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Analysis of Memento Mori

I decided to analyse Flyleafs album cover for Memento Mori as

its very different from the covers Ive analysed so far.

Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning Remember you will

die. The inspiration for this album cover was the story of the

Roman king who, after returning home from a victory, held a

celebration, but then a slave shouted Memento Mori to remind

them that although they celebrate now, their time will come.

Having the king take up most of the image shows his importance,

but its out of focus, drawing your attention to the background

where you can see the lead singer.

Semantic Code:

The crowd celebrating with music helps to get across the idea of

the story and the inspiration for the album, however, the make-

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up used connotes death the almost skeleton-like face paint and

black clothes, with black instruments which gets across the

idea that theyre mortal and will eventually die.

Symbolic Code:I think the lead singer is meant to be representative of the

slave shouting out the Latin phrase, but the way shes posed

also makes it looks like shes singing; showing that shes the

lead singer of the band. In an interview she stated that the

preferred reading was for her to symbolise the slave, but I

think her costume and make up dressed like a celebrity makes

it look like shes singing along with the others. I think this

would be a popular oppositional reading. The negotiated reading

would then be that shes representative of both the slave and

her music, through the ways I mentioned above.

The way that the king is looking facing towards the crowd with

an angry frown connotes his fury at the slave interrupting the

celebrations and could help encourage the idea that the lead

singer is symbolising the slave.

Composition:

Without the FlyLeaf logo, this album cover would be a great

example of the rule of thirds; having the king in the foreground

weighing the image to the right, and the crowd in the background

weighing the image to the bottom, so that theres a great

expanse of sky. I think if theyd perhaps had the name of the

band or album across the bottom right of the image, it may have

made the cover more interesting. However, having the logo

surrounded by the sky draws a lot of attention to it and the

band name is the most important aspect of the cover, as although

they wish to convey the story, the point of the album cover is

to promote their band.

Symbolism and genre:The album cover shows straight away the type of music that the

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band produces; the symbolism of death in a gentle tone (using

costume, make-up and colour to symbolise death rather than

obvious gore) connotes the genre of alternative rock.

The entire album cover has a historical feel to it; from thestory to the almost washed out colours, this could also connote

the religious and historical side of the band; as they are all

religious.