MADONNA MADAME X

the house of love. [She is] Madame X”. In terms of the album cover, despite the album being extremely conceptual with an entire narrative surrounding it, the cover art for Madame X is fairly simple. The cover features a portrait of Madonna with the album title placed over her face.

One could argue that there are many things wrong with this cover, most notably the text being off centre. However the main problem some may have is that it tells you nothing about the album or represent the musical contents of the album in any way. With it being such a visual album it can be questioned as to why none of these ‘personas’ are depicted in the album cover.

When reworking the cover it was clear to me that I wanted to showcase the different personas of Madame X as it is such a vital part of the album and so I gathered different images from the albums promotional shoot and booklet shoot and arranged and edit the photos in a way that looked as though they were torn up pieces of paper layered on top of each other. The decision behind this creative choice was done as a reference to the first term used to describe Madame X: a secret agent. I loved how Madonna described Madame X as a spy fighting for freedom and so I placed the images in this way as reference to suspect boards that agents use to track down people but in this case an enemy tracking down Madame X.

I believe that this reworked album cover showcases the heavy conceptual elements and themes of the album in a more artistic way.

Thank U,Next is the critically acclaimed fifth studio album by Ariana Grande, released in February 2019. The album was created during a period of personal struggle for Grande, dealing with both the end of her engagement and the death of her ex boyfriend Mac Miller.

The album’s creation process (much like her previous album) was a form of therapy for Grande who, in her own words stated: “we walked into the studio everyday, and just made music and it turned everything around in my life”.

Thank U, Next primarily deals with the emotional toll that recent events and personal experiences at the time had caused her and can be noted as her most personal album to date. Lyrically, Thank U, Next explores a number of different themes and emotions experienced by