NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : jennifer hudson & ne-yo - think like a man (ft. rick ross)

liking the understated colours and that even though they're using old images of jen and ne-yo, it still works and looks good. a few of the alignments in the type seem a little off, but nothing majorly negative. i like it, like it.

! updated ! NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : madonna - give me all your luvin' (colour version)

oooh, a colour version of the artwork :D check out the other, black and white (and my preferred) version here. which do you prefer?

NEW DELUXE EDITION ARTWORK : madonna - MDNA

mother fudging yessSsssSssss! after the meh that was the 'give me all your luvin'' cover...here is some perfect cover artwork to behold. trippy, colourful and all kinds of right. she is rocking that red liiiiiip! well done madge!!
p.s. lots of people will be saying this is an improvement on the 'hard candy' cover...but i loved that artwork!! it used the helvetica rounded bold type perfectly and the images (of confectionary) were all relevant to the album's direction. so as well as being team MDNA...spare a thought for it's predecessor :D

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : madonna - give me all your luvin'

the first artwork from the madonna's latest era...and it fell a bit short of what i was expecting :/ sure, i'm loving the photography and the type is solid...but coming from an album called "M.D.N.A.", surely something with a bit more sass or pizazz could of been put together. hoping the album's cover is straight forward amazingness.

p.s. with the artwork not including "featuring nicki minaj & m.i.a." (though they have been confirmed as definitely being on the single), it makes me think there may be multiple versions of the song: "no rap version", "bollywood version" etc. etc...or have i been following gaga for too long?

! updated ! NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : stooshe - love me (ft. travie mccoy)

here is the updated cover of the awesomely-amazing new girl group stooshe...all i can see that is different is karis' square has been changed...and it's much higher quality :D (check out the old version here)

THE WEEK'S MOST POPULAR! - 22nd/28th january

1. (re entry) one direction - gotta be you
with one direction just about to embark on a US tour and a BRIT award nomination, there has been a lot more talk about their music (rather then relationships with older women...) and so that 1d reign is back in full force on the "most popular" chart!

2. (-) one direction - up all night (limited yearbook edition)
seriously...when will we be free from the boy's hold?!?!

3. (-) jessie j - who you are (japan edition)

4. (down three) taio cruz - troublemaker

5. (re entry) labrinth - earthquake (ft. tinie tempah)

and so labrinth climbs up the 'most popular' again, well done lab! i've seen a lot more of him in news and on blogs, assuming there is more interest with his debut album 'electronic earth' on the way...

and that was the "week's most popularrrrrrr" :)

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : marcus collins - seven nation army

UPDATE : they updated it :) check it here!

another x factor cover artwork...another meh piece of averageness! the size of all the type looks like it's forcing marcy off the cover :/

NEW MIXTAPE & BACK COVER ARTWORK : tinashe - in case we die

one of my artists to watch (check out her cover of riri's 'we found love' and her original song 'chainless'), she is set to release her first mixtape. really loving the kind of erykah badu-esque artwork, a bit of consideration has been put into it and it's paid off :D me like!

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : red hot chili peppers - look around (lq)

(seen over at redhotchilipeppersfansite.tumblr.com)

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : chris brown - turn up the music

lovvving this! completely digging the "across the world magazine cover" art direction...see-light rip off of french artist m. pokora's 'mp3' album artwork...but it looks so good, i'll let it slide :D

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : m.i.a. - bad girls

wannabes sit down, the queen on kitsch/left of centre/so nasty it's good artwork is back with her latest single 'bad girls'. who else would have the balls to hit the space bar like twenty times to break up their own name? m.i.a. that's who!

p.s. lurrrrrving how the 'bad girls' type is written out/coloured, giving me all kinds of "street fighter"/arabic writing greatness!

NEW ALBUM ARTWORK : sean paul - tomahawk technique

wow, so only just discovered this...even though it's been floating around since december! well...what to say...looks like someone has been going hella crazy using the negative photo settings on their camera and illustrating on MS paint :/ i'm feeling that the designer (probably sean himself...) was hoping for an african imagery/M.I.A./'rudeboy' video kind of vibe...they may have missed the mark ever so slightly...i'm just hoping there was some direction for this!

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : lady gaga - heavy metal lover (?)

amazon.com has put up a page for 'heavy metal lover' as the latest gaga single, along with this artwork. is it the official or a filler for now?... (i'm thinking it isn't the real deal, gargs has been creating original covers for the last three singles, not just relying on the album's photoshoot. we'll have to wait and see!)

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : the wanted - glad you came (US version)

LIMITED EDITION : kylie minogue - aphrodite (the goddess edition)

so after months of waiting and anticipating, the goddess has finally emerged from the depths. so let's cast our minds back to early may... "warner music australia" announced up coming special releases to celebrate kylie's latest album 'aphrodite' and the smash hit tour 'aphrodite : les folies tour'. one of the releases was announced as being a hand made, specially packaged pop-up book, which would showcase behind the scenes photographs and interviews with the key players in kylie's team, who helped put the 'les folies' tour together... and it would be named 'the goddess edition'.

"alleluia!"

due to multiple production problems, put down to the fact that a piece of this kind and quality has not been created on this scale before, it had pushed the eventual release date back several times. regular followers of simonsez-CD will know that i have been sat patiently, twiddling my graphic-design addicted thumbs, waiting until the day that my hands lay upon my very own copy. that day arrived...and now i will open it up and show you all the wonder that is 'the goddess edition'. enjoy :)

as a way of sweetening up the more impatient kylie fans (who felt slightly cheated that it took so long for the piece to be released), the designers decided to include a few extra items. the first: a book carry bag, to keep the deluxe edition safe and sound. it has a john zhu (the designer who provided the amazing illustrations inside the book) illustration printed onto it, so it adds a really lovely element to the edition.

the second: specially printed "K" logo wrapping paper surrounding the book...

and the third (one last layer...): a slipcase to house the book in even more luxury!

following on from the wrapping paper, the "K" logo has been embossed onto the front...

...and the side. delicious!

nearly there...

and here it is! covered in a fine hessian cloth, you can really feel the hand-made quality to the piece.

a close up of the simple, but absolutely delightful, embossed cover.

back.

side.

:D

a personally written message from kylie herself...

and now, what you've all been waiting for...THE MOTHER FUDGING POP UPS!! starting with: the dress.

click "Read More" to see more images and my scoring of the limited edition piece :)

NEWS : gaga and lauryn hill make surprise entries on yahoo's iconic album covers list!

yahoo.com recently revealed a list of what they thought was the top 10 most iconic album covers, among them were the usual suspects: nirvana's 'nevermind', the beatles' 'abbey road' etc. etc...but there was also two surprising entries: lady gaga and lauryn hill. the deluxe edition cover of gaga's 'born this way' came in at number 7 and lauryn hill's legendary 'the miseducation of lauryn hill' came in at number 9. it really surprised me that that the standard version featuring the full image of motorbike-gaga of 'born this way' wasn't chosen, personally i find that cover much more "iconic" than the zoomed in deluxe version. i do love that lauryn is being shown some love, not only is her album a solid masterpiece (we're all still waiting for the follow up...) but the artwork has always stayed with me as one of my all time favourites. check out the rest of the list here.

(source: yahoo.com)

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : alexandra burke - elephant (?)

UPDATE : indeed this is a fan-made...peep the slick official cover here!

hoping this isn't the official artwork...i wanted something which has a lot more oomph to suit the song (which i'm thinking is my top song of 2012 so far...)!

NEW REMIX SINGLE ARTWORK : lady gaga - bloody mary (clinton sparks remix)

THE WEEK'S MOST POPULAR! - 15th/21st january

1. (-) taio cruz - troublemaker

2. (-) one direction - up all night (limited yearbook edition)

3. (-) jessie j - who you are (japan edition)

4. (new entry) flo rida - wild ones (ft. sia)

5. (down one) chris brown - strip (ft. kevin "k-mac" mccall)

a lot of none movers this week and a new entry from flo rida's latest (loving that sia is getting some majahhh attention!) and that was this "week's most popular"!

NEW REMIX EP ARTWORK : anjulie - brand new bitch (the remixes)

liking this more then the original single cover!

...anddd not long ago anj posted on twitter that she's sorting out her album's artwork :D!

NEW SINGLE ARTWORK : rebecca ferguson - too good to lose

loving the images used on bex's covers...but that type is so dull and cliche :/ it lets the artwork down so much.