JM - Analysing an Album Cover

For my analysis of an album cover I have chosen Kasabian's 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'



Step 1:

• Iconic signs: The enitre band are featured on the fron cover, looking into a mirror (notion of looking) that reflects their gaze directly back out at the audience (non-diegetic gaze). Each member is in costume, Tom (on the left) is dressed as a regal military general, Serge (to his right) is dressed as a priest, Ian (far right) appears to be dressed as a prince and Chris (sitting down) appears to be dressed as a shrink, or possibly a writer. Each member is holding an item; Tom a bottle, Serge what seems to be dagger, Ian a large golden ball and Chris a book.


• Linguistic signs: The only text that appears on the front cover of this album is the band name 'Kasabian'. It is situated at the bottom of the text, stretched across the width in large, red capitals.

Step 2:

Due to the lack of text on the page it is very difficult to make links between the visuals and the text. The picture of the band looking out of the text anchors the linguistics of 'KASABIAN' as we can relate the fact that the band are called Kasabian and therefore the people on the front cover must be Kasabian.

Step 3:

By using the band on the front cover it makes them easily identifiable. It builds their star image and shows us characteristics of the band. We can see that they are in costume, these costumes are outrageous and very distinguished, they do not conform to the stereotypical characteristics of the modern rock band. We would expect to see the band in jeans and other forms of casual clothing yet we see them in these costumes. This presents the idea to those who view the album cover that Kasabian are a very outrageous and unique band.

Having done some research into the album cover, it appears that the meaning behind the visuals are that each band member are in the 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum' mentioned in the album title (although not on the album cover) and they are dressing up for some kind of event. This would explain the lack of correlation in the costumes, there appears to be no set theme among them.

Step 4:

The indexical sign of this print text is that Kasabian are a very outrageous and 'out there' band. They like to see themselves as unique and different and project this in their star image in order for them not to conform to the stereotypical themes and appearance of the modern rock band. This therefore shows that any people who buy this product or associate themselves with this product are also seen, or see themselves, as outrageous and different. The album cover allows the audience to fit the same persona that Kasabian are defining and applying to themselves.