The front cover seems to explain the title of the album. When first reading or hearing the title you genuinely don’t know what to think or expect from the album and band. The front cover includes all the members of Kasabian (Tom Meighan, Sergio Pizzorno etc) are dressed up in bizarre costumes and look as if they are in an actual lunatic asylum.

Another feature is the trademark Kasabian font type used. This style of writing is featured on all the other Kasabian albums including “Kasabian” and “Empire”. It has become somewhat of a trademark linked to the band.

One very noticeable factor that comes to mind when first looking at this cover is that there doesn’t seem to be a title of the album printed anywhere. What everyone expects when looking at an album front cover is the name of the artist/band, name of album and image of some kind relating to the album. It’s almost as if they’ve decided to just put an image without a title to try to get the viewers to appreciate and try to work out a meaning from the picture alone. In a way the picture on the front cover is acting as the title.

Analyses of Kasabian album cover 2009: “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum” By Walat Kurdi

The style of the cover and everything involved in the picture gives an indication of the general eccentricity of the band. Everything down to the random costumes that have no link with one and other are clues to the buyer of the album that the weird, quirkiness of the cover might reflects the style of their music.

Obviously as is featured on most rock band album covers, the lead singer or the most recognisable member of the band in this case Tom Meighan is in front of the rest of the band. This is another typical convention of a Rock album cover.

It appears that Kasabian more recently in the past year have tried to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Other Indie/Rock bands such as The Killers, the Feeling and Razorlight were seen as some of their rivals in earlier years. In 2009, this inexplicable album name along with the erratic front cover mirrors the attempt to showcase their uniqueness. In all fairness their music is quite distinctive and recognisable.

An interesting feature in this album cover is the golden ball held by one of the band members. Golden ball represents a very valuable award or symbol of being the best at something. Perhaps the golden ball is featured here to signify that Kasabian is the best band at what they do or something along those lines.