When we ask you guys to don your graphic designer caps and weigh in on new album cover art, we’re looking for interpretation as much as we’re hoping for erudite “sucks donkey balls” slams. Some covers elicit more speculation and feedback than others, and Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank was a prime example. Commenter tinyjudas said:
What with all the pointy triangles, looks like that balloon’s in real trouble. Lucky its only carrying an anchor.
El Payo offered:
That cover would lead one to believe that the title refers to death from lack of oxygen at high altitude rather than death by drowning. The ’ship’ is an airship and ’sinking’ would mean slowly falling back to Earth.
And perhaps most relevantly, Fred said:
its no avocado.
Nope it’s not; there can be only one. So whenever possible, we like to drum up the band’s perspective. Brock explains in the latest Entertainment Weekly:
The picture on the cover is a hot-air balloon with an anchor instead of a basket. It’s an idea I came up with because it represents stasis — the balloon will never go up or down. It’s just a general feeling I have about everything: Every time we seem to cure or solve something, another problem pops up.
If you need a refresher on that glass-half-empty, check the original artwork after the jump.
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what great imagery. i like the metaphor. no donkey balls to be sucked here.
O.K., so I get the balloon/anchor metaphor, but what the hell are the stupid triangles. All they do is take away from the strong concept. Nice idea, poor execution.
i can almost hear the discussion:
“the balloon is too small”
“ok, but if it’s bigger, it looks unbalanced”
“we need something around the balloon”
“lightning bolts?”
“wrong mood. halo?”
“nope. vaguely retro triangles?”
“bingo”
Float On, Bitches.
did anyone look at the artwork for ‘good news…’?? its part of that albums as well, nothing new at all, just more prominently featured.
The triangles make it look like one of those “just-had-an-idea” lightbulbs that appear above a character’s head in a cartoon..
since you made that photoshop post, all i can think of is britney’s spear’s bald head
I was thinking the same thing as ‘m’. This balloon has been around since the promo artwork for ‘Good News…’. Also the art on the CD itself is exactly the same only different colors. Both those CD’s nearly the same as the ‘long drive’ CD art.
Recycling album artwork is about as cool as re-recording old songs for new albums(I’m looking at you Arcade Fire), which is to say it’s not cool at all.
That being said, the album is still decent.
Technically pearl jam were not the first band to use an avocado for their cover. Hellogoodbye’s first EP used one as well.
isn’t the balloon/anchor a tattoo of Isaacs?
Is it just me, or was the composition and color scheme for ‘Good News…’ much more contemporary, more throughly conceived and well, just prettier?
This album’s cover art seems to lack all of the unifying aesthetics and homogeneity that ‘Good News…’ had.
They get hugely popular… but the album art they choose could have been better made by a high school art student.
Fuuuuug. I have an older MM poster made by the same designers.
http://www.modestmouse.com/cart/cart.php?target=product&product_id=95&category_id=2
Same triangles? Caught my eye after thinking how much they detract from the image.
Pearl Jam aren’t the only one with the Avocado for their cover – look at funky popsters Hellogoodbye and their ‘Avocado EP’ – http://www.amazon.com/Hellogoodbye/dp/B00066VU3E/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-2193422-7352141?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1176478511&sr=8-2
does anyone think that the “Good News For People Who Love Bad News” is the fact that We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank?
it’s kind of like the triangles are the balloon shouting “what the hell!? can’t i at least go somewhere??”
I like it.
lets talk about that for awhile.