Analysis of a Digipak - Manic Street Preachers

This is a digipak of the album The Holy Bible by the Manic Street Preachers. The design and art direction of the album was done by Richie Edwards. The album is quite controversial in many ways, for example calling it The Holy Bible and also with the grotesque picture of the woman on the front of the album. The album itself deals with taboo subjects like drugs, sex and death. The front cover photo was done by artist Jenny Saville who the Manic Street Preachers have collaborated with numerous times. The Manics released an album in 2009, Journal for Plague Lovers, which had Saville's work on the front cover also which caused controversy.

This cover was banned from Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's stores in the UK because they thought the cover was 'innopropriate'. "We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf," Sainsbury's music buyer said. "As such, the album will be sold in a sleeve provided by the publisher." This puts across that the band, for both Journal... and The Holy Bible, made the albums to cause controversy and make an artistic statement. A quote from singer James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers, 'We're not going to censor it or anything ... It is what it is'.

Sourse: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/15/manic-street-preachers-album-supermarkets