The Leftovers: Stories in Music and Paintings
Words by Emma Caughlan
Welcome back to The Leftovers, if you don’t know what is going on, you have two playlists to catch up on, enjoy! If you are back, thank you! This week, I want to focus on one of the most important parts of any album, the album cover. This is in honor of Lizzy McAlpine’s announcement of her fourth studio album, “Angel”, coming out on September 18th. The cover of “Angel” is a chalk and painting piece done by Seattle-based artist tidy.totes. All of this week’s playlist’s songs will feature a painted album cover. Obviously, endless amounts of beautiful artwork exist for albums but this playlist will only feature songs with covers that were physically painted and done specifically for the album. There will be plenty of time to explore other mediums another time. In making this playlist and subsequently writing about the songs, the word storytelling came to mind quite a bit. Telling a cohesive and engaging story can be incredibly difficult to do in both a song and a painting. It is no surprise that these artists in particular seem to have a special appreciation of the painting medium. If you can, I encourage you to do some painting of your own while listening. You never know what the music will inspire.
The light in the painting Lizzy McAlpine
Along with her new album announcement, McAlpine graced us with a new single and a music video featuring herself and her boyfriend/music producer, Kane Ritchotte. McAlpine continues with her unstructured lyrical style that reads like a beautiful diary entry. What really makes this song, is what makes any of her songs: her vocals.
Limerance Lucy Dacus
After I decided on this week’s theme, two albums immediately came to mind, Lucy Dacus’s “Forever Is A Feeling” is one of them. This whole album feels like a renaissance painting with sweeping strings and instrumentation throughout. I chose “Limerance” for its devastating showcase of Dacus’s storytelling. She sings as a lover thinking about leaving a happy relationship and how it consumes every waking mundane moment of her life. The cover of “Forever Is A Feeling” was originally the painting itself of Dacus by Will St. John but was later switched to the photograph of the painting it is now. According to Dacus it was, “because… I want to and I can! lol”.
Perfect Places Lorde
The incomparable “Melodrama” was the second album that immediately came to mind. Before researching for this playlist, I thought that Lorde’s synesthesia was the reason for all the blues in the portrait, but that seems to be a rumor. In a Vogue article from 2017, artist Sam McKinniss says the goal was “the colorful restlessness of youth and how being young can feel like you have a superpower.” I would say both the painting and the album encapsulate that pretty damn well. Side note: if you’re looking for a laugh, check out how that Vogue article describes Jack Antonoff in the first paragraph. Maybe one day my friend Hannah can dive into that story for The Leftovers.
Dallas Major Lily Allen
This is my favorite painting featured on this playlist, this is also one of my favorite albums from this past year. This portrait by Spanish artist Nieves González of British songwriter Lily Allen is a striking caricature of her fifth studio album, “West End Girl”. This is one of my favorite tracks from the album but I highly recommend listening to it all the way through from start to finish. This is also the only painting featured that you can see in person, it will be on display in London’s National Portrait Gallery until March of 2027.
Left Hand Free alt-j
This pick is for middle school me. This is one of the songs that I found through obsessively listening to Pandora Music’s Alternative Radio in the early 2010s. I admittedly do not know any other alt-j songs but this one stuck with me enough that it came to mind for this playlist, maybe this is a sign for both of us to explore a little further. This is the only painting in this list that was actually done by one of the band members.
Right Down the Line Gerry Rafferty
The iconic cover of Gerry Rafferty’s “City to City” was painted by Scottish artist and playwright John Patrick Byrne. Bryne regularly collaborated with Rafferty both on his solo projects and Stealers Wheel albums. Byrne also collaborated with The Beatles. He almost designed the album cover for their self-titled 1968 album but the band later scrapped it. I guess “the white album” sounds a bit better than “the band sitting with a bunch of animals album”.
Nancy From Now On Father John Misty
I regularly come back to this song from Josh Tillman or Father John Misty’s debut album “Fear Fun”. The groovy album art is from Brooklyn-based artist and illustrator Dimitri Drjuchin and it’s one of those that gets weirder the more you look at it. Tillman’s lyrics have the same effect and this song is no exception.
Crown Billie Marten
This is the second time British singer-songwriter Billie Marten has incorporated a painting into her album cover, both are portraits of her. Last year’s “Dog-Eared” cover was painted by Brazilian-born painter Daniel Borgonovi. I’ve been a fan of Marten for a few years now but I admit I just listened to “Dog-Eared” for the first time last week. There is a nostalgia to her voice that I really enjoy and if you are reading this article because you are a Lizzy McAlpine fan, I think you’ll enjoy this song too.
Coins Horsepower
This was a last-minute add after a friend suggested it to me when I told her about this week’s theme. It comes from Charlotte Weinman or Horsepower’s debut EP. The cover is done by her sister Emma. Weinman’s sound is a bit edgier than some of the other songs on this playlist but her lyrics read like many of the folk artists featured.