Digipak Analysis - Other Artists

Bombay Bicycle Club

The digipak for Bombay Bicycle Club’s album A Different Kind Of Fix links a lot with 60’s counterculture. 60’s counterculture was an anti-establishment cultural movement that started in the US and UK in the 1960’s, it saw rise to many alternative lifestyles, celebrating creativity, experimentation and modern incarnations of the bohemian lifestyle. One of the biggest parts of 60’s counterculture was the popularisation of recreational drug use. Psychoactive drugs became a huge part of the subculture and this is what I can link back to the digipak. 

The repetitive paisley patterns on the disk and digipak cover are similar to those linked to the 60’s counterculture era, the psychedelic and kaleidoscopic style is representative of the ‘trippy’ patterns seen and associated with psychedelic drugs. Even the colour scheme links back to the earthiness of the hippy/bohemian lifestyle.

The name of the album itself ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’ links to the counterculture theme too. ‘Getting a fix’ is a phrase that originates in drug culture, meaning that you need your daily dose of whatever narcotic you’re addicted too, however in modern culture it has also evolved to mean something less serious. For example ‘I need my coffee fix.’ So Bombay Bicycle Club are linking the album name to the 60’s counterculture, but the album name is actually ‘A different kind of fix’ and the different kind could relate to the fact that the music is the fix in this case. Saying that you’ll be addicted to their music just like you would be drugs. The band is also missing from the digipak. There are no images of them at all, promoting that they are about their music and not their personal image like so many bands within the indie/rock genre do. 

Finally, the imagery on the front of the digipak. The human heads filled with the same patten as is on the disc. The pattern fills the area where the brain would be and this could be because when you take drugs they affect the brain, or eve when you listen to music, its the brain that processes it all. It also outlines the nasal passage and the throat, this could be because most commonly you either inhale or take drugs orally, again linking back to the concept of the 60’s counterculture. 

Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

The first thing about the digipak for Alt-J's an awesome wave is the cover. It simply shows an image on the front, no visual representation of the band, or even their name or the name of the album, it is simply the image. The image is a multi-layered radar image of the Ganges river delta in Bangladesh. The image was taken by the European Space Agency's Envisat Earth-observing satellite and all three images were taken on different dates and then layered, exposing the difference in background radiation between them. This lack of self image on behalf of the band fits with the common genre conventions of not having images of the band themselves on the album cover, promoting that the band's priority is their music and not themselves and that they want their fans to be interested in their music.

Inside the digipak is plain white. The only writing on the inside the name of the album, which is lacking from the front, it is written in a simple and plain font in the bottom left hand corner, this gives the entire digipak a minimalistic feel, again there are no 'frilly bits' cluttering it and distracting the eye. Even the disk is plain white, the only writing the tracklist around the edge in the same simple font. This contrasts with the colourful image used on the front, making it the main focus of the album. The fact that the bands name isn't on the front also contributes to this, making the image something that becomes associated with the band and the album. Fans only need see the image and they know exactly what the album is.