her eyes as the only tunnel to draw focus from middle to corner and then to the left bottom corner as destination. Therefore, face as starting off point, there are two slope composition that one ends at the bottom left and the other ends at top left |
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Erik
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Post by Erik on Jan 13, 2022 10:57:05 GMT
I want to pre-order but I’m wanting the deluxe lol
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mark
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Post by mark on Jan 13, 2022 10:58:59 GMT
I just love your passion for these things, Ame  You've made me appreciate the cover even more, but I still dislike the placement of the text. To me it would look more harmonious below her legs instead of being in a corner. I do get what they were trying to make with the balloons on one side and the font in a balloon-like shape on the other, but I don't think it works well. It find it more distracting than complementary. But other than that, I think this cover really stands out in her discography and I can see it becoming iconic. Someone posted all the covers side by side in the other album thread and it really showed just how special this one is. Regarding the couple kissing in the shadow of the balloons, I think it was totally accidental if I'm being honest. But it's a really nice touch and I kinda wish it was done intentionally and had a better execution because it makes the entire thing so much more conceptual. |
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gabbox
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Post by gabbox on Jan 13, 2022 10:59:18 GMT
Pre-Order on Spotify/Apple Music anyways if you have these services because it helps for playlists
The shadow of people kissing in the corner is not casual to me, it means the past "she was kissing with a guy" and then she's left alone because love sux. There's no other reason to me for the balloons to be in the cover otherwise, and her "not happy" expression: she is holding a good memory of the love in her hands but is sad anyways for how things have gone.
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MPone01
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Post by MPone01 on Jan 13, 2022 11:05:29 GMT
Pre-Order on Spotify/Apple Music anyways if you have these services because it helps for playlists The shadow of people kissing in the corner is not casual to me, it means the past "she was kissing with a guy" and then she's left alone because love sux. There's no other reason to me for the balloons to be in the cover otherwise, and her "not happy" expression: she is holding a good memory of the love in her hands but is sad anyways for how things have gone. Yes, it's like love is that shadow that follows her no matter what. |
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StrongSweet
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Post by StrongSweet on Jan 13, 2022 11:20:22 GMT
Pre-Order on Spotify/Apple Music anyways if you have these services because it helps for playlists The shadow of people kissing in the corner is not casual to me, it means the past "she was kissing with a guy" and then she's left alone because love sux. There's no other reason to me for the balloons to be in the cover otherwise, and her "not happy" expression: she is holding a good memory of the love in her hands but is sad anyways for how things have gone. Like totally, now I know what's the balloon for. |
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