~CD Cover Evaluation~ [Odelay]

Odelay is Beck's second studio album, and a particularly striking one to look at. Two things initially jump out at us whilst viewing this CD - firstly, the bathmat mop-head...thing jumping over the stand. The second is the outrageous font expressing the word 'Odelay!', a completely fictional word. Two things we learn from this is that, 1) This album will not be another typical alternative affair, and 2) There is something very odd about this album.

As much as the mop-head looks like...well...a mop-head, it's somewhat of an eye-opener to read the linear notes within the album to find out that actually, this isn't a mop-head at all; the bounding creature is in fact a dog called a Komondor, originating from Hungary. Focusing less on the dog itself, but what it stands for, the album seems to suggest that this dog is leaping over a hurdle, which could emphasise the hurdle Beck was experiencing after the less-than-successful release of his first studio album, One Foot in the Grave. On a less pretentious outlook, the dog is merely a comical, jaded image used to promote the album as iconic. No other album will have an image like this on the front, and the fact that the dog might as well be a mop-head further enforces the uniqueness of the CD cover. The dog is clearly the focus of our attention, and the trees in the background are in shallow focus. The trees serve little purpose, other than to show that the dog is at a racing track. The image itself is humerous and is designed to grab the attention of walkers by into the vice-like grip of Beck's silky smooth alternative music.

The font is inherently important on this CD cover. Whereas The Sky Moves Sideways and Awake use fairly small font, merely to show the name of the band and album, Odelay seems far more focused on telling the audience who this album is by. The use of the exclamation mark after 'Beck' seems to make the audience think that they HAVE to respect Beck for this album, and that it's some great feat of musicianry that he's created. With added emphasis on Beck's name, followed by the album name, 'Odelay', we clearly denote that this is an album designed to use a sudden, bizarre image in dichotomy with an abstract and blunt font to hammer the message of the album in. This album is Becks announcement to the world, and he's going to damn-well show it. Through the use of otherwise simplistic artwork (Odelay is a photograph rather than an illustration), Odelay is very to-the-point, just as Beck's music is on the album. Therefore, although there is no reference between the album cover and the songs within, the fact that 'Odelay' isn't even a word makes this sort of the point. Just as 'Odelay' isn't recognised as a real word, the crazy mop-like dog isn't a conventional animal, and moreover, this album is not a conventional album.

For the humerous and bluntness of Beck's cover, Odelay is an interesting and enticing CD cover.