Recently in New and Notable Category

I had not heard of Christian TV (a.ka. Christian Berishaj) until I saw him on So You Think You Can Dance this week. He performed When She Turns 18, his debut single on the Motown label. It was released late last year and a remix and music video package was made available last week.

I downloaded the remix from Amazon.com. The cover art for the remix (right) features Christian chilling out in a seedy backyard. He is a very attractive guy, which makes it a shame that they went for such a dopey photograph.

AlbumArtExchange.com user Gleeful uploaded the cover art for the single to the gallery. It doesn't even have a photograph of the artist. It is definitely superior to the cover for the remix. However, it is always puzzling when a record label fails to use a photograph of a exceptionally attractive artist for cover art.

Ultra Records has posted the music video for Alex Gaudino's dance single I'm in Love (I Wanna Do It). The single was released on May 25, 2010.

The cover art has a Keith Harring look to it, with cartoon bodies forming the shape of a heart. At least the little figures aren't doin' it.

Wonderful Life is the second single from the forthcoming album Happiness (right) by British electronic music duo Hurts. The album is scheduled to be released on September 14, 2010. The single will be available in the U.S. on August 31.

I love the art direction for this project. The album cover is very nicely done and has contributed to comparisons to Pet Shop Boys. Personally, I think they sound more like Roxy Music.

The cover art for the Wonderful Life single ties in with the music video that was just released. It has a very 1980s retro feel.

The song Secrets by pop duo The Pierces was released on their 2007 album Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge. The quirky number is currently being used as the theme for ABC Family's new show Pretty Little Liars.

Sisters Allison and Catherine Pierce recently made a music video for the song that can best be described as dark comedy. Throughout the video, the ladies try to murder each other in numerous ways.

Posted by: xDarkAngel2007x

Swim is an album by Canadian electronic musician Daniel Victor Snaith, who records using the name Caribou. Swim was released in April 2010, and I took notice of the album cover at that time.

The photography and art direction for the album cover is credited to Jason Evans. The design is credited to Matthew Cooper and Jason Evans.

The music video for the album's second track, Sun, was posted online a few hours ago. It features a group of mature women who look like they've been experimenting with Ecstasy. You have to watch it to see what I mean.

Stand up comic and actress Margaret Cho has an album scheduled to be released on August 24, 2010. Cho Dependent has an uncommonly good cover for a comedy album.

Like many comics these days, Cho is an unbridled narcissist. Almost everything she does ends up being a wildly inappropriate PR stunt. She's all Cho, all the time. So, it wasn't surprising that I had to do a bit of digging to find out the name of the artist responsible for her album cover.

The artist is Shawn Barber, who is known for his portraits of people with tattoos and tattoo artists. The logo design was done by The Uprising, a design studio in Los Angeles.

I am glad that I did some research on Barber. The FAQ section of his website is worth reading. He has some great insights into what it takes to be a creative professional (and life in general):

Be Prepared to Struggle
The life of a freelance / self employed / gallery artist is not an easy one. It definitely has it's ups and downs. The pros- you can be creative everyday, you can set your own schedule, you can travel whenever you like, you are in control of your day to day, including your future... The cons- inconsistent cash flow, stress of not knowing when work will come, sometimes you have to do work that is less than exciting, no health insurance, bills sometimes get paid late...

Barber's portrait of Cho made a wonderful album cover. I think it compares to the recent album cover by Will Cotton that was commissioned by Katy Perry. I certainly hope this kind of album cover becomes a trend and I would love to see Barber's work appear on more album covers in the future.

Who says album cover art and music videos have to be high budget in order to be creative? Here's something from the folks who bring you Auto-Tune the News. It is a great summer tune that I hope becomes a hit. Enjoy.

A wonderful thing about writing a blog like this is meeting interesting people who I would otherwise never have encountered. One of those people is Jerry Hopkins, who was a member of the 1960s identical twin singing duo Twinn Connexion (right).

Twinn Connexion was signed to Decca and released their self-titled album in 1968. Jay passed away in 2001 and Jerry recently released a new album of remastered tracks that he rediscovered among his brother's belongings.

Being an identical twin myself, I had a personal curiosity about Twinn Connexion and developed an online friendship with Jerry. Today, he is an accomplished artist who lives in Woodstock, New York. He also has great stories to tell about his experience being a recording artist in the late 60s.

Flashing forward to 2010, a new twin duo has appeared on the pop music scene. Like Jay and Jerry Hopkins, John and Edward Grimes are talented young blond boys who are signed to a major record label. They perform under the name Jedward (a combination of their first names).

Jedward has just released a new music video for their forthcoming single, All the Small Things. The song is a cover of the Blink182 hit. Watching the video makes me wonder what things would have been like for my friend Jerry if he and his twin brother had been born a few decades later. John and Edward are obviously free to camp it up and have fun being themselves. It will be interesting to see how far their careers go in this day and age.

Record Collection is the third album by British music producer Mark Ronson. It scheduled to be released in the U.K. on September 27, 2010 on October 5 in the U.S.

The album cover for Record Collection features six album sleeves that have been designed to look like those of real albums, such as Duran Duran's Rio (right) and The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. The sleeves are arranged to create a portrait of Ronson. It is a very creative concept.

The music video for the album's first single Bang Bang Bang was posted on Ronson's YouTube channel last month.

Amanda Palmer's new album has a very long title and a great cover. Actually it is an album of Radiohead covers performed by Palmer on a ukulele and aptly titled, Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele.

The good news is that you can purchase the entire album for as low as 84 cents! If you go to Palmer's website, the album is being sold through Bandcamp in mp3, AAC, FLAC, amd Ogg formats. Those purchasing the album are given the option of entering their own price, with 84 cents being the minimum.

The music files include high resolution cover art, too. I was surprised to find a 900 x 900 image in the folder when I unzipped it. I assume the image comes with all file format options.

I love this retro album cover. The fonts are perfect. The photograph of Palmer playing her ukulele is indeed magical. I could not resist buying this album.

International DJ Flore is scheduled to release her first album on July 20, 2010. Raw includes a cover version of Gary Numan's 1979 New Wave classic Cars (right). The track features Shunda K and a music video for it was posted on YouTube late last month.

Cars was named #11 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the '80s and #93 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s. Numan performed the song live with Nine Inch Nails on September 2, 2009 at the Hollywood Palladium as part of the band's Wave Goodbye Tour.

This week, a commercial for DieHard Batteries featuring Gary Numan playing Cars on a keyboard powered by a single car battery and a couple dozen cars.

I am not sure how the recent publicity for the Gary Numan original is going to impact the forthcoming Flore album. Certainly, she had no way of knowing that Gary Numan would be making headlines with his 31-year-old pop song.

I have posted both the DieHard commercial and Flore's music video, which was created by the design firm Lightgraff.

If we were to judge by the album cover art alone, Flore doesn't come close to matching the originality of Gary Numan. The cover of Raw features silouettes of a jungle cat of some sort and a yellow-eyed image of who I assume is DJ Flore. It is nothing to write home about.

It looks like Jerry Lee Lewis has a new album coming out on September 7, 2010. It is being released on Verve Forcast and available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Mean Old Man will feature duets with Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, and Merle Haggard. The title track was released as a single featuring Kris Kristofferson last year. Also appearing on the album will be Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Kid Rock, members of the Rolling Stones and several other artists.

The album cover features Lewis emerging from a limo with a red velvet interior and being mobbed by a group of attractive young women. I will just imagine that they are his grandchildren, happy to see him return safe from a tour. Maybe the one in the green top is reaching for an appropriate gift from The Killer. Yeah, that's what I'll keep thinking.

Canadian singer and songwriter Nelly Furtado continues to have success with her first Spanish language album Mi Plan (right). The 2009 release went platinum in the U.S. and was Billboard's #1 Latin pop album and # Latin album.

This week, the music video for the single Bajo Otra Luz was the #1 most viewed video worldwide on YouTube and the #1 most viewed music video on YouTube. The video has almost 3 million views. That doesn't come close to Shakira's record shattering World Cup video, but those Furtado doesn't have a major world sports event driving viewers.

The cover for the single is a beautiful portrait of Furtado. The video shows Furtado and Mala Rodriguez (who is featured on the single) wearing an assortment of costumes, from Dorothy Gale to a circus clown. There are no special effects, just two very beautiful women dressing up in crazy outfits.

Today, Iron Maiden debuted the music video for Satellite 15..The Final Frontier on their official website. It is the first track from their forthcoming album, The Final Frontier, which is scheduled to be released on August 17, 2010.

The music video uses amazing sci-fi special effects to bring the album cover to life. It is a strange mix of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. However, fans of Iron Maiden's toothy monster mascot will be thrilled with the ending.

Posted by: zeefritz

The forthcoming album When Everything Breaks Open by Matt Morris is scheduled to be released on July 13, 2010 by Interscope. In January, the album was released by Justin Timberlake's joint venture with Interscope, Tennmen Records.

I don't know why the album is being released twice. The Interscope version has received a cover art makeover and a bonus track (100,000 Strong) has been eliminated. I imagine that there ws some kind of legal legal or financial issue involved. Timberlake's name has been removed from the second track, Money. The original version was Money (feat. Justin Timberlake).

The new album cover is a huge improvement. It features a composite of photographs of Morris (right) by Brigitte Sire that have been Photoshopped to appear as if Morris' chest tattoo is coming to life, or exploding or something. It is a strange concept, but it includes a nice portrait of the artist. I don't know who did the graphic design.

The music video for the track Live Forever was posted on YouTube last week. It features Morris walking down the middle of the street in what looks like a So. California track housing development. The computer special effects get more intense as the video progresses.