Dis Cover: Rachel Chinouriri - I Think I Spoke Too Soon

Rachel Chinouriri will be releasing her second studio album, I think I Spoke Too Soon on 10th October and she’s already shared the album cover. So, let’s get into it and discover dis cover together.

Rachel Chinouriri - I think I Spoke Too Soon | Parlophone Records / Atlas Artists

My first thought upon seeing this was Tomoko Aran’s Fuyū Kūkan. If you know, you know.

I do like me an album cover with a clear colour scheme, a set look and a lil’ something that an artist can carry on as part of their brand, and Rachel gives me all three with this album cover.

First of all, blue. This album cover. Rachel’s official website. The music video for the lead single “One Song Away From Crying”. Blue all up in that shit. Having a colour or a pattern as a motif for an album is so important, as it helps tie all of the visual creative aspects of the album branding together. It also just makes everything easier. What’s the main colour that she should wear for public appearances? What colour should the lighting be for her SNL performance? What colour should the stage be for the tour? What colour should the backdrop be for promo shoots? In this age of TikToks, digital ads and videos being posted all over social media channels — having a music artist show up across all of these things during an album cycle (or ‘era’ as the kids like to call them) helps with brand consistency and identity. Just look at Oliva Rodrigo and the colour purple. Madonna’s Confessions II and the colour pink. Pink Pantheress and the colour red and tartan prints. Or if we go WAY back, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 and everything being black and white — which Beyoncé also adopted for I Am… Officer Knowles. It just works.

Second of all, Rachel’s look. Cute dresses, heels and the Law Roach bussdown seems Rachel’s signature look for this album and I think it’s such a cool choice. For the entire run of her debut album What a Devastating Turn of Events, Rachel sorta-kinda had a look, but it felt like a range of looks rather than a signature look which defined that album and phase of Rachel’s career. The moodboard seemed to be Baby Spice, Ginger Spice, Bratz and ‘I’m signed to Avex in 2003’ on any given day. Now that I read that list back, I guess it KINDA was a defined look. But sometimes the looks within this set of influences and references could be quite different — to a point that when you lined Rachel’s looks up, there was SOME sense of consistency to a degree, but no signature look or silhouette. And this is fine and to be expected, given that Rachel was still figuring out who she was and what her style should be. But with I Think I Spoke Too Soon, you look at Rachel’s look on the album cover, in the music video and the shoots she’s done so far and there is very much a signature look. No matter what comes after, you will be able to look back on I Think I Spoke Too Soon and say ‘THIS was Rachel’s look’. The same way we can look back at Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor and say ‘THIS was Madonna’s look’. Also, Rachel looks GROWN. The transition from ‘girl’ to ‘woman’ between albums can be a tricky one visually. But Rachel’s pulled it off.

Third of all is the PNGs. Rachel’s debut album What a Devastating Turn of Events also features multiples of her on its cover, so it’s cool to see this be a thing again for her second album. And I think this is something Rachel should run with and have it be a thing with all of her album covers from here on out. Will some people get sick of it? Maybe. But it’d be a great thing to point to when you line all of her album covers up.

I also like that this cover tells you absolutely NOTHING about the style of music on the album or the type of artist that Rachel is. Some would look at this album cover and assume it’s a pop album. Some would assume that it’s an R&B album. Very few would probably guess that it’s an indie pop, pop rock album. Rachel simply being Black is already going to funnel thoughts toward R&B. So I like that this whole album cover is somewhat of a subversion of an expectation, and that Rachel simply existing is shaking shit up in terms of genre categorisation and expectations based on race.

Rachel Chinouriri - I think I Spoke Too Soon | Parlophone Records / Atlas Artists

I am sick of variant album covers. Especially when the theming and branding of the main cover isn’t present in any of them. Credit to Rachel and her team though, as the variant covers for I Think I Spoke Too Soon are at least from the same shoot, although the multiple Rachel’s element is lost in them. I think the solution should have been either having the Rachel’s be in different poses. Or having one variant which is a lenticular cover where Rachel’s poses change.

HENNYWAY.

I like this album cover.