THIS WEEK

Approach No. 1: Enigmatic Photography

Just who are the people in this fuzzy shot? Father and son? Father and daughter? Where are they? And when? The indie rockers known as Hospital Ships already have a wonderful band name, and now they have an appropriately unsettling cover for their new album, Destruction in Yr Soul (Graveface).

Perhaps the people on that last cover are staying in this cover’s cabin. Or perhaps, suggested by the Bell phone booth and the weed/tree that’s trying to reclaim the land, the structure is a long-abandoned park office. Holy Folk is an L.A. quartet. According to a press release, the band’s full-length debut, Motioning (Silver Side), is “an amalgamation of indie folk, dream-pop and moody alt-rock, blending delicate instrumentation with atmospheric harmonies over pristine production.” And the cover photo is another image that deliciously poses more questions than it answers.

The cover of Sigur Rós’s seventh studio album has a typically effective image; this time, it’s a photo by Lygia Clark. Our own Al Griffin is a big fan of the Icelandic post-rockers, and to his ears, Kveikur (XL) finds the “glacial aspect” of the band’s sound giving way to “volcanic activity.” You can read Griffin’s review in the print or tablet edition of our summer triple issue (June-July-August).