When you look at the cover of Lady Antebellum’s latest album, Ocean, it has a little bit of a throwback feel to it, like a picture you might have seen on the cover of an album in a 70’s record collection. Charles Kelley explains that was somewhat intentional. “You know the record feels throwback to me,” he says. “I mean, the sound of it has a bit of a vintage feel, you know, especially songs like ‘Ocean’ and ‘Be Patient With My Love.’ And so, I guess we found a photo and then we kind of whited out the background to almost make it feel as if you’re almost on like the cliffs of an ocean.”
Hillary Scott says they didn’t want to do something obvious like put them in a picture in front of an actual ocean, because she says, “[The album title is] not that literal.”
Ocean represents the waves of emotions on the album, and Charles says,
Hillary Scott – “Well, because, it’s not literal, you know, and Charles says, ”I feel like if you had like an ocean [and put it on the cover], it’d be like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a breezy record.’ Well, it’s not. We were like, this is a wave of emotions of these songs.”
Ocean features Lady A’s brand new #1 song, “What If I Never Get Over You,” and even though they were going for a bit of a nostalgic feel with the album cover picture, Hillary points out, “I was inspired by Beyoncé to wear that hat, I will say.”
Lady Antebellum – Ocean album artwork
Charles Kelley – “You know the record feels throwback to me. I mean, the sound of it has a bit of a vintage feel, you know, especially songs like ‘Ocean’ and ‘Be Patient With My Love.’ And so, I guess we found a photo and then we kind of whited out the background to almost make it feel as if you’re almost on like the cliffs of an ocean, like more of that kind of world where it’s kind of back there. We didn’t want it to be so obvious.”
Hillary Scott – “Well, because, it’s not literal, you know, and…”
Charles – “It’s more about the waves of emotions on the record. And the whole record, I don’t know, I feel like if you had like an ocean, it’d be like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a breezy record.’ Well, it’s not. We were like, this is a wave of emotions of these songs.
Hillary – “The photo we wanted to go more organic, like something just classic look, wardrobe, the whole thing. I was inspired by Beyoncé to wear that hat, I will say.”