The document analyzes the album packaging of Alt-J's debut album "An Awesome Wave". It discusses how the minimalist front and back covers that do not include the band's name or images follow conventions of indie rock. This is meant to focus attention on the music rather than the band members. The plain white disc and inside photo blend of the band members also maintain this minimal aesthetic and sense of mystery about who Alt-J is to intrigue audiences. Overall, the packaging reflects the band's indie identity and aim to let the music speak for itself rather than relying on images of band members.

1. JOE REEVES
ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK
ANALYSIS

2. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
FRONT COVER
▸ ‘An Awesome Wave’ by Alt-J has an
abstract painting of the Sundarbans on
the front cover. This artwork is a
convention for an alternative band as they
often like to focus on the music, rather
than the attention being on themselves.
They also may be suggesting that their
music is an art form. The album cover
does not feature the band’s name as they
may want to intrigue a larger audience to
look at their product. This is also a
convention of indie rock music as bands
such as ‘Blur’ and ‘Jamie T’ do not include
their name on the album covers linked.

3. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
FRONT COVER
▸ Another convention that Alt-J have
followed in indie rock is that they have
kept the front cover very minimalistic.
The fact that they don’t include their
name or photos of themselves on the
front cover completely undermines
Dyer’s ‘Star Theory’ as he suggests
people buy the album because of the
star, not the music, which is why people
would buy this album. Also the
minimalistic front cover could be
representing the minimalistic style of
music that they create as they do not use
a cymbal in any of their songs.

4. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
FRONT COVER
▸ The front cover also gives the band a
sense of brand identity as on their
newest album ‘This Is All Yours’ they
again did not include their name or
images of themselves as they wanted to
stick with their identity of not exposing
themselves. In a sense, them not having a
certain image on their front covers gives
them an identity. However, they have
adopted the ∆ triangle as their band
logo, replacing the A in Alt-J with this.
∆lt-J. The delta is formed by pressing the
alt key on a MacBook with the letter J.
This is how they got a sense of identity.

5. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
BACK COVER
▸ The back cover again follows the
completely minimalistic approach to the
album. The tracks are listed in order of
when they come on the album. The
symbols on the back cover represent what
are known as the ‘Interludes’. They are
essentially just breaks in the album for the
audience to just chill out completely. The
back cover is again fairly conventional for
indie bands as they have not included
photos of themselves as they want people
to focus on the tracks. Also as some of
these tracks were released as singles many
people may figure out who the band are
from these.

6. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
BACK COVER
▸ This back cover follows many
traditional conventions too as there
is a barcode. All digipaks include
one of these as it is to scan at
checkout. They also have included
their record label on the back cover
to show that the production and
promotion of the album is down to
them. There is also copyrights and
legal requirements on the bottom
of the album. All albums, no matter
what genre will have these features.

7. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
CD
▸ The disc itself also follows the minimalistic
style of Alt-J. They have chosen to have a
plain white disc with the track listing
around the outside of the disc. They
included the interlude symbol too. This
follows the brand identity and house style
from the back cover as they have the same
typography and colour scheme. However,
much like the back cover, some track titles
seem to be bolder than others. This is a
choice by the band but it seems to reduce
the quality slightly. Still, the band haven’t
included their name so some people may
have been uninterested by this point and
put the cd back.

8. ALT-J ‘AN AWESOME WAVE’ DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
INSIDE COVER
▸ The inside cover is completely different and
unique. This is a photo of all four band members
blended and faded into one photo. This gives
the audience the sense that they all blend into
one and that their music all links. The photo is
taken in front of a white brick wall to follow the
white minimalistic theme. This cover is actually a
pull out with lyrics from all the songs in it. This is
a good idea as the lead singers voice is very
unique and it is often hard to work out what he
is saying. This album digipak could be
representing this as it is hard to work out who
the band are if you have no idea of any of the
singles or members. The only place that the
band name appears is on the spine of the album
but it is almost invisible as it is so small.