Royal's Reveries - On Album Artwork

Album artwork is interesting to me.

All types of artwork are interesting to me, actually. My interest doesn't stem from awe of the artistic merit, or anything of the sort. Instead, I find myself drawn to it because I'm always curious exactly how representative of the music the artwork is. We get an idea of what an album might sound like before we hear it, not in terms of genre but overall mood. For instance, one example of an underlying mood in album artwork is Amia Venera Landscape's The Long Procession, one musical journey that's as desperate as it is unrelenting.

Royal's Reveries - On Genres

Genres are as important as they are devilish creatures. It goes without saying that we need genres for the sake of categorization, that we meticulous music devotees view music categorization no differently than having all of our iTunes album artwork as accurate as possible. It's a way of life for us. We divide bands into niches, into movements that share characteristics but also possess innumerable differences. While understandable, this is alarming, and highly problematic for those that care to ever be surprised.