LP what's there to see - KiekCie reviews

As the KiekCie, we can most definitely say that we like pictures. When we think of pictures in music, then album covers come to mind first. And who doesn't know the famous picture of four men walking on a zebra crossing, or a naked baby diving after a dollar in a pool? Perhaps you know the man with a red and blue lightning bolt on his face or the four men whose shadowy faces adorn the black background of their famous album?  

The one thing that all these covers have in common is the era in which they were produced. All of them come from the time of vinyl and CDs before online streaming was the primary way of listening to music. Where one possesses an actual physical version of an album, which you would see every time you were to listen to the album. Does that mean that album covers have become redundant now that we don't need to place our vinyl on a turntable anymore? 

Actually, it is not. Album covers still play a vital role in visual music recognition. For example, when you scroll through your Spotify list searching for this one specific number of a specific artist from a specific album. Chances are big that you pay attention to the small icon of the album cover next to the title of the songs. Only when you recognize the specific album cover, you start to look at the titles. Pictures are more distinguishable than words after all. 

If you pay close attention to your friends or your own student room, you might see some vinyls or CDs laying around. Despite them not being a modern way of listening to music, they have now become adored items to collect. The vintage sound of vinyl on an old-school turntable is a newschool way of providing dimension to your music.  

Unlike CDs or Spotify, vinyls have the additional purpose of decoration. The most iconic and artistic album covers are from the vinyl era. The recent comeback in popularity of vinyls induced the comeback of artistic covers for new albums as well. The artists seem to have understood our appreciation of pretty pictures. 

Let's try our little guessing game again, with more recent music this time. Do you know which album has a guy standing in an upside-down furnished room? And which one has a girl with crazy eyes sitting on a bed surrounded by darkness? And lastly, for the dutchies among us, what about three faces of guys made up of flowers?  

So, do you still think it is only the music that matters? It is the music that makes an album iconic, but it is the cover that makes it something we collectively remember. 

The KiekCie