Friday, November 19, 2010

Great Album Covers: MM..Food

The art of album covers is something that has always appealed to me. I even have a half dozen or so of those wall hanging frames you can buy that display vinyl record covers as art. Anyway, since I may never end up doing more videos for Whiskey Pie, I at least want to try to incorporate something more visually oriented. And so it was that I decided to begin a new series of posts about some of my favorite—or anyway, some of the most interesting—album covers.


MM..Food struck me as the perfect place to begin, since I didn't notice how much clarity and detail was found on its cover until I happened upon a vinyl copy. Seeing this cover on a 200 x 200 JPEG on iTunes misses out on all the minutiae packed into it. For what it's worth, the back cover is equally great.


Apologies in advance if the pictures aren't exceptional or perfectly in focus, but I had to take my own rather than hunt online for the exact close-ups I wanted. With that warning out of the way, take a gander at the full cover above and we'll continue on.

Literally every corner of this cover has something interesting going on in it. The simple night scene outside the window, of buildings and the moon, subconsciously lends it a different vibe than if it had been sunny outside or raining or any other meteorological conditions.

The font for both the artist name and album title is obviously graffiti inspired, but the extra touch of a bit of green and white dripping off of both is pitch perfect.

The characters on the milk and cereal box are interesting, especially when it occurs to you that what Doom is actually eating isn't cereal at all. The 'Have You Seen Me?' part is either a reference to Doom's sometimes long layovers between releases or his onetime friend MF Grimm.

Never mind that this isn't cereal. Check out the detailing on The Thing on the right and some kind of woman-looking head on the left. These are the sort of things I never would have noticed and appreciated if not for owning the vinyl. The shadows and detailing on the hand are also incredible.

I'm fairly sure this is all a reference to MF Grimm. The pun of it being a Brothers Grim-style fairy tale book written by/for MF Grimm is a plus in my book.

I'm not sure what this drink is supposed to be, but it says 'Monster' which could be a reference to his early Monsta Island Czars release or his appearances as King Gheedorah aka Monster Zero.

2 comments:

Bruno said...

I'm in this business (art/ design) but I've never noticed all the details that you have mentioned in the MM Food cover.
Very interesting

Penmarker said...

I loved that you looked at this album cover, I'm always interested in the album covers that people put thought into.

A little bonus, if you at doom's (the on in the chair, not under the table) hood, you can see the outline of what looks like the grim reaper's hood, maybe a little tongue in cheek reference to mf doom coming from behind?