Top Ten 4AD Covers, What's Yours?

A reader got in touch with me recently and asked me to do a feature on my top 4AD cover designs (Thanks Ar Ti).

The late seventies and early eighties independent music labels became renowned for their artwork. Of course 4AD, along with Factory, became synonymous for a label identity created through their cover art. All art is so very subjective. I did a blog entry on my favourite 4AD albums, but I'm sure there were many people that scratched their heads wondering why I picked what I did. I think visual art is even more subjective and opinion seemingly more open to ridicule. Nevertheless, I know what I like and why. My opinion has been asked for so I shall give it.

It is my opinion though which tends to cause some arguments. I have always had an issue between the lines of art and function or art and business. The past couple of decades have seen very clever people in business using clever strategy to sell something as art, that basically isn't art at all. Many of us are drawn to limited numbers, a special opportunity to experience something that only the appreciative will get to experience, but marketing anything as limited doesn't make it an instant collectible. Limited edition Mars bar anyone? In a similar way, just because something is marketed as art, doesn't make it art in my opinion. Designers are the problem. That half way house where an artist uses their talent to spruce up a functional item. While I respect the talent, I think many of these examples are simply not art. If a ceramic artist creates a cup, it's still a cup, no matter how talented the artist is. Selling it as a piece of art is just marketing. A cup is not made to represent any kind of emotional state or to represent the feelings or despair of its maker, it's simply to drink out of. A car is a functional item and, while it is nice to drive a nice looking car, it's not a work of art. Instead it is an object that has had the food budget of a third world country spent on it just to get potential buyers to go weak at the knees at the sight of it rolling around the streets of an eerily deserted city road.

The music industry is where sonic art meets visual art and a greater clash between representation and pure marketing uncomfortably meet. There's a blurred line between music made purely for commerce, cleverly marketed and packaged as the "real deal" against music made by artists that primarily make music to express themselves. My opinion is that designers for labels such as Factory and 4AD, although true artists, inadvertently helped blur the lines between function and art. For me album design is just on the right side of art, like a beautiful piece of painting on the side of a cup. The cup isn't neccasirly art, but the painting is. It doesn't matter how much artistic talent a designer has, if their work is poured into a functional item, for me the item doesn't become art.

But then I am an over opinionated walrus!!!

I've always loved the visual side of collecting music. I was always in awe of Roger Dean's designs in the seventies of strange other worlds on his Yes album covers. There was nothing better than sitting listening to Budgie's Never Turn Your Back On A Friend while studying the gorgeous full colour gatefold sleeve

I always thought that the Cocteau Twins cover design for Love's Easy Tears was very similar to Pink Floyd's Meddle

Anyway, onto my top ten 4AD covers, in no particular order, let's get on with it...


1 - Birthday Party - Junkyard

You may think that I would completely bow down to 23 Envelope but thats not true. I don't care for popular opinion or trend of thought. Just because I love much of what 4AD produced, there is no rulebook that says I have to be elitist in my personal taste.

This picture was created by an artist called Ed Roth who was a custom car designer and builder who put his talents into cartoons and illustrations. His character Rat Fink (with the gun) was a sort of alternative Mickey Mouse. I think that this cartoon represents the music perfectly, tight and structured while on the verge of chaos and both simultanious implosion and explosion.

2 - Dead Can Dance - Aion poster

Not the actual cover, but the UK tour poster. I like the actual cover of the album itself which is a very small part of the Garden Of Earthy Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. The poster covers the tour around the UK for the Aion album, a tour I had a chance to witness but regrettably I didn't go to. The tour poster is probably my favourite peice of 4AD artwork and looks fantastic framed and displayed. The quality of the colour and print is remarkable and must have cost a sweet sum to have had printed. If you ever get a chance to purchase this, you won't be disappointed. Of course the album is amazing too and featured in my Top 10 4AD Albums list (in fact, a lot do, so am I biased towards the sleeve design).

3 - Dead Can Dance - Within The Realm of a Dying Sun

This cover always reminds me of Joy Division's Closer album cover in a small way. It's a step between life and death as the figure almost looks like an actual person cloaked and not an actual statue in a graveyard. The cover's photograph was taken in Paris, at the Père-Lachaise cemetery. It features the grave of the politician Raspail. Can you get more gothic than this and could the music be anymore gothic as well. Another fine example of the cover reflecting the mood of the music therein.

4 - Colourbox - Baby I love You So

I'm a sucker for reds. I know nothing about the images on this release, I just love the feel of the image. Very velvety. Let's hope that somewhere out there, there exists a poster for this. For me the font and text are irrelevant. "Sacriledge!" I hear you scream, but this is where function has to be performed for me. This would be even better without the text, yet maybe the 45 in the centre I would let stay. Don't get me wrong, the choice and style of font and the presentation of text is amazing, but it is functional in my opinion and would be better without it. But needs must as the devil grinds the marketing wheel. Still an amazing cover though

5 - Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares - Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares

Used for the background of this blog. Reminds me of a drowned former glamourous life like a memory on a sea floor of some luxury liner. I wouldn't say the music is as atmospheric as the cover suggests, perhaps one small example of where the cover doesn't always accurately reflect the music within. I love the music on this album, but Bulgarian folk music can be quite harsh and beautiful at the same time, something not really reflected here. Still as a piece of artwork stood alone, it's a magical piece of photography.

6 - Pixies - Doolittle

The original UK release of Doolittle came as such a great package. A plastic bag with the cover printed on it, a full colour 12" 16 page booklet and an inner sleeve. Also 4AD sold a set of postcards with the artwork from the booklet. This is a full art set, an amazing collection of photography reflecting the songs of the album. The graphical element added to the overall look of the artwork and fits the metronomic feel of the songs. The images fit so well with the music on the album, even if the cover is overtly obvious with it's interpretation of the song Monkey Gone To Heaven, the artworks only negative reflection.

7- Coctea Twins - Treasure

Maybe it's because V23 liked to reflect the music in their covers that I like a lot of the covers for Cocteau Twins releases. I like the music and the covers reflect the music, so it should go that I like the covers as well.

This cover for me is very gothic. Hints of the Victorian and a melancholic wedding. The use of material gives you a reminder to your senses of something that you have have touched before and felt in your fingers, material that feels soft to the skin but coarse between a finger and thumb. Eerie and beautiful, it looks almost derelict, decaying. Incredible gothic beauty


8 - Cocteau Twins - The Spangle Maker

Victiorialand would be included in my top ten except for the beige surround which ruins the cover. But The Spangle Maker is a beautiful piece of work.

The original UK release came with an embossed sleeve where the frame was slightly raised around the photograph by Gertrude Käsebier called The Crystal Gazer. Once again that Victorian feel blends with the gothic feel of the music and the blurred, distorted edges reflect the wash of effects used on the Cocteau Twins signature guitar sound. There are no fonts and text needed here. The tour poster is quite an incredible piece as well.

9- Cocteau Twins - Head over heels & Sunburst and Snowblind

Head Over Heels along with Sunburst and Snowblind is just the most brilliant photography. Nigel Grierson did some of the most unusual things to get shots like these. The high quality and sharpness in the variation of colour is just breathtaking. The photos encourage you to not only look deep into the detail and the range of colour, but to look more closely at the every day beauty around us all in the seemingly randomness of patterns in nature, things you wouldn't normally look at closely. A set of posters from these photography sessions looks incredible framed and mounted. I know as I have them in my hallway.

10 - Lush - Scar

The reason I have included the rear sleeve here is because the whole cover (even inside the outer sleeve) is a collective work of art. Once again it reflects the harsh and soft combination of the music. If this is shoegaze, those are some interesting footwear. This was released in an era when computer generated graphics were all the rage and years on look really tacky. But here Vaughan Oliver and Christopher Bigg have resisted the trend and produced something much more timeless.

All comments are welcome, remember these are just my personal choices and opinion, which I have a right to, even if you think my opinion is total tosh. Would love to hear your preferences....

Martin Aston - Facing the Other Way, the Story of 4AD

Your humble Jonny is on the usual rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. The pickings of late have been thin on the ground. Well actually, there’s plenty of stuff out there to buy, it’s just way overpriced and I am several million short of being a millionaire….

But then Martin Aston has agreed to do an interview with me for my little blog, such a wonderful chap, and to top it off he has mentioned me in the online version of The Wire magazine. Wow. Typically I’m up and down like a shy girls rollerblind. So I shall shut up and let you read the interview. If you haven’t purchased Martin Aston’s book, then I strongly advise you go and do it now.  It’s the first comprehensive history of 4AD, and it is, because 4AD say so, alright?

Facing the Other Way at 4AD

Purchase here :


Why choose 4AD, when there are safer and more covered label histories such as factory?

I don’t know what you mean by a “safer” label history; I only know that Factory had a shorter history than 4AD. But as you say, it’s “more covered” so why repeat someone else’s book (in this case, by James Nice)?  4AD is one of the most admired and adored record labels, independent or otherwise, and had never had a biography – so to be the first was a perfect opportunity.

Why do you think 4AD survived when the other great iconic indie labels died off? Factory / Creation?

You’d have to know the histories of Factory and Creation to really know what happened there. Like 4AD, both labels had single-minded spearheads, but Factory – under Tony Wilson’s ‘management’ - was run democratically between its founding partners, while Creation boss Alan McGhee had co-founder Dick Green, so neither were autocratic in the way that Ivo Watts-Russell ran 4AD. But Creation sold half the company to Sony, McGhee admitted he had drug problems and disappeared from the industry, whereas Green eventually wanted to work with another A&R cohort. Factory went bankrupt, but Tony Wilson – with Factory Too and F4 labels – couldn’t get anything going and then died of complications from cancer. When Watts-Russell sold his share of 4AD to his business partner Martin Mills of Beggars Banquet, there was a structure (ie Beggars) in place for Mills to carry the label on with new people running it for him.

What has been the greatest surprise discovery from putting the story of 4AD together?

Some of the earliest records had escaped my attention; I didn’t know every single record that came out on 4AD, and when I started writing about music in 1984, I didn’t go back and revisit what I had missed - I wasn’t a collector of labels (I’m still not). So hearing the likes of Rema-Rema and Dance Chapter was a thrill and an education. I was also surprised by the level of dysfunction at the label during the Nineties when there were two offices, one in LA having joined the one in London, and the lack of communication between them. But they were very trying times due to watts-Russell’s mental frailty and the difficulty in running a label with a figurehead who was unavoidably absent during that period. It’s what led to him finally giving up and severing all ties to the music industry, and heading off to live, in relative isolation, in the New Mexico desert.

Did anyone, anywhere, artists or label staff make any money away from a very basic cost of living from the label at any time during the first twenty years?

I didn’t discuss money/profit with anyone. I guess the more commercially successful bands such as Pixies, The Breeders, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins and Belly made more money than lost it, but who knows? And who knows who else did? You’d have to ask them.

Do you think that the way that music has moved to a virtual format will kill off the physical format altogether eventually? Can you explain to a younger generation why this would be a shame?

The resurgence in vinyl sales shows there is a market for the musical artefact, and the beauty of artwork. I have no idea if following generations will feel the same, but limited runs can be 500 or one thousand, so it doesn’t need to be a huge audience. I just hope they do. There’s something wonderful about a beautifully designed and produced object, same as with books. Likewise the experience of watching a film in a cinema rather than at home. It’s more of a complete experience. And there is something more tangible to own.

Do you still afford time to just sit and listen to music? How do you do it and do you share the experience?

It’s harder to find time to “just sit and listen” when you have to write about the music you hear, and to consider it from the perspective of a job. There is the need to keep digging for “the next thing” – which is also a pleasure, as I do love hearing new music, especially if it’s new unto itself, ie a trailblazer rather than following a trend. But if you don’t make room for something that’s a pleasure and a release from work duties/stress, that’s not a good state of mind. So I will put music on mp3 and go for long walks, and listen to music in the car, when it feels much less like “work”. Though even then, your mind can process what you’re hearing, sometimes you find yourself “writing” something in your head without meaning to; it’s a habit that’s hard to break. As for sharing, yes, through making compilations (granted, not often, usually an end-of-year round-up or two) for friends, or via email/Facebook. I find that part of the emotional package surrounding music is to share it with others, to see if they have the same reaction as I do.

Are there any plans to move to a 4AD documentary? Have you heard of any plans from anyone else to?

There are plans for a documentary, but I can’t reveal exactly what at this point. But I had to get the book written and them promoted first, and also have a little break from 4AD: it’s not good to be totally obsessed with one project for too long a time. But I’m returning to it pretty soon. I’ve not heard of anyone else’s plans.

As a journalist, do you find the artist more flawed than the “man on the street” and if so, how have you found that affects your objectivity? 

The only way to answer that is, I have more information at my disposal about an artist, so I have more evidence of a state of mind or approach, which can include “flaws”, but it can also create a positive and empathic reaction to their situation/condition, where “the man on the street” sometimes has to rely on what the media tells him, and that viewpoint is sometimes clichéd, or sensationalist. I try to keep a balance of objectivity and subjectivity, to present the facts as they are, and my opinion of those facts, and my own hopes for what art should achieve, but also know the commercial conditions under which the production of art takes place. 

How, as a journalist, do you find the right level of publishing knowledge in the public interest and not going over the line of invading privacy or getting too personal about an artist or subject?

It’s a personal decision every time. I don’t like to sensationalise, and to keep asking the obvious questions about an artist’s most headline-grabbing piece of news. Sometimes I have no choice if I am to continue writing for someone who wants that kind of material, in which case I stop writing for them or I find ways of writing about what I want to. But the creative process fascinates me, and I want to know what artists create the way they do, it can be in intellectual and emotional reasons. They can answer my questions, or not, that’s their choice. I won’t keep nagging.

How have you found the whole experience? Would you tell your former self (before starting the book) to go ahead and do the project?

It’s been an intense, and labour-intensive, project, and you generally don’t write books for the money. But it’s also been exhilarating and extraordinary, to talk to 120 people or so, who are all connected to one central theme, and then weave it into place. I have been very lucky to have a publisher who was happy for me to tell the story of 4AD as I wanted to tell it, so I had no editorial interference, from content to word count. I don’t know how often that’s the case. So no regrets

Any new works in the pipeline?

In my head, yes, but again, nothing I want to share at this moment. I’ve said before that writing a book means you don’t get to leave the house much, and I don’t enjoy too much isolation in this way, so maybe I need more a prolonged break before getting lost in something again. The end usually justifies the means, so we’ll see.  

It's a shit business...

So there you go, my point is proven. Just because a release is a promo, it’s not really worth the great asking price that many traders will try on. The Cocteau Twins US Promo CD has been won, congratulations Adam from Poland.

Hardly anyone has attempted to win this free CD. I was giving away a Promo CD to anyone who wanted it, and yet hardly anyone was interested. So, no, just because a release is a promo does not mean it’s rare, of much worth, or even desirable.

During the last couple of weeks I have found some interesting information. I joined a Cocteau Twins forum :

http://www.cocteautwinsforums.com/index.php

A small hint, if you ever join the above forum, whatever you do...don’t mention 4AD.

My experience there, although short, has been memorable. There is no love for 4AD from Cocteau Twins fans it would seem. The forum founder (the late Leesa Beales) had lawsuits brought against her from 4AD, Cocteau Twins had trouble getting money from 4AD and also the members of Cocteau Twins were not consulted when re-packaging their material.

This has thrown up all sorts of questions, particularly about how you find the truth. I love 4AD’s music. Or at least the first decade, of course. Being a musician myself, I know the egos that musicians have. I also work, which means I have seen the face of business. Musicians can be spoilt, childish creatures that constantly seek the adoration of others. Business people can be selfish, greedy and power hungry.

I personally believe that business is a moral-less monster. Let loose, this monster would steal, kill, cheat and do anything it can to achieve money and power. It’s servants are drawn to business with promises of wealth and power. Business people can be so blind to their affect on anyone around them, can be completely without empathy, psychopathic even. In business these people are called focused and are rewarded and encouraged with yet more wealth and power.

Musicians are self destructive, lazy, addictive, self loathing creatures that constantly need to be reassured and praised. Musicians that crave money and power generally show themselves not to be true artists. The ones who shamelessly postrate themselves, want to be famous for their art, die prematurely etc are the more genuine artists.

It’s a match made in hell really. The devouring business feeding off the suicidal lemmings.

The independent labels that sprang from the punk movement in the late 1970’s are an interesting tale of business headed musicians, fighting the battle of their schizophrenic existence. Factory Records were such a good example of this. Factory never had a good business head really and existed for the love of the music. The inevitable consequence being that the musician killed the label in a shower of self pity, addiction and lack of any business common sense. Creation drowned under partying and drugs instead of keeping it’s head above water.

4AD was also a business musician type of label. But it’s still going. Maybe this is because it had more business than artist in it’s chemistry. Of course this fine balance would be practically impossible to sustain. The artists had incredible creative freedom. But they were also subject to business greed.

I, as many, think that 4AD has completely lost it’s way now. The balance has definitely swung more to the business end of the spectrum.

What I find interesting though, is how many get lost in the spectacle and glamour, that is cleverly pushed from the business end of modern music. These are all people. The musicians, the designers, the producers, the management, the labels. These are all just human beings, not celebrities. They all have flaws, they all eat, shit and sleep like the rest of us. Because of this, I would like to know their stories. The good ones and the bad ones. I want to know their flaws, because we grow as human beings when a true picture is created. Do I worship 4AD. NO! I love the music, I find the history of the label and the decisions people made fascinating. But none of them are gods!! That includes musicians too I’m afraid.

So that brings me to the train of thought about truth. How do you get to the truth. Especially when dealing with such extremes of characters. The only way I know is to ask as many people as many questions as possible. Other than that some top notch detective work. 4AD’s first decade is an interesting story and I would like to get the full picture, warts and all. Let’s see if I can get anywhere at all.

How many melons can the morons monopolise!

After reading comments about recent problems between Throwing Muses and 4AD, I felt the need to have a moan about the major record industry in the world and reveal a couple of insights into the UK industry.

http://www.kristinhersh.com/forum/topic/no-anthology-in-the-usa

Musicians are artists. They do what they do for love, anger, sex, thrills, a need to emotionally expose themselves or to just enrich the world with a natural talent. The big difference between an artist and a fake, is the drive for money. There are plenty of musicians that make music regardless of money and there are a rare few who are lucky enough to have made some money from it.

Musical history is overrun with stories of exploitation, cheating, theft and abuse of artists by the industry that makes money out of these people’s personal struggle with life. In the late sixties, some independent record companies were started up in an appreciation of the artist and their work and tried to protect them from these carnivores of human emotion. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from some the excuse “well, they are a business and a business has to make money”. Business is the modern monster in our society. Anything is justified in the name of business and money.

In the late seventies during the punk revolution, groups of people and artists were so sick of the abuse by these vultures, that they set up independent record companies of their own. Out of these many independents came record labels such as Factory, Mute, and Beggars Banquet. Out of Beggars Banquet came 4AD. These independents loved the music they signed up and signed artists under a culture of fair play and a combined interest to get this art out to people who would appreciate it. This was a total contrast to the major record labels whose interest in music was irrelevant, they may have just been shipping units of melons for all the care they had in the artists.

Nowadays many of those independents are themselves majors (or have been swallowed up by them). The original management have gone elsewhere along with their keen spirit and desire for fairness. The same greed that powered the majors is now once again starting to creep into the independents. This is causing a new revolution in small independent labels with the same love of the music and sense of fair play. Many new artists don’t even see the need for record labels and do everything themselves.

Meanwhile, the majors are struggling to make ends meet and are losing huge amounts of money and business. The funny part of it is that they are bemused as to why!??! That’s because you are not selling melons, you morons!

I have seen how far removed the majors are from their customers here in the UK. The UK was once a centre for groundbreaking, world selling music. The industry here has spent so long trying to control the market and making the products they sell cheap on overheads and short lived in interest, that the market here has become mostly disinterested, uncaring about copyright and narrow in it’s variety of taste. I have seen a growing number of artists that are doing well around the world, getting little to no coverage in the UK as they don’t fit the majors agendas. If you can believe it, huge numbers of major artists from around the world with many albums to their name, cannot be bought in the high street and have never been available except by import.

The independent spirit was what attracted me to 4AD’s music in the first place, and many others. It has been sad to see in recent years this spirit get lost and forgotten. This is also another reason for collecting the first decade, where the spirit of independence was very much alive.

Come on 4AD get your MOJO back!!