tothetune | Blog Post: Jeff Watson

If 5 people take a picture of the same thing, at the same time, most likely you're going to get 5 different pictures. So it's not really as simple as me going out to the desert and taking a picture. There's the way it's processed (in both printing and running it through something like photoshop and the like), the light at the time, the composition, the color (for example the contrasting blues and orange is really nifty here).

This cover does have some thought and time behind it and I would hope that people stop deriding it as boring just because it doesn't have a ton different elements that immediately jump out at you on it.

I think the cover is quite beautiful, probably my favorite of all of theirs so far. I liked the print when I saw it and I can't stop staring at my copy. To me, it's a captivating image and it hasn't gotten old.

Never said it was boring, actually said I liked the pic and I know all this. Personal taste about album covers and the fact that I was expecting a different pic that the one we'd already seen are different matters...so I won't argue anymore.

*sighs*^

Don't worry, I get what you're saying. After all the thought they put into the aesthetic of the trailer, their outfits, the twitters and everything, you just thought they'd get more creative with the cover. You don't have to think the picture is ugly or dislike it itself to think that it's boring considering everything else that has gone into the release up until now. You just thought the actual cover would be a bit more exciting and surprising. I thought so too. Oh well.

What isn't creative about it, exactly? Why don't you think they put a lot of thought into it? It seems to match the aesthetic perfectly.

Yes, it obviously matches the aesthetic since they are in the desert. I get it. But it's a photo of the desert. Excuse me for thinking that is a bit lack luster.

Seriously, what did you want the cover to be? Some of the most classic and timeless covers have been just pictures or just quiet subtle elements. That's what this is to me.

You don't need to be excused, this is obviously a difference in taste. I'm just explaining my own.

Something a bit more vibrant, colorful and fun. Possibly something a bit more destructive and/or morbid but done in a tasteful and humorous way.

I see. To me the photo is pretty vibrant, it's not the trailer levels of vibrant but I don't think it should be. I think it is quieter but in kind of an eerie way which I enjoy and it catches your eye. I definitely don't think there should be anything humorous or morbid about the cover because while I think the trailer and Na Na Na are fun and humorous, who knows if that will gel with the entire album but that's an interesting POV.

I think people are viewing the cover with the one song we've heard in mind and I think that's folly.

I think the cover matches pretty well with the short ending of the trailer. Where it goes from being vibrant and fun to sort of dark and forlorning. I love the way they are all staring out into the distance looking a bit dreary, possibly nervous or worried about something that is completely unknown to the viewers. It could be absolutely nothing or it could be something they are afraid of, but the part when Gerard masks up and says "Let's go" gives me chills because whatever it is, at that point they pretty much decide to go into it head long. It's actually my favorite part of the entire thing. So yeah, I see how it fits for the cover as a whole. For whatever reason though, I was just thinking they'd go with something different.

I really love that ending too. I felt like it was the beginning of, as you say, them going for it...I can't wait to see what the whole video will be like, now that they're doing one!

I really wish you weren't anon, Anon. Because I like the way your mind works. and you're the only person elequently debating the positives of this image. I love it myself.

It's a fine image: dawn in the desert - as an intro to the album, it's perfect. And then there's the spider - the Killjoys literally putting their mark on the desert. Also, the spider itself is a metaphor of the band/the Killjoys - eight legs to the wall- four dudes, eight legs.

Also this whole desert imagery: The desert has such a special place in the American psyche, right? From Manifest Destiny, to John Wayne, to Los Alamos, to Jack Kerouack...the desert is America's sub conscious, it's back yard, it's where Jesus went to hear God, it's a place where flying saucers and billion dollar jackpots sit side by side. It's fucking freaky. There's so much going on in that image it's not even funny.

Then there's the fact that this is an image Frank took, which is just another way in which the band are claiming back everything about their look and sound and style for themselves and making it new.

Also, Gerard said that all of this - the aethetic, the imagery all of it has been some two years in the planning and making. That image is important. It's contemplative. It's beautiful. It's good.

Finally, we got 6 crazy assed twitter accounts jabbering at us, a trailer that is both awesome and hilarious, AND which they are turning into a full length music video because we demanded it, regular tweets from the band members, blog posts (infrequent, but often hilarious), art works signed by the band, an awesome single (seriously, it has saved my life this song), a mini tour of Europe and Frank's kids names drawn on pumpkins even though he had been keeping them private. WHAT THE FUCK ELSE DO YOU PEOPLE WANT? How much will be enough? Holy shit. That's the album cover. OK? Deal with it. It could have been the album cover for the past two years for all you know. Sometimes the complaining, it just seems so frikken ungrateful.

Sorry, I got a little pissed here, but really. This band gives the fans SO much, but they always seem to want more. It makes me very uneasy.

All of this hasn't been two years in the making. It started when they decided to change the direction of their album. I don't see anyone acting ungrateful or demanding that the cover be changed or saying anything out of the way about the band or the album itself just because they don't like the cover. We're not expecting it to be changed and we're not asking for them to cater to exactly what we want. People are looking too much into it and getting too personally offended just because someone doesn't like something that they do.

It's funny too because *essentially* it's art, it's subjective. Some people will like it and some will not. That's how art works.

It's pretty simple, some people just don't like the cover. Nothing more and nothing less.

Edited 2010-10-05 23:55 (UTC)

Gerard said in an interview just last week at KROQ that things that went into the imagery going with this album have been two years in in the making. You can watch the video of the interview and see him say it yourself.

I'm sorry I mistook "I thought it'd be better" for being ungrateful. I find that kind of whining distastful, though. My mistake.

I'm quite aware of differing tastes. I'm refering to the fact that there are people saying "I like it fine, I just wanted more of a surprise". Why? Why do fans of this band always want more and more?

I don't care if you like it or don't like it. That's fine. But art, subjective thing that is, is also open to debate. Really good art should encourage it even. So I guess, the image, like it or love it, is doing it's job.

Forgive me, but "It's just the desert, that's boring. I've already seen this image. I thought there'd be ray guns. Spiders scare me." seems limp as far as some arguments go.

I, personally, like it a lot and think there is more going on in the image than some commenters I have read seem to think. But that's just me.

What I really object to is people behaving like the band using an image we've already seen is letting the fans down. It just seems childish.

Gerard says a lot of things. Prior to that interview and even ones after, he says they didn't start working on that sort of thing until they scrapped the first album and decided they wanted to start over because their first record didn't have any concept at all. In the Nylon interview after they had started over, he said that they had just started working with the woman who did the costumes for TBP for their 2nd attempt at the album.

I find it pretty funny that people are arguing so much about it either way. It's an album cover ffs. It doesn't add or detract from what the album itself is going to sound like. It's a photograph. I can't believe that people not liking it, for whatever reason is bothering other people so much. No one has to justify their reason for not liking it, whatever it may be, and them not liking it doesn't mean that they are whining distastefully or being ungrateful. They are opinions, as I've said over and over, opinions on a photograph, "arguing" points as to why you like or dislike it is redundant because it's not like anyone is going to listen to someone else and change their mind about it either way. And there's no need to call people childish and seem so self righteous and condescending in your stance.

With that, I am just no longer going to respond to anything here. Obviously this is a round about "debate" that is going absolutely nowhere because everyone sees things the way they see them and that is fine.

Geez, don't get angry about it. Sheesh, It's just a picture.

INORITE? So lazy omg. It's like they just totally slapped it together. We deserve more.

I would have liked a rainbow with a trans am traveling it's way across it.

+1

with a giant space squid flying in the background. for real.

I for one am disappointed with the lack of robots and unicorns locked in combat for the fate of mankind.

OPEN YOUR EYES, I SEE -YOUR EYES ARE OPEN

That's exactly what I meant, yes -except for the boring part. Never meant to insult the picture since I do like it a lot.

Seriously, why do people get SO defensive here when someone has a differing opinion. It's absolutely ridiculous. Some people not liking that they chose that picture for the cover obviously isn't going to change the cover and it doesn't lessen the fact that YOU like it. If you like it fine, if you don't fine. There is no need to jump down someones throat for stating their opinion, just as you are, just because they don't agree with you. There is no right or wrong. You're obviously just seeing things in two different ways. There's no need to go into a tangent basically trying to point out how you think someone is wrong or their view is lesser than yours because it's not yours. It's not like anyone said, "this picture is ugly and stupid and completely lacking any creativity or originality." We're basically saying we expected something a little more exciting, not that they "should" have or that they owe it to us.

It seems like people are discussing the whys and why nots of why they like it and why they don't and sharing their different thoughts on taste. Some people enjoy discussing design, it's obvious you don't. You seem to be getting unnecessarily angry over it, perhaps you should chill.

The comment above mine was pretty condescending. I meant to reply to that one specifically but I was logged in to a different journal and got mixed up trying to log back in.

Doesn't seem condescending to me.

Blog Post: Jeff Watson

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OR ROBOT UNICORN!?

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