Analysis of a Digipak - The 1975

Research - Task 9 (part 4)

The 1975 is the self-titled debut studio album by English alternative rock band The 1975. It was released on the 2nd September 2013 through Dirty Hit and Polydor. It was recorded with Arctic Monkeys collaborator Mike Crossey. On the 8th September 2013, the album debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, and as of March 2016 it has sold 410,981 copies worldwide. The 1975 have previously produced other products like EPs and singles, however their debut album was the first of their material that was noticed globally.

The front cover of the digipak is very dark and mysterious, as the image doesn't give away much about the content of the album, or who the band members are. The image uses low-key lighting to enhance the shadows in the frame, and the small bursts of light from the spotlights around the band name help to emphasise the title of the album, which is also the band's name. As this was their first debut studio album, by drawing the audience's attention to the band's name this will allow the band to receive more publicity and exposure, and help them to reach a wider audience.

The simplicity of the front cover suggests that the songs written on this album reflect a similar nature, and are written surrounding their life and experiences that they have been through themselves as the main focus of the cover is their name. The inside cover uses a similar design, sticking to a very simple and sophisticated aesthetic.

As the main colour scheme of this digipak is black, this could imply that the lyrics to some of the songs featured in this album have a dark and foreboding theme as the colour black holds these connotations. The colour white is also used throughout the digipak, which holds connotations of purity and cleanliness, which could illustrate that the lyrics to the songs are truthful and hold a lot of emotion.

The back cover of this digipak follows a very similar design to the front cover, with the same low-key lighting and spotlights surrounding the large photo frame. The track list is written in bold, capitalised, white, sans-serif font which reflects the idea of simplicity and ambiguity which is present throughout the whole digipak. Yet again this area of the digipak does not reveal much about the themes which are present in the product, and creates a sophisticated and clean-cut aesthetic to the album.

Inside the digipak, the album CD continues the theme of black. The CD itself is matte black, with shiny black typography layered on top which states the band name and title of the album. Yet again the design is very simple and dark, which illustrates that the band itself don't require lots of bold imagery to sell their records, and that they rely on pure talent to attract their audience. As this album was also their first official release through a record label, they may have had a limited budget so decided to stick with a simple design, or possibly chosen a design that they believed would appeal to everybody.