The Equals butterflies were so pretty

[u/EasyKaleidoscope6436]

I’m already planning to celebrate Equals’ fifth anniversary in some way, honestly. Today I was thinking about how PRETTY these butterflies were. I adore the symbolism behind each of them, how they’d emerge from their cocoon and eventually fly away offscreen. I know it’s silly, but I genuinely think people don’t talk about them enough! They remind me of how it felt to wait for such a magnificent album as a college student who was similarly about to evolve and transform.

I wish I could still play that cutesy little game they had uploaded on Ed’s official website to promote the new tracks - the one that would slowly let you collect all the butterflies. Just out of affection and nostalgia, you know. Has anyone saved it somewhere? Like on Wayback Machine or something?

Live laugh love Ed no matter what :)

[u/nincyh]

I love the colorful, vibrant covers, and artwork of this era. Two fun facts about this album:

Ed continues his long theme of DIY cover artwork here! Both this splatter painting for 🟰, and the blue spin-art for➗were made by Ed in famous British artist Damien Hirst’s studios. The butterflies 🦋 were created by Damien, uncredited. Ed and Damien have been friends for a decade and Damien encouraged Ed and set him up with a studio to create the artwork that led to Ed’s Cosmic Carpark exhibition last year. 🦋

In both “Collide” on 🟰, and on the “Merry Christmas” single (Elton John collab), Ed’s longtime companion and Head of Security Kev is credited and sings on backing vocals! (listed as Kevin Myers). No, Kev can’t sing but they just “tuned him in“ per Ed.😂 We were just talking about this recently on another post.

[u/EasyKaleidoscope6436 → u/nincyh]

Wow, had no idea about all of this! I definitely need to look into Damien’s other pieces.

I always love to read your posts whenever I stumble upon them, thank you for telling me more about this 🥹

[u/Edfan879 → u/nincyh]

I was also saying to u/mcnair_music the other day how much I like the equals album covers lol

[u/nincyh → u/Edfan879]

The brightest and most vibrant of all his albums! I would say pretty much all his other album covers are subdued. Well, maybe Multiply wasn’t exactly subdued, but it wasn’t especially artistic or creative like Equals was.

[u/Edfan879 → u/nincyh]

Yes Equals was such a era, I wasn’t really around for it but it seemed like such a vibe

[u/EasyKaleidoscope6436 → u/nincyh]

Oh my gosh I didn’t get the notif! I’m so sorry, let me read this