Excellent album covers

[Johnny Yesno]

[PaulTMA]

I would say the best Residents cover came more recently:


Other greats:

[The Boston Crab]

[NoSleep]

This has always been a favourite (art by Robert Crumb, in case you couldn't tell read):

[Absorb the anus burn]

PaulTMA: some great choices there! Cluster & Harmonia are beautiful. 154 is also, but disturbing too.

[Johnny Yesno]

154 is also, but disturbing too.

Really? What do you find disturbing about it? (Genuinely interested)

[Queneau]

I always choose this;



Look at the lovely gatefold edition;

[Absorb the anus burn]

Really? What do you find disturbing about it? (Genuinely interested)

It looks like a mathematical equation ripped apart in a suicide bombing.

[HappyTree]

I remember they [Queen] came to see me and they were very chipper, very chatty. Their brief was that they had to have a gatefold album cover – those were the days - it had to have a black-and-white theme and it had to feature the band. They played their record to me at that first meeting and I said, "Wow! Ziggy Stardust meets Led Zeppelin!" and they said, "Yes! Exactly!" and that seemed to seal the deal. I did those very camp, topless shots that are quite well known, and a bunch of other stuff during my first session with them and then I had another idea. Around that time I got to know a guy called John Kobal – do you know the Kobal collection [an archive of cinema photography]? He had this amazing collection of pictures of old Hollywood film stars that he'd rescued when the studios were throwing them out in the Sixties. I'd just shot a portrait of him for his new book, I can't remember who it was on, but it might have been on Marlene Dietrich because he gave me a picture of Marlene Dietrich on the set of Shanghai Express.
Anyway, I showed it to Freddie and he knew exactly where I was coming from. Freddie was a very sweet guy, a very nice human being, but he was projecting way ahead of where the band were at that moment. He was very insistent that they were going to be a very big deal. During the session I shot lots of variations: I swapped John and Roger from left to right and we did white shots and black shots and for a while there was some discussion as to whether we should use a white shot or a black shot on the outside of the album cover although I don't' think for a moment there was any doubt in mine or Freddie's mind what we should use.
That was another key moment but it just kept rolling on from there. I had a hell of a run in those days. If you look in the book you'll see Ray Davies in New York, a promo shot of Jimmy Cliff for the release of The Harder They Come – I even shot a Cat Stevens album cover. I also shot all the Rocky Horror pictures, which doesn't mean so much in England but it's a massive cult film over here. And of course there was Roxy Music and a band called Cockney Rebel.
You mean the cover for Psychomodo?
I did several with Steve [Harley, lead singer of Cockney Rebel] but at that point it was the original line-up. Cockney Rebel and Queen were both signed to EMI but Cockney Rebel was very much Steve's band so he was featured very strongly, whereas Queen was a democracy, except, as I discovered fairly early on, when it came to the visuals Freddie could normally get his way. He named the band and designed the logo – can you imagine how he got them to go along with that? "Oh – and by the way, we're going to call ourselves Queen!" But he always managed to get them to go along with him and they turned out to be one of the most significant acts of all time and made some great music that still, to this day, sounds just terrific.

[Danger Man]

Almost anything by Blue Note, really.

[NoSleep]

Almost anything by Blue Note, really.

Likewise with the ECM label:




Factory Records openly acknowledged their debt to the ECM house style:

[Doomy Dwyer]

Ignore - technical balls up.

[PaulTMA]

My above choices may reflect why I love the new Strokes cover:


But then again I find these...







... aesthetically pleasing.

[hummingofevil]

[hummingofevil]

p.s. It's the earings on the Bonnie Prince Billy picture and not the beard that make it.

[PaulTMA]

p.s. It's the earings on the Bonnie Prince Billy picture and not the beard that make it.

While we're on the subject:

[hummingofevil]

Oh fuck off with you please; I was about to go to bed but now I am drinking Bourbon and listening to Ohio River Boat Song. I ain't going anywhere until at least Horses. Magnificent. Sorry.

[Johnny Yesno]

It looks like a mathematical equation ripped apart in a suicide bombing.

Carried out by Al-Gebra, no doubt.

[PaulTMA]

Oh fuck off with you please; I was about to go to bed but now I am drinking Bourbon and listening to Ohio River Boat Song. I ain't going anywhere until at least Horses. Magnificent. Sorry.

Haha.  You now need to stay up til 'Lost Blues' itself.


Arise Therefore, as a real album, I don't particularly care for.  Bit like Smog's 'The Doctor Came At Dawn'.  Nahhhhh.

[El Unicornio, mang]

REM have always been good at having album covers that are abstract, timeless and non-specific, but somehow sum up the music on the albums really well

My fave of theirs is probably





My fave cover of all time is probably this one which combines two of my biggest interests, The Smiths and the Vietnam war

[BlodwynPig]

Contrasting musically:

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Looking back through the thread, quite a few seem contenders for terrible album covers. Likewise I've quite enjoyed a few of the supposedly terrible ones (not quite as many though).



Like the picture, like the layout and the lettering. Captures the tone and excitement of the album perfectly.

[Vitalstatistix]

I dig Califone's aesthetic:









Rootsy, melancholic, off-kilter. Just like the music..

[Johnny Townmouse]

Looking back through the thread, quite a few seem contenders for terrible album covers. Likewise I've quite enjoyed a few of the supposedly terrible ones (not quite as many though).

Yeah, maybe there should have been the caveat of making sure it isn't just bands you like, but a bit broader than that. I, for one, can't stand the Manics, but love their use of Jenny Saville on their sleeves. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I would like the Swans covers half as much if I wasn't such a devotee. On that basis, I nominate this cover:






I won't extrapolate on why I dislike this band and album (I think that's been done to death), but hell's teeth this is a masterstroke of an album sleeve. There have been gimmicky album covers but this one transcends that and becomes a fully realised project. Damn you Pierce!

[Mister Six]

And one that used to scare the shit out of me as a kid:

[Johnny Townmouse]

That Prodigy cover is excellent. Does anyone know if that is acheived by zooming in or zooming out whilst taking the picture - or some other effect?

I never could stand this band but always loved the sleeve:


The Wedding Present are quite turgid and repetitive though I do have a nostalgic appreciation for some of their songs. At a time in the late-80s when blissed-out indie was getting very serious (House of Love, MBV, Loop) and sleeves used blurring and overlays to 'represent' this, The Wedding Present seemed to not give a shit. An understated masterstroke of a sleeve:

[PaulTMA]

Yeah, maybe there should have been the caveat of making sure it isn't just bands you like, but a bit broader than that. I, for one, can't stand the Manics, but love their use of Jenny Saville on their sleeves. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I would like the Swans covers half as much if I wasn't such a devotee. On that basis, I nominate this cover:






I won't extrapolate on why I dislike this band and album (I think that's been done to death), but hell's teeth this is a masterstroke of an album sleeve. There have been gimmicky album covers but this one transcends that and becomes a fully realised project. Damn you Pierce!

I had to rescue the box and tray of my 1CD edition from the kitchen bin, as it was mistaken for something to be disposed of by my mum.
My dad also objected to it sticking out of the pouch behind the car's passenger seat, as he thought it would encourage junkies to break in.

Don't know whether that meant he thought they would mistake it for real tablets, or just be Spiritualized fans.

[BlodwynPig]

Some good ones there, Mister Six. I've always liked Zappa covers and Trout Mask obviously. I have never seen the Beautiful South cover, but I love it - hate the music, so will avoid buying it, but it has a gentle madness to it.

[Absorb the anus burn]

The cover for XTC's Go2 is also a favourite of mine... I know the legend is that every other Virgin artist turned it down until XTC said yes, but I still think it suits the band and that record perfectly.

Also a really good album, slightly marred by Barry Andrews silly misogyny. Battery Brides (Andy paints Brian) captures Eno's sound beautifully.

Talking of that particular bighead.



This is a great cover. Swastika Girls is a total mindfuck too.

[Bennygaylord]