In-depth album analysis

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.

The images used in this album cover are all in a sepia tone which is quite vintage and well fitting to the album as it has recently been re-released. Its laid out in a scrapbook-esque way in which the pictures aren't lined up neatly so much as slightly jaunty angles, slightly worn looking with creases across the photos and in no particular order.
The text is scrawled almost unnoticeably across the top right hand corner in red simply stating 'Rolling Stones: "Exile on Main St."' It seems to be written in someone’s handwriting and because of this it enhances the scrapbook feel. The text is on a slanted angle not particularly neatly either as it is written diagonally downwards slightly.
The text and images have no real relation to one another as the text is a bold red and the pictures have no real colour at all.
The front, back and inside sleeve are all set up similarly in that there are snapshot photographs in black and white/sepia plastered across the entire album. The back cover differs slightly as there is one large photo of a man with three snooker balls in his mouth with the track line-up and recording details written across his face in a black text, and formal font. There is also a small Rolling Stones tongue logo positioned here near the labels.
The images represent the bands genre as this album is quite rhythm and blues sounding the pictures all relate to this as they are of stereotypical Southern American areas i.e. Louisiana in which there is a lot of blues reference, the photos are of people from these places such as cabaret dancers, stage performers (escapologists, magicians, dancers, fire eaters e.t.c.) and poster adverts.
On the inside sleeve there are photographs of the band mainly Mick Jagger in a photo booth reel format, also a tongue similar to the Rolling Stones icon is plastered across the inside. The cover shows mainly Mick Jagger as he is the most recognisable Rolling Stone and was more the 'meat'. On another area of the inside cover, the photos are of the entire band together, separately, recording the album in their studio, holding up newspaper articles, or unrelated things such as a 'price list' and the tongue as seen before.
As the Rolling Stones where very big when the album was first released as an LP in 1972, the need to have the band and logo plastered across the front seem almost benign, also as the band have taken a blues approach with this album due to the band having to leave England due to financial reasons as well as disagreements with their label over which songs to record, I think the Louisiana’s blues photos approach is very clever and represents the album very clearly.
The potential target for the album could be a new listener as the album cover seems quite interesting and unusual, also pre-existing fans would probably buy the album as they'd recognise the band name/logo on the back cover.

The band re-released the remastered album with this digipak format in May 2010 after 38 years.