D.B: Deconstruction of a Digipak

Genre

Andrew Hozier-Byrne known simply as Hozier is an Irish musician with the genre of Indie Rock/ Blues. The cover of Hozier's album is evidently conventional of the indie rock/ blue genre due to the poetic, artistic and creative features. The cover has been painted by a professional artist and despite the vibrant colours (used to connote the indie rock, up-beat part of his music) the figure in the middle is voyeuristic of Hozier himself who is hunched; looking into the distance; part of his shirt has ripped; and his face has been taken away and replaced with a coastal scene. 

All of these aspects of the cover are very melancholy. The mix of the denotation of the initial vibrancy and joy the viewer gets from the album's first impression with the complex hues of melancholy from the vacant objects in the background and the disheveled figure in the foreground are all visual codes that successfully portray the two sub-genres of Hozier's music.

Media Language

Hozier is drawn right in the centre of the album cover meaning that he is breaking the rule of thirds. The coastal scene that has been painted to replace his face blends him in further to prevent him from standing out. The viewer's eye is first drawn to the visual hierarchy of the top of the stairs which is used to create leading lines that the viewer is guided down to eventually reach Hozier himself. This journey that the audience has to experience creates a calm reflectiveness that is also experienced when listening to his music. This creates an illustrative relationship between the visual artwork and the music.

The miss-en-scene and colour scheme of the cover is contrasting. The oranges and yellows of the background is used to create warmth and energy captivating the audience with engagement and intensity. Whereas the blues from the window, left hand wall and Hozier's shirt is a signifier to create calm nostalgia and freshness. 

This matches the mise-en-scene contrasting of the calmness of the right hand side of the cover to the manic unorderly composition of the left side. 

The winding curvature of the staircase, the slowing of time that the clock on the wall creates and the associations an inviting armchair with a book resting on it along with the red, orange and earthy tones is used to connote a homely sense of warmth and family attachment. The chaos of the cluttered desk with the aggressive, confrontational clash of colours is juxtaposed with the right side of the cover (along with Hozier being in the centre but without a face) to follow Dyer's paradoxes of the star needing to be both present and absent to captivate and induce continued consumption from the incomplete image of the star.


 The use of white space is ignored being that there is none. White space is often used  to prevent an image from looking cluttered but cluttered and busy is exactly how Hozier would like the cover to look. He is able to portray many emotions within the cover to create visual poetry and synaesthesia between the art and his music.

There is clear intertextuality between all of his album covers is clear seeing as they appear to be painted by the same artist and the repeated iconography. Intertextuality is absent however when it comes to the relationship between the individual artworks and their song. There is a theme of parrots in his artwork represent the angst the songs portray to escape from the world and fly away meaning that there is an amplified relationship between the album artwork and the lyrics of the music.

Representation

The font of the typography used in all of his album artwork is white and tall. The whiteness of the writing creates boldness that is used to show Hozier's star image whilst the lack of space that the writing holds means that it is not a distraction from the emotion that the  complex painting invokes. His star persona is created also by the fact that his album is named after himself. The attention is then drawn fully to him as an individual artist in order to promote him to potential consumers.

The indexical signs of the typewriter demonstrate his creative ability alongside the beer connote and inconspicuous underlying rebellion and consumption of alcohol. These iconic signs follow Dyer's  paradox that the artist should be both ordinary (drinks beer) and extraordinary with their creativity and talent.

Institution and Audience