A very striking photo is featured on this cover. A photo that speaks to me. So much that when I had the opportunity for a 1 question interview I decided the question should be about the cover art (and I got a fascinating answer: One Question Interviews: Svdestada | Features | Scene Point Blank). The composition, the lighting and colourscheme are chosen superbly.

Back in the days I saw a cover for a Grinding Halt release and was struck with awe. I loved it (to be clear, both the music and the art). It was then that I became a bit of a Mara Piccione fanboy. It surprises me that the imagery that is so very clearly Mara Piccione is not featured more often in our annual list. Well, here we are correcting our past wrongs.

Earlier this year I was in Brussels and visited a museum with an exhibition dedicated to Magritte. I saw a couple of artworks that must have been a source of inspiration for the cover of this fantastic album. It is a modern execution of the ideas I saw in the museum and to be fair: it is so well done I think it deserves to be framed in a museum.

I am not 100% sure this artwork fits the music (Santacrue playing very evocative doomy post-metal), but Guillem Bosch made an cover for the album that caught my attention and got me to listen to the album, so I guess his work was successful. It is an piece of art that I can’ t stop looking at. It tickles my imagination: where are we? What is about to happen? Why do I feel it is going to be life changing? Very neatly executed!

This is the second time Regarde is featured in this list. This time with a different artist. It suggests to me that Regarde thinks the artwork of their releases is as important as their music. This artwork is not as striking to me as the art of The Blue And You, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. When I look at it, the (human?) figure steps in and out of focus, making the art change to something completely abstract. A nice effect that is harder to reach than one might think. 

This striking artwork reminds me of that whole deconstructed trend from not too long ago. Only now there is something wrong, something is broken. And that makes the art so much stronger. That bit of a mess also gives room to play. If the art isn’t perfect, there is no need to be afraid to make something that is not perfect. In fact, it makes this so much more striking and beautiful. Maybe I am reading way to much into this, but to me, this picture tells me making mistakes is not only OK, it can lead to the best results.