Ladyhawke's album Anxiety takes its name from the anxiety the artist felt while writing and recording the album while touring. The minimalist black and white front cover features a drawing of Ladyhawke's face with creatures emerging from her hair, representing her deepest thoughts and feelings expressed through the music. While the back keeps things simple with just the song titles, the inside drawings become more detailed to represent the intricate work that went into the music. Overall, the visual artwork is meant to convey Ladyhawke's vulnerability and determination in creating the album.
2. Front
The album title
itself Anxiety
came from
Ladyhawke
feeling anxious
about writing the
album;
“Definitely all the
stress of being
on tour and then
having to write
and record new
music helped
me
with Anxiety.”
Her name is in
bigger font than
the title and also
written above it,
showing the
importance of
the artist on this
album as she
wrote and sang
every song.
The artwork for the cover is the artists face drawn in black and white, connoting a simple but
effective sound to her music. But as you can see closely, her eyes are the only bit in colour,
they’re blue. With regards to the saying “the eyes are the key to the soul,” I think this shows
that her music is letting the listener into her soul, into her deepest thoughts and feelings.
The interesting bit
about the front cover
are the creatures and
objects emerging from
her hair. These
include insects,
wolves, feathers,
hands, and her own
face.
All the artwork was
done by visual artist
Sarah Larnach. "I
really wanted to do
something darker that
was more line-
drawing based and
was really inspired
by the
Beatles' Revolver artw
ork. That's my
favourite album cover.
So she came up with
all this amazing stuff.
She just nailed it.
She's so talented”
Ladyhawke said.
3. Back
The font on the back
for the song titles
looks like it could
have been
handwritten. It’s very
simple with no
pictures except for
what looks a drawing
of a small scar in the
top right corner. This
could connote that
the focus is just on
the songs
themselves, as most
singer/songwriters
like to be simplistic
and solely focus on
the music.
The small scar could be there to show how she
has been mentally scarred in her past and the
songs on this album reflect that.
4. Inside
First fold out:
We see on the left two
insects, drawn in black
and white. They look like
some type of moth, which
symbolises vulnerability
and determination which
is what Ladyhawke could
have wanted this album
to be about.
On the right we
see again the
scar-like
drawings that
were on the back
cover.
Second fold out:
The insect appears again on the right side. As we unfold the digipack, the
drawings seem to get more and more detailed, which could connote the intricate
work put into this music which you discover the further you go in.
5. CD Tray
The CD tray is another
drawing of Ladyhawke,
but she is holding a
camera up to her face.
This could connote she
doesn’t want the
attention on her but
more on what the
camera is pointing
towards which is the
person who brought
the digipack of her
music, and this could
show that she wants
her music to really
influence the listener.
Also, she has
blue eyes
again here, but
the lens of the
camera is also
blue whereas
everything
else is black
and white.
This could
show that
she’s trying to
make a
connection
with her
audience.
