The document provides an analysis of a magazine advertisement for the album "Skying" by the band The Horrors. It summarizes that the ad appeared 7 months after the album's release, suggesting it was still receiving attention. It describes The Horrors as an indie/psychedelic rock band and analyzes the psychedelic-inspired album artwork. The majority of the ad displays this album artwork to clearly advertise it. Quotes on the ad from respected music magazines praise the album, and the ad aims to appeal to readers of these magazines and fans of the label XL Recordings.

1. Magazine Advert
Analysis
THE HORRORS - SKYING

2. I’ve decided to analyse a print based advert
of Skying, an album by The Horrors which
was released in July 2011. This advert comes
from the back cover of the February 2012
edition of Uncut. I think it’s significant that the
album is still being advertised seven months
after its initial release, especially in a
magazine that is aimed for adults. This would
suggest that the album had such a good
reception that the media think it deserves
more exposure. This does fit in with how Still
Life, the first single from this album, had far
more mainstream radio airplay than any of
their previous releases, including reaching
the Radio 1 A list.

3. The Horrors are a British band that could best
be described as an indie rock and partly
psychedelic band. From this image, you would
probably assume The Horrors were exactly
that as the colours and effects that are used in
the image relate to those genres. The image,
which is their album cover, has quite a
psychedelic aesthetic with the way the colours
are blending together, almost distorting the
original image which seems to be that of
clouds and a sea. However, the colours while
still bold are quite faded from how vivid the
colours of an actual psychedelic album cover
would be, giving it a calm vibe linking it to the
indie scene. Neil Krug, the designer, will have
taken this into account and made it so that
their neo-psychedelic sound that explodes into
this album is shown through the art.

4. The majority of the advert displays the album cover for
Skying which completely advertises it and would make it
easier for the audience to recognise it when it would be
advertised in the media. This particular advert doesn’t
feature the actual band visually which could be a link to
how this is the first album released by The Horrors which
doesn’t have people on the cover. It’s quite basic, but
also serves a purpose as it is there to advertise this
particular record. The focus on the album as the product
rather than the band as the product makes it so that
people would look more into the particular album rather
than the band in general.
The band name is displayed at the top of the image
(which is the album art for Skying) but it isn’t actually on
the proper album art. It’s shown here to tell the audience
that The Horrors are the album artist
advert album art
Strange House Primary Colours

5. The bottom third of the page shows quotes from well
known magazines including Q. This holds weight behind
it because they are well-respected magazines in the
media industry. This means that it will mean more to an
audience if popular magazines rate this album highly. It
also hints that readers of these magazines will be
interested in this music due to the other types of music
they advertise. Promoting it ‘album of the month’ makes
it seem better than expected by some readers.
“The Horrors have come of age” is an important quote
because it tells the reader that this record is almost a
breakthrough and says that people should give them a
change with this particular album. It does have a
different sound to the previous two albums released by
The Horrors which is significant because you can
actually see it through the change in album art and how
their image as a band changed between the albums.
The logo for XL Recordings is featured at the very
bottom which could show people who are fans of other
bands on that label they should listen to The Horrors.
Furthermore, the colour all of this writing is
presented on is exactly the same to the back
cover of the physical Skying album, meaning
it’s following the same conventions.