The first digipak I will be analysing is Laura Marling's debut studio album, 'Alas, I Cannot Swim'. As there are no actual images of Marling, it can only be interpreted through the style of the digipak how she is represented and reflected. Saying this, it is not just Marling who has an album with no actual images of her on it. It is quite a common convention of the folk genre that the artist is not shown, but instead replaced with abstract drawings like Marling's cover or more clear drawings like Paolo Nutini's 'Sunny Side Up' which I also analyse. Therefore this in itself reflects Marling as an artist as it shows her as being clearly in the folk genre. Looking at the front cover of the album, it shows many different drawings all connecting with each other with Marling's name in a sun-shaped figure and the name of the album almost invisible among all the the drawings. The drawings are all similar in the sense that they are linked to things you would find in a Jungle or desert, both dangerous places to be. This is clear as many of the drawing include a crocodile, tigers, a snake, a dragonfly, flowers/leaves, a butterfly, and a sun looking over a desert with a beetle on the sand.
As well as the fact that these are clearly things that you would find in a desert or forest, the use of colours makes it very clear by using dark oranges, yellows and browns, which are the typical colours found in a desert or forest. This has all been done as the folk genre is very well known for being very naturalistic and simplistic with the music made and the way the artist is presented as I have explained a numerous amount of times in the process of making my music video. The perfect example of this can be seen by looking at Marling's music video to the song 'New Romantic' which I have posted previously on my blog. This shows how naturalism is a huge theme with her very blank expression, ordinary clothing and gloomy location. This is reflected on her album as you cannot get more natural and pure then a desert or a forest, two places that you are least likely to find any trail of man. Therefore this gives a clear indication from looking at the front cover that this album is in the folk genre due to the back-to-nature feel the album presents.
Looking at the digipak as a whole, the packaging is laid out fairly regularly to what a normal CD would be. One small difference that is apparent is the positioning of the 'Thank You' section of the digipak however. It is not commonly seen that the thank you's are in the inside cover as soon as you open the CD. This may yet be another link to the genre as artists in the folk genre tend not to hold on to the idea of a 'celebrity' by presenting yourself as powerful and appealing. Taking this into account, it seems as if Marling is happy to aknowledge the people that helped her with the album and put them right there as soon as you open the CD, distancing herself from the celebrity culture of being independent and only about the star as on a regular digipak another image of the artist would normally go there. In contrast to this however, Marling still has a few things present on the album that are may be of the intention to promote her as an artist. One example is how her name is shown in a brightly coloured sun in the midst of the mess around it on the front cover, making her name stand out and giving the impression that she is very important and dominant like the sun. This shows how even though she really follows the conventions of folk by not ragging on the idea of fame, there are still some instances that show how she manipulates her album to promote her too.
Looking more at the front cover of Marling's album, there is a clear connection between the album name and the layout of the album, particularly on the front cover. This is because the name of the album is quite hard to see on the cover, mainly because it is very hidden between all of the drawings around it. Taking into account the name of the album, it is obvious that the intention of the words being hard to see are done on purpose as it gives the impression that the words are drowning in all of the images. One reason in which this could be relevant is because the words could reflect Marling herself, and as this is her first album she may see herself as drowning in the industry that is music due to being new, with many different types of creatures from butterflies to snakes representing the many people you come across from working in that industry. To take this further, the fact that her name is in the sun could represent how she is fine without the popularity that comes with distributing your music and is happy with the naturalism that she feels from creating music that isn't tainted by record companies out to change your music for a wider audience, therefore embracing the naturalistic environment on the cover. However now she has made a real album under a record company, she feels she cannot handle it and what can be very peaceful and calming places, being the desert or forest, have now turned dangerous and are drowning her.
By Harry Luke Mulvany
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