New Record Cover Art Trend? Bed Sheets Are The New Polaroid

Seemed like for awhile every indie band would use a seemingly low fi cover made from a Polaroid or retro-looking candid photograph as their album cover art. Pitchfork even looked at this trend not too long ago.

Now, I’m starting to see a new trend develop. Photos of beds, sheets, pillows and people ON said beds.

Here are three recent ones I’ve found, but I’m sure there are way more if I dug a little deeper.

Houses, All Night

Washed Out, Within And Without

Holy Other, With U

So what other albums are employing this? I’m told that according to the New York Times, three makes a trend. So what is the origin? Excluding general laziness or lack of creativity when it comes to album art, because that would be too easy to blame, why is this now a “thing?” Is it group think? Copy cats? Coincidence? YOU DECIDE!

UPDATE 6/18/2012: Recently I found yet another album cover that can be added to this trend of album art to employ bed sheets and pillows and scantily clad bodies. Here’s Violens’ True.

UPDATE 8/30/2012: Holy Other has another bed sheets-inspired cover for their album Held.

UPDATE 4/29/2014: Found yet another bedsheets album cover, this time for the new EP from Tourist, Patterns. Behold:

UPDATE 8/1/2014: The upcoming album from shoegaze metal band Whirr, Sway, has sheets too.

Reblogging: NPR Links Update

Been awhile since I’ve dumped some links. This time I seem to have a whole boatload…So let’s get to it then.

All the Links after the jump…

Best Song I’ve Heard All Day — ‘This Is War’

(part 929 in a 1001 part series)

One of my favorite new music discoveries this year has been the duo Houses, who’s album All Night was one of my most heavily played albums from about October on. As I said in my recent Song of the Day write up, their minimalist electronic music is dark, hazy and yet completely blissful and emotionally cathartic.

So I was happy to find — albeit belatedly — that they recently released a new song, “This Is War,” on the site Alternative Apparel. This one eschews the electronics and samples for a dirgey piano, washed out guitar lines and haunting vocals that build to climactic peak that recalls The Antlers, The National or Deerhunter. Apparently a holiday song, here’s what Houses’ member Dexter Tortoriello writes about the music:

Holiday songs are often about snow, gifts or family – all of which are happy and nice – but when you stop and think about it, most holidays are based around very serious events. Christmas is, at its core, a recognition of the birth of one of the most famous and controversial figures in history. His birth and life are a truly incredible story in themselves, regardless of your personal beliefs. The song is about that very first Christmas day. It’s a haunting yet beautiful melody; we chose not to use the electronics that we’re known for on this song and opted instead for a more traditional composition. It seemed fitting.

Needless to say, it’s great. Check out the video below:

Houses Gift to Alternative Apparel from Houses on Vimeo.