Digipak Analysis: Pendulum

By Steve Gillies

Digipack Analysis: ImmersionThe digipack for the album “Immersion” has a big underwater theme, although the colour scheme is still quite dark. The underwater theme represents the name of the album (Immersion) as the two people on the CD cover are immersed in a different, underwater world.

The darkness at the bottom of the ocean could also represent the unknown, and not being able to see what lies ahead, however to be fully immersed in life, you need to go deeper into the unknown and try new things, this could tie with Pendulum’s experimental attitude to the album, with reviews saying that tracks such as “The Island” and “Self Vs. Self” break away from the bands traditional genre.

Digipack analysis: WitchcraftThe digipack for the single “Witchcraft” is based heavily around the image of a large fluorescent eye. Eyes are often featured in Pendulum’s music videos and CD covers for unknown reasons. In this case it may have been used as the first line of lyrics of the single are “It’s in your eyes, a colour fade out”. Or it could be used as a symbol, the idea that eyes are “the doorways to the soul” and that Pendulum use this song almost as a portal, to transport the listen to a different place or a different way of thinking, which reinforces Pendulum’s mantel as “outcasts” and not fitting in with labels.

The unnatural colours around and of the eye itself ties in with the single’s title “Witchcraft” with an eye of a mysterious person/creature creating a feeling of the paranormal and something going against nature, which could also be used to re-present the music genres Pendulum explore in the single and in their other work, as Pendulum’s music does go against “natural” ideas of music, with a lot of it being computerised synths and it being recorded in a very digitalised process, there is a sense of mystery and unpredictability in the band and the music, and I feel that those ideas have been captured in this digipack design. At first glance there isn’t a lot going on here, but the use of colour and symbolism create a greater sense of meaning without overloading the viewer with messages.

Digipak Analysis: In SilicoPendulum’s second album, titled “In Silico” meaning “created by or performed on a computer” is the first time the band logo is seen on a digipack from them, the round maze like disc, this time in different colours with a fetus in the centre. Behind appears to be a circuit board, which is blue in colour on a black background. It follows the usual Pendulum themes in the fact the background colours are often very dark/black, with the colours in the foreground being much more bright and colourful.

The fetus in the centre of the logo, when coupled to the album title could be an intertextual reference to Nirvana’s album “In Utero” which literally translates as “in the womb” so this album could paint an idea of being “born digitally” in a computerised world, as well as highlighting the contrast in styles and differences of the two bands, which again portrays Pendulum as breaking away from accepted forms and conventions and as a band that “stands on it’s own” in terms of genre, which appeals to existing fans who like the idea of not fitting in and being themselves rather than feeling trapped into conforming with the rest of society.

Digipack Analysis: Hold Your Colour

This is the digipack for Pendulum’s debut album entitled “Hold Your Colour” it features a picture of an eye on a green background, with some other colours such as white, blue and purple also visible. The title “Hold Your Colour” suggests ideas of personal identity and taking pride in yourself, the fact that it is only an eye portrayed on the cover suggests that’s all that the person has left, everything else has been taken away. The band are telling people with this design to hold onto their values, as their own identity is something that can never be taken from them.

It establishes the bands image as being defiant and breaking away from being “held down” and restricted by labels, by being themselves no matter what they can have a greater sense of freedom. This appeals to fans, who might also struggle to find a place in a world that constantly tries to put things into categories, what Pendulum are saying is that the world is a lot more complicated than that and that people should just accept that and not try and find similarities between different things.

Digipack analysis: Live at BrixtonThe final digipack I’m going to analyse is from Pendulum’s special edition “live at Brixton Academy” album. Released in between albums “In Silico” and “Immersion” this release is Pendulum’s only release that comes with a CD and a DVD, so is going to be the main yardstick by which we compare our coursework to. The front cover is on a black background, which gives it a familiar feel to Pendulum fans, who will most likely associate the band with the dark colours they wear. It has the bands logo on it in white, and then the band name and album title in red lettering. The colours contrast each other well and stand out from their background, this could once again be a way that Pendulum are using to say that standing out from the crowd and the conventions of society are good, and that personal identity is the one thing that matters most.

This album design is very minimalistic in comparison to other Pendulum releases, mainly because it is only re-representing existing Pendulum songs and ideas, it suggests that the band are comfortable with where they are at the current time, which will reassure fans due to the stability the band offers as a constant in their lives.

Magazine Advert analysisAs we are also required to create a magazine advert for our digipack, I have also decided to analyse some existing magazine adverts that Pendulum have used, the common themes from them are that the band name is stylised in the same front on every advert. This gives consistency to text and means that the fans can feel secure about what a Pendulum advert looks like, they can see the font at the top of the page and immediately know it’s advertising their band. The adverts also heavily feature versions of the band logo, as seen in two far left adverts.

Also, a lot of the colour theme ideas that have been used on digipacks have been carried through here, with the dark/black background being contrasted by light/colourful colours in the foreground again by making the adverts similar to the product itself gives the band a sense of synergy in the way that everything under the “Pendulum brand” follows the same forms and conventions, even if the Pendulum Brand itself does not fit in with other forms and the ideas of genre.

ConclusionTo summarise, the majority of Pendulum digipacks consist of dark background colours, with contrasting/colourful foregrounds, the incorporate the bands logo into a lot of their designs, as well as the use of images of human eyes. On an ideological scale, the main messages Pendulum try to portray in their digipacks are that of strong personal identity, breaking the mould and going against what society expects you to do as well as standing by your morals no matter what. This was expected due to Pendulum not really fitting into any music category or genre and very much ignoring the constraints that the music industry often imprints onto various genres and types on music.