Magazine Advert

AnalysisTHE HORRORS - SKYING

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.

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.

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

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.