Headlines, Vinyl Revival, and Boring Album Covers
This week, we run down the stories you may have missed, and I roast a bunch of artists' album covers unprompted.
No Polls, Just Vibes
The weekly word on politics, (usually) free of polls.
[Unfortunately, I was under the weather this week, so our politics column this week is just a roundup of stories you may have missed.]
First up, there will be no government shutdown today! [Cue distant cheering.] In a bizarre deal, Senate Republicans agreed to pass a (temporary) spending bill in return for a vote to defund the federal vaccine mandate, which they knew would fail. I guess it’s the principle of the thing. You can read more at Politico.
Speaking of Politico, apparently they’re a hot mess internally right now. This is a fun read if you enjoy gossip, but also take it with a grain of salt. More here.
Good news for Southern Democrats: Stacey Abrams is running for Governor of Georgia in 2022. Although she narrowly lost in 2018, Georgia famously went blue in two Senate runoffs earlier this year. She’ll look to continue that trend. More here.
Also, Dr. Oz is running for Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania…for some reason. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t count him out. The GOP primary there is mostly wide open, especially after Trump’s endorsee dropped out last week after losing a messy custody battle.
Apparently Trump knew he had COVID a few days before the first presidential debate. That news wasn’t surprising enough to overshadow Spotify Wrapped, though.
In Honduras, a pro-democracy coalition beat out a pro-regime leader, even after the regime literally tried to pay citizens $300 for their vote. Shoutout to Washington Monthly for covering it today.
Kyrsten Sinema’s ringtone is the most Sinema-esque ringtone you could have. That’s not a compliment.
Finally, here’s a great podcast recommendation from Sam on Mississippi’s challenge to Roe:
Why Were There So Many Boring Album Covers This Year?
Unless you follow the music industry closely, you’d probably be surprised to find out that the biggest year for vinyl record sales is actually 2021. In just the first 6 months of the year, 17 million vinyl albums had been sold in the US, far surpassing CD sales.
To be sure, people aren’t all of a sudden deciding to listen to vinyl. In fact, many people buying vinyl don’t even own record players. Instead, in an era in which accessing music is the easiest it's ever been, owning vinyl is like owning merch — it’s a sign of loyalty to the artists you love the most and a way of displaying that love for everyone to see.
The thing about vinyl, though, is that it’s big — like literally large. The cover for a vinyl record is a bit bigger than a square foot, which means that album covers — especially pop and indie album covers, since those see the most sales — are displayed quite largely on walls around the world. So why then, in the biggest vinyl sales year ever, are so many album covers boring?
It’s no secret that there’s been less and less emphasis placed on the album cover. In the streaming era, album covers serve little purpose beyond a visual marker for your favorite music. Not to mention that on a digital interface, they appear small (less than an inch on mobile apps). Simply put, on streaming, album covers face little pressure to excite the way they used to.
But that’s not true for artists that are part of the vinyl revival. Take Adele for instance. She just released one of the most hotly-anticipated albums of the year. She sold over 100,000 vinyls in the US in the first week. The cover, though, is just a picture of her looking calmly to the right.
Lana Del Rey, too, is in a similar predicament. She released two full albums this year, and has a cult following that loves to buy her vinyls. And yet, both of her album covers are easily forgettable. In fact, the original cover for Blue Banisters was so bad that it became a meme about bad graphic design. (She ended up changing it before release.)
And then there’s Kacey Musgraves, who had an outstanding cover for her surprise hit Golden Hour in 2018, and then turned around used whatever this is for her disappointing follow-up:
I could go on about how many boring covers there were, but it might be better to run down the ones that were actually well-done. And to be clear, I’m judging many of these covers on how well they match the energy of the music, how interesting they are, and how scale-able they are between sizes, not just my own personal taste.
MONTERO by Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X has made trolling part of his brand, so it was fitting that his first single for this album featured a music video trolling religious conservatives. The cover for his debut album, then, is a great follow-up: inspired by the painting Genesis II, but featuring himself as God, resting after creating the heavens and earth. More importantly, this cover is equally interesting in all sizes.
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
Halsey’s concept album explored “the dichotomy of the Madonna and the Whore,” so naturally the cover needed an equally conceptual cover. Halsey revealed the cover at the Met earlier this year, and it promptly set the internet ablaze, as it featured the singer as the Virgin Mary, inspired by a famous painting from 1452. The cover also sparked controversy, leading to an op-ed calling the artwork Catholic cultural appropriation. Regardless of its origin story and controversies, it’s a fascinating cover in its own right, and is even more powerful when paired with the music.
Other notable album covers:
Solar Power by Lorde: It’s hard to tell what the big deal is until it’s scaled up. In any size, it works.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift: A successful homage to the original.
Planet Her by Doja Cat: Just as ethereal, aesthetically-pleasing, and alien-like as Doja Cat and her music.
Donda by Kanye West: It’s literally just a black square, but for an unfinished, messy release, it makes sense.
For more on album covers in the modern era, here’s a phenomenal episode of New York Times’ Popcast from 2019:
The Weekly Soundtrack
It’s December. I will exclusively be listening to the greatest Christmas song of all time and nothing else for the next 23 days. I request you join me.
I Hardly Know Her!
The Cocktail Column
This one is an original brought to you by Mikayla Cansler, professional cocktail designer (probably).
The Jolly Porter
1.5oz gin
1/4oz allspice dram
Barspoon of cranberry puree
Rosemary sprig (for garnish)
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a lowball glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with sprig of rosemary.
That’s all for the week. We’ll be back next week with an actual politics column and a list of the year’s best songs. As always, reach out with comments, questions, suggestions, and requests.