My friend has just sent me down a rabbit hole and I decided it would be a good idea to share here.
You all know Pretty. Odd. and all of the flowers on the cover, but have you have you ever wondered what they mean? Well, I went on a search to figure out the meaning behind all of the flowers I could decipher. Note; some of these could be wrong due to not being well versed in the type of flowers out there and there being no source I could find saying what flowers are in the cover art.
The first flower I could spot were white lilies.
From what I could find, white lilies mean purity and innocence.
The second type of flower I found were pink lilies.
And those usually mean admiration, or femininity, or love. It depends on the source, but all of the seem to agree that they mean admiration.
Blue flax was the third flower I found.
Which mean strength, beauty, renewal, and protection. As well as delight and simplicity.
Which mean love, appreciation, and joy.
Which mean friendship, joy, and new beginnings.
Now, you're already starting to see a theme here, aren't you? Not only do they go with the themes with the album itself, they also have one common theme. Love and joy. Panic wrote the album as a happy counterpart to their first album Fever, which was an angry record full of teenage angst. They wrote Pretty. Odd. as a positive record because they were happy and they didn't want to lie to fans and write another sad and angry record. And the cover itself already has that joyful whimsy feel to it by just looking at it. You could just tell that they loved making this record and writing for it and all of the whimsy behind it.
Now for the last of the flowers I could decipher.
Peony is one of the ones I'm not too sure about, so correct me if I'm wrong. I believe they are the flowers right above the title.
And they mean prosperity, good luck, love and honor.
Next are lily of the valley. Again, I'm not too sure about these.
And they mean purity, joy, love, sincerity, happiness and luck.
And lastly there is the sunflower in the upper left hand corner of the album cover.
Which mean positivity, strength, hope, and optimism.
It's amazing to see that the album cover really does describe "the sound of pretty odd" with its usage of flowers and their meanings. I could get into the few fruits and butterflies on the cover and their meanings, but that would spout the same thing that the flowers already are.
Everything about this album screams joy and positivity, even though the lyrics tend to say otherwise. And this just goes to show that every little thing going into this record was thought of, even down to the meaning of each individual flower on the cover. This is just one of many reasons why this record will always be one of my all time favorites.
Looking into this has made me want to dissect the record even more. I want to do more than just the cover art. I want to look into everything that went into the album, the writing, the meaning of the lyrics, the promotion, the recording. Hell, even the entire era itself. I want this record to be appreciated more than it already has. And more importantly, I want people to stop misinterpreting the lyrics.
I want people to understand the sound of Pretty. Odd.
gummygunk
jacobvanloon
dededos
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
snowghoul
titsay
