It's difficult and quite rare to find an album cover that really makes you stop dead in your tracks and makes you want to look at the artwork for hours. Brendan Benson's latest album entitled My Old, Familiar Friend does just that for me. And when I saw the cover artwork on Pitchfork's site months in advance before the release date of Benson's new album, I was extremely excited to hear the album, as well as enjoy the artwork. The image displayed above is what the album cover looks like on vinyl, yet the image below is what the cover looks like on CD.
Quite a drastic change between the two, and a saddening one at that. To me it just feels like all of the beauty of the original illustration is sucked out, due to the dark and confining booklet background. I'm aware that the main reason this cover was altered was probably due to the fact that the album title and musician's name had to the placed on the cover, and this was certainly one resolution for that problem. Yet what still remains is an amazing illustration that's hindered by it's context and refinements.
If text were to be displayed over the illustration it would probably be very illegible, due to the ornate and busy detail of the image. This is certainly understandable, however, a clear sticker with the album name and artist could've easily been placed on the cellophane of each of the albums to resolve this issue. Not to say that this is the right way, but it would've been a reasonable option.
Shortcomings aside, My Old, Familiar Friend is a wonderful power pop album by a great musician, and the illustrator Evan B. Harris certainly creates amazing work.+
Make sure to check out all of Harris' work at www.evanbharris.com
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