Deaf Havana - Fools and Worthless Liars (Nostalgia and album artwork)

 Before I get started; to any of you reading this who aren't familiar with the band Deaf Havana - go listen to them, now. It will be worth your time.

Deaf Havana - Fools and Worthless Liars

Okay, so there is a lot I want to cover in this post, from music and lyrics to themes and photography. I'll try my best not to ramble...

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to post about this album, but better late than never! 

There aren't many albums that I can honestly say have me gripped from start to finish. Usually there's that song that we'd happily skip or one that doesn't quite fit in with the rest, but Fools and Worthless Liars had me hooked from the beginning.

The album have a very nostalgic theme which comes across very strongly in both the song titles and lyrics, I often find with songs with strong lyrical themes, the music isn't quite as fitting as it potentially could be. However to me, everything about this album works, the melodies and moods of the songs, the pace changes and the emotion in the lyrics all draw you in, allowing you to feel the reminiscent lyrics.
Deaf Havana - Hunstanton Pier

Deaf Havana - Youth in Retrospect

Aside from the music, one thing that can really make an album special to me is the album artwork in the lyric book. Imagery is so powerful and can help create or reinforce the mood of the whole album. I am often met with disappointment however, when the artwork is somewhat disconnected from the music.

The nostalgic theme that is explored within this album tells personal and emotional stories within every lyric, the visual potential of such a strong theme left me eagerly anticipating the artwork and I wasn't disappointed.

Nostalgic photography, when done well is very powerful - it is however often overdone and becomes very generic. The idea of a nostalgic photograph has a very predetermined boundary, as it's usually fueled by memory and feeling it becomes easy to know what  kind of images to expect. However this said, due to the memory aspect our views on this will differ considerably from person to person.

To me, the artwork for Fools and Worthless Liars finishes the album off beautifully and really brings together the themes, lyrics and moods explored throughout. The images are simple in way of setting, props and colour scheme, but are much more complex when it come to concept and mood. They're powerful and allow us as individuals to draw our own personal meaning from each image, to reflect on our own experiences behind the story being told.

:)

x