The Human Equation, Analysis
The importance of album art is sometimes overlooked when we go about purchasing music from our local record store. In fact, with the majority of today’s purchases being done online at music stores like iTunes, the concept of album art is quickly becoming a relic of a bygone era. Gone are the days where an LP’s large cardboard sleeve was the canvass of a great work of art, now we have a small inch by inch square where the album art is virtualized on an iPod or other MP3 player.
However there are still some bands that care deeply about what their album covers look like, one such band is the brain child of composer Arjen Lucassen, Ayreon. Ayreon’s recent album: The Human Equation takes a look into the psyche and mental state of a man who is in a coma. The album spans two discs and tells the story of a battle of emotions and conflicting personality traits inside of a character called title “me”. Having a little background information about the album, we are now able to take a look at the surreal album cover which appears to be mask of a face caught in the center of a dream catcher with a pathway leading up towards it. It appears as if the light source is centered behind this face and the light rays emanate towards us. As for the typography, the band is featured predominately in the top center of the album yet, as an interesting twist, the album title is rather small and placed at the bottom, as if it is trying to be hidden. The font has some classical overtones, especially with the extremely long serifs on the letters, yet comes off progressive and modern at the same time. I believe that this is caused by the serifs not being as smooth and curved as those seen in things such as illuminated manuscripts but more rigid giving it a feeling of modernity.
As for the artwork, I strongly believe that it fits perfectly for the album and mood reflected in the music. The long path up to the mask is deeply symbolic of the path we must all walk before we actually find the truth about who we are. The art does exactly this by making us question what is truly going on in the image. It draws us straight to the center and then our eyes fan out radially as we slowly see more and more of what’s going on around the center piece. This falls right into the idea of the album, which tries to get us to look around who we are to finally understand ourselves.
Overall, the album art is a blast to the past when artwork was the center piece of an album. As a progressive rock band, Ayreon clings tightly to his concept and continues to use original pieces of artwork for their releases.
