Favorite Album Art
Submitted by sleestak on Sun, 07/25/2004 - 03:03
Tags:
- Mission of Burma - Vs.: I love simple designs that convey a lot. The juxtaposition of the morning glories on the chain link fence just blows me away.
- Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures: I love all of Peter Saville’s designs, but this early one is my favorite. The radiogram emitted by a dying star on a stark black background.
- The Microphones - The Glow, Part 2.: No explanation, really, it’s just simple, primitive, and beautiful.
- The Clash - London Calling: Awesome Elvis parody sums up the power of punk
- Pulp - This is Hardcore: This album cover is “the sex”.
- This Mortal Coil - It’ll End in Tears: As ethereal and mysterious as the music within. (Wow, that sounds pretentious!)
- XTC - Drums and Wires: Simple, colorful, and very new wave. I used to draw it on all my notebooks in high school.
- Blur - Parklife: Because I love greyhounds and the fawn one on the right is beautiful.
- Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea: Like an illustration from an old children’s book done by a dadaist. Get a vinyl copy of this great album just for the artwork.
- R.E.M. - Murmur: The dead kudzu creates a creepy, otherworldly effect that prepares you perfectly for R.E.M.’s debut album.
- Fugazi - The Argument"
Author Comments:
I love album art, and these examples in particular. I think the unifying theme is that each is such a perfect partner for the album they adorn.
I love seeing creative album art as well. Some of my favorites include Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) and Chutes Too Narrow (Shins).
The studio that did Wish You Were Here, Hipgnosis, was responsible for many excellent album covers by Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and Peter Gabriel. Great stuff.
I agree with Chutes too Narrow. It's a fun cover and an excellent album.
Faves on this list: The Clash & R.E.M.
The album cover I really like is the one from Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". It is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. My friend says that they actually lit the guy on fire.
Has anyone else seenthe cover of John Cale's Vintage Violence? It has a head shot, as is traditional for a solo album, but he undercuts any sense of intimacy you could get by wearing a clear plastic or rubber mask over his face that distorts his features and makes the cover quite sinister. It is completely unsettling...
Johnny Waco
http://www.slothradio.com/covers/?adv=&artist=cale&album=Vintage+Violence
Cale is such an artsy dude, it's no surprise that he always chooses such memorable images. I personally LOVE his cover for the Church of Anthrax album. His latest for Hobosapiens is creepy/cool as well.
I would agree with the submission of "Wish You Were Here" from Pink Floyd. I also like "Crisis: What Crisis?" from Supertramp.
Good choices. As you can see, I'm definitely skewed more toward the punk/post-punk era in my picks, but I definitely enjoy the stuff that Hipgnosis did in the seventies.