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Lauren Asher
Joseph Cunningham
English 2089
February 21, 2013
Under the Cover
A trip to the music store can be akin to a trip to the art museum, with the different genres
neatly divided to personalize each visitor’s experience. Album covers are more than just a
marketing tool meant to attract customers to particular CDs. Album covers are works of art,
encompassing the feelings and lyrics of the music represented. This is accomplished through the
use of genre tropes, the elements that categorize a piece as belonging to a particular genre.
Music, through both lyric and melody, draws the listener into the musician’s world, engulfing a
person in the emotions and meaning the artist portrays. A song of anger can ignite the flame of
antagonism in a person, reminding them of past wrongs and the strong wash of emotion attached
to those memories. Music is chosen by a listener based on these feelings and interpretations,
often based on the listener’s ability to identify with them personally (Aaltonen, Holm, and
Siirtola 87). Though an album cover is a visual form and music is an auditory and verbal form of
communication both can achieve a similar objective and evolve from the same genre. The album
cover for This Desert Life by the Counting Crows evokes the same dream-like qualities and
emotive effects as the soundtracks of the album, in particular Colorblind, and both use elements
of surrealism to create a tone of sadness.
The album cover for This Desert Life, created by Dave McKean (Michaelides and Panaou
62), depicts, in the forefront, what appears to be a man in a suit and tie. Rather than a normal
head and neck, though, his is replaced with a fishbowl and the two goldfish swimming in it.
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Atop the fishbowl is a bowler hat to match the suit ensemble. Through the fishbowl can be seen
the background color which overwhelms the majority of the piece. Oddly, the color is a shade of
yellow, typically inducing thoughts of happiness and sunshine. Much like the lyrics of the
music, though, this is deceiving. This particular shade of yellow appears murky and tainted, with
the most clarity being behind the fishbowl, further drawing attention to this area. The rest of the
canvas has a rusted tint that adds a dark, almost dingy tone. In the background is a vague, simple
landscape made up simply of the dark, shadowy ground, a large boulder, and what appears to be
a leaning tree in shades of black and deep brown. These qualities categorize this piece as surreal
as well as adding the aura of emotion that affects the viewer. This image emits a tone of subdued
sadness covered by a wry sense of humor, with undertones of loneliness. The CD for this album
repeats the artwork of the fishbowl, complete with fish, encompassing the entire disc.
Perhaps this is a statement of how the music within this album represents the artists, with
their feelings, thoughts, and dreams as translucent as the fishbowl. Adam Duritz, the lead singer
of Counting Crows, is also the writer of all of the band’s lyrics (Wild). The passion and sincerity
of Duritz is evident in the sound produced. The instrumentals of Colorblind create a melancholy
tone, with a simplicity bordering on monotone but instead depicting purity and infallibility. The
lyrics are sung in the gritty, raw voice of Duritz and the listener can’t help but to feel the vivid
and soulful unloading of the singer. The song seems to depict the act of stripping away one’s
defenses and becoming vulnerable, bringing out emotions of sadness, loneliness, fear and even
hope. Counting Crows is known for this type of “bleak, intimate song cycle” (Wild).
Counting Crows, in songs such as Colorblind, embodies the model of surrealism by
exposing “inner voices [that] have the potential to shed light on the human condition, divided as
it is between conscious and unconscious realities” (Conley 297). According to Telfer, surrealist
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art attempts to be “illogical, fanciful, and puzzling” (20). Colorblind fits this definition, creating
a dream-like atmosphere with a gentle tempo, low key melody, and lyrics such as “pull me out
from inside/I am folded and unfolded and unfolding/I am/colorblind” (Duritz). Outside of the
context of the song, the words seem nonsensical. Paired with the instrumentals and the soulful,
pained voice of Adam Duritz, the song becomes an emotional journey as it takes the listener
through fear and pain and hope with just a change of tone (Stecker 414). Colorblind unravels
feelings in the listener that exist but feel as if they have long gone unacknowledged and
unnamed. This grasp for the “naked truth” or “essence” within people is a trope within the
surrealist genre that artists attempt to mimic (Hibbett 61).
The images depicted by surrealist artists imitate this quality of inner depth and discovery
by producing works that are “fantastically imaginary yet utterly recognizable” (Conley 302),
creating a dream effect that absorbs the viewer in the quest for meaning. By using the familiar
image of a man’s body dressed in suit and tie, McKean guides the viewer to question why the
head was replaced with a fishbowl, leaving typical rational thought patterns behind and defying
the need to organize into typical compartments. An inquisitive mind begins to work on this
piece, trying to define the meaning or reason for this displacement of normal objects. According
to Stecker, “a painting can be seen as a visualization of the contents of someone’s mind” (416).
Surrealists such as McKean convey their inner thoughts and visions to introduce the audience to
this inner depth and attempt to open the minds of the viewers to this same place in themselves
(Hobbs 299).
To create expression of emotion, the artist uses this technique to “suggest without
spelling out the meaning of their art” (Hobbs 302). McKean further guides the cover art to draw
out emotions of sadness and loneliness with subtle elements. The background images appear
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desolate, making the foreground character appear alone. Limiting colors to shades of brown and
yellow further isolates the character while giving the piece an apathetic, lifeless impression.
People often associate loneliness and apathy with sadness, so although nothing on the cover
appears definitively sad, the emotion is implied.
A similar method is used in the creation of sadness in Colorblind. None of the lyrics are
explicitly sad or portray sad images, yet the tone is undeniable. As the vocals begin gritty and
raw, seeming to almost crack at times, the listener gets a sense of uneasiness or apprehension
from the song. Repetition in the piano keys and lyrics creates a sense of building up and then
withdrawing, indicating fear or apprehension. Duritz sings “I am covered in skin/no one gets to
come in”, creating the image that he is trying to shelter his private self. He then goes on to say
“pull me out from inside” as if hopeful that an external force will help to draw him out of his
shell, indicating a sense of hope. The small sound of bells in higher notes in the background and
the hushed quality of the lyrics also adds an element of hope. As all instruments aside from the
piano fade in the end, Duritz’s voice again sounds alone and vulnerable. All of these elements
take the listener through the feelings of fear, apprehension, hope and vulnerability that are
commonly felt when exposing private thoughts or feelings to another.
The cover art and the song Colorblind are forms of art evoking a sense of sadness and
loneliness through surrealism. The techniques used by each encourage the audience to look
within themselves and explore the thoughts and meanings of the pieces, serving the purpose of
surreal art by evoking these wonderings and new ways of thinking. Emotions are often drawn
out from such artworks based on the state of the audience, with most people seeking out that with
which they feel a connection. A person who is absorbed in the emotions of fresh love and hope
will tend toward music and visual art that reflects this inner state. Likewise, a person who feels
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lonely and is seeking validation will seek out material that expresses such. By using cover art
that seems to define the emotions and turmoil of the music within an album, artists appeal to
their listeners and help those listeners to form a connection. A visit to the entertainment store,
browsing through titles and covers, becomes a discovery of intimate connections with the artist.
The customer becomes a person, raw with exposed emotion and fulfilled by the connection and
affirmation the artist provides. They are not alone, because for this art to so accurately depict
what they feel means that someone else has felt it also. This is the intent of cover art and music
derived from similar genres to create a particular tone, to serve as a beacon to those that are
searching for a connection.
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Works Cited
Aaltonen, Antti. Holm, Jukka. Siirtola, Harri. “Associating Colours with Musical Genres”.
Journal of New Music Research Vol 38 No 1 (2009): 87-100. Web. 9 February 2013.
Conley, Katharine. “Surrealism’s Ghostly Automatic Body”. Contemporary French and
Francophone Studies Vol 15 No 3 (June 2011): 297-304. Web. 9 February 2013.
Duritz, Adam. “Colorblind”. This Desert Life. Geffen, 1999. CD.
Hibbett, Ryan. “What Is Indie Rock?”. Popular Music and Society Vol 28 No 1 (February
2005): 55-77. Web. 8 February 2013.
Hobbs, Robert C. “Early Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism”. Art Journal (Winter 1985):
299-302. Web. 8 February 2013.
McKean, Dave. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. 1997.
Michaelides, Frixos. Panaou, Petros. “Dave McKean’s Art: Transcending limitations of the
graphic novel genre”. Bookbird 49,4 (2011): 62-67. Web. 12 February 2013.
Stecker, Robert. “Expression of Emotion in (Some of) The Arts”. The Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism (1984): 409-418. Web. 8 February 2013.
Telfer, Tori. “The Surrealists Dream Up Art”. Ask 11.2 (February 2012): 20-21. Web. 9 February
2013.
Wild, David. “Birds on a Wire”. Rolling Stone Issue 685 (June 30, 1994):46. Web. 12 February
2013.