Conventions of a CD front/rear cover

Conventions of a CD front/rear cover

Abbey road - Beatles
This is the album cover and rear cover off the Beatles album 'Abbey Road'. Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band the Beatles. It is their last recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band's dissolution in 1970. Work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, and the album was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States.
The album was released amid tensions within the band. Although it was a commercial success, it received mixed reviews from music critics who found its music inauthentic and criticized the production's artificial effects. Since its initial reception, the album has been viewed by many critics as the Beatles' greatest work and is ranked by several publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. Abbey Road remains their best-selling album.  

Design and layout
Iain Stewart Macmillan (20 October 1938 – 8 May 2006) was the Scottish photographer famous for taking the cover photograph for The Beatles' album Abbey Road in 1969. After growing up in Scotland, he moved to London to become a professional photographer. He used a photo of Yoko Ono in a book he published in 1966 and was invited by Yoko to photograph her exhibit at Indica Gallery. She introduced him to John Lennon. John invited him to be the photographer for the cover of Abbey Road. He worked with the Lennons for several years even staying for a while at their home in New York.

Use of visual images
On the front cover there is a picture of the band walking across a zebra crossing. Paul McCartney has no shoes in this which made people think is he dead or alive.   

Use of text
On the front cover of the album there is small bold white text in the corner, it is in the corner as it is not the main focus of the front cover. On the rear cover they use the same writing for each of the songs as well as the colour. They also have the same on the back of the album in bigger writing in white.  

Genre
This genre is rock.

Representation of ideas about the band

For Beatles obsessives with fevered imaginations, it was ultimate proof of the bizarre theory of the time - that Paul McCartney was, in fact, dead.
According to the legend, Paul had died in a car accident and been replaced by an impostor. The band, it was said, subsequently felt guilty about the deception, and so placed hidden clues on the album cover for their fans. Even today, despite the apparent rude health of McCartney, they insist that if you look closely at the images on the front and back of the album it is packed with deathly symbolism.

Sinners never sleep - You me at six
This is the ablum cover and rear cover of You Me At Six's album 'Sinners Never Sleep'. Sinners Never Sleep is the third full length record from English alternative rock band You Me at Six. The album was released on 30 September 2011 and was released through Virgin Records in the UK, Australia and New Zealand on 3 October 2011. The album was then released in the United States on 24 January 2012. The first and lead single, "Loverboy" was released on 23 September 2011, and was followed by "Bite My Tongue" which was released on 28 November 2011. Their third single from the album, titled, "No One Does It Better" was released on 8 April 2012. The fourth and last single to be released from the album, titled, Reckless was released on 22 October 2012. Sinners Never Sleep peaked at No. 3 on UK Charts and was certified Gold in the UK for 150,000 sales, giving it the band's biggest success to date.

Design and layout and Use of visual images and Use of text
The front cover shows someone holding up a mugshot letter board you’d expect to find in a police station, with the letters spelling out the band name and album title. It’s hinted by the black nails and tank top that the person holding it is a woman (possibly not) suggesting that the majority of the audience for this band may be female. The police board suggest that the band are rebellious, constantly getting into trouble. The band are presented this way on purpose to relate to the alt. rock genre and so that the audience look up to their iconography.

The image is in black and white, which makes the letters stand out more, also reflects on the sort of ‘grungey’ dark vibe that might be expected of alt. Rock, this is teamed up with the darker effects around the boarder that make the image look more aged and battered. The back of the digipak is a photo of all five band members, the same grainy effect is used, following the black and white, dark, grungey colour scheme shown on the front cover and the song list. The band are stood in front of a white with black background, it almost looks like the photo has been stuck onto a separate background, they’re all making direct address, looking out at the audience, which makes them relate more to the band. They’re all in dark clothing to fit the rock image, and the lead, who’s positioned in the very front-middle has got the typical dark clothes, dark messy hair look that’s clique in modern rock or pop rock. Inside of the actual digipak, there are individual photos of each band member with a police board, mugshot style, black and white, (possibly some sepia filters too) in front of a white background. This reinforces the hint given on the front cover that they’re rebellious.  None of them are smiling, mainly because it is a ‘mug shot’ type photo but also to enforce the seriousness of this album compared to their previous ones. The black and white theme, with decaying boarder effects also give this impression too.

Genre
Alternative rock, pop punk, post-hardcore


Representation of ideas about the band

‘Sinners Never Sleep’ is noticeably more mature than their previous two albums, ‘Take Off Your Colours’ and ‘Hold Me Down’, with the band distancing themselves from the popular and slightly manufactured pop-punk music that have earned them their success, and now exploring a somewhat heavier, artistic sound.

The album opens on ‘Loverboy’, a strong single that will be stuck on repeat in your head all day and effectively bridges the gap between ‘Hold Me Down’ and the new album.

Hot on its heels are ‘Jaws On the Floor’, where the jaw-dropping guitar riff is matched by punchy lyrics; and then ‘Bite My Tongue’ – the song that is the epitome of the band’s refreshing honesty throughout the album. Frontman Josh Franceschi delivers cutting lyrics towards his band mates such as “I’ll watch you fall apart, cos in the end what are you without me?” laying bare for the first time the band’s inner disharmony which drove them to near collapse. Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon makes a guest appearance at the end of the track, and Winston McCall from Parkway Drive appears later on in the album, in the track ‘Time Is Money’. The screamo cameos seem quite pointless in that the band’s own performance is more powerful than the guests’, so the only reason to feature them must be to use big names to reach out to a wider audience.

The rest of the album is made up of a delicious assortment of infectious, bouncy songs as well as sweet, intimate ballads .The highlight of the album for me is ‘The Dilemma’, capturing your attention immediately, it opens with Josh singing in an almost Cockney accent, which you may think sounds weird, but it builds to a catchy chorus, and with an infectious riff threaded throughout, this song is fun, individual and intelligent - and instantly lovable.