The new Eddie Vedder CD "
Ukulele Songs" has a memorable cover and beautiful detailed packaging. It's worth your money just for the cover and artwork, although the music is excellent, too (It's totally different than Pearl Jam, so open your mind.) I don't want to sound older than I am, but this artwork is a pleasure to see.
For years, the art form of album/CD covers seemed to be forgotten. When CD's first came out, some didn't have ANYTHING on the inside covers. No lyrics, no musician credits, no pictures, nothing. Actually, some had mumbo jumbo about cleaning the disc, source noise, and the attempt to preserve the original sound as closely as possible.
Artists work hard on cover and packaging concepts as part of the expression of their ideas. Leaving them out or compromising those ideas is just plain wrong. Would
Dark Side Of The Moon (awesome stickers,)
Led Zeppelin 3 (cut-out art you could spin,) Some Girls (rotating faces and wigs,) Kiss Alive 2 (tattoos and concert program,) or
Waiting For The Sun (entire "Celebration of The Lizard" lyrics printed inside,) have been the same without the memorable artwork? Nope.
So kudos to
Eddie Vedder for putting out a really different sounding album, with hand printed lyrics and pages of photos that sum up the feeling of the music. Here's hoping more artists embrace their inner classic album packaging. And maybe Congressman Anthony Weiner will put out an album with a real zipper on it. Oh wait, that's been done.
