Art Critic Judges Album Covers By Carrie Underwood, Tenacious D & More
Ever wonder what an actual art critic thinks when they look at a band's album cover art? Well, ponder no longer. Fuse's Dan Brown chatted with art critic/Paper magazine senior editor Carlo McCormick about the cover art for the latest releases from Tenacious D, Carrie Underwood, Santigold and more. Here's what McCormick had to say.
On Carrie Underwood's "Fake and Constructed" Blown Away Cover
"Everything about this is so fake and so constructed. It's sort of the death you get when a board of people holding market surveys make decisions. There's absolutely nothing creative about this. It's so incredibly fake; I'm not even sure she's real. There's been so much airbrushing and digital rework that it might just be pure animation."
On Tenacious D's Phallic Image for Rize of the Fenix
"I think they're pandering to the lowest common denominator, which is a very good way to go when you're doing comedy. This is really, really, bad art, but sometimes when something is so horrible, you gotta love it."
Santigold's Classic Portrait-Referencing Master of My Make-Believe
"In the background, that [image] is a quote of a famous painting by Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of an Officer. Kehinde Wiley, who did this painting, is one of the real art stars of the art world at the moment. He's known for doing portraits of African-American individuals in historical styles. So this is a big break for him because it’s the first time he's done a woman. If the record is half as fierce as the cover, it's going to be smoking."
For what McCormick had to say about album art from John Mayer's Born and Raised and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' Here, watch the full video above.
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