I love CDs, and no analog "purist" has ever been able to convince that analog music sounds better than digital. Having said that, I REALLY miss the big, beautiful artwork of the old 12" vinyl records. Some if them were almost worthy of framing, especially if they were gate-fold sleeves. I'm going to post just a few of my favorites, and I'd like you to post links to some of your favorites too. Even if the artwork is only on a CD cover, if you like it then link it. Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and most other online music retailers provide large images of CD covers, so look for them there if you if you don't know where to start. Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be the artwork on the cover, but anywhere in the enclosed materials that came with your record or CD.
This first one is iconic - Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." So many ways to interpret it, and when you listen to the album you discover even more. Brilliant.
Another iconic image - "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. What can I say about this picture that hasn't already been said? Her name is Dolores Erickson, by the way.
Green Day - "American Idiot" A powerful statement about American militarism in the 21st century. I'm sure the use of black and red is no accident.
Now let's see some of yours.
This first one is iconic - Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." So many ways to interpret it, and when you listen to the album you discover even more. Brilliant.
Another iconic image - "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. What can I say about this picture that hasn't already been said? Her name is Dolores Erickson, by the way.
Green Day - "American Idiot" A powerful statement about American militarism in the 21st century. I'm sure the use of black and red is no accident.
Now let's see some of yours.
http://www.tprice.net/disco/tool/insidelateralus.jpg
Alex Grey does their artwork, and he's amazing.
i guess not.
well that kinda sucks for this thread.
anyway... a few off the top of my head, in no particular order because i love so many...
Blur: Parklife
They had a thing at the time for carefully using stock photography, instead of original images... which (as a pop art fan) I find really super cool. Also, their logo designer said "we wanted something that kids could draw on their schoolbag" which has become my golden rule of logo design. The album is about ...life (the dog race analogy is good!) and dog racing is a traditional british thing, another theme of the album. It's like they deliberately set up that perfect shot just for the album cover.... but actually they picked it from a catalogue. Pop art rules.
Radiohead: Amnesiac
This is just soooooooooo Radiohead, so perfect for the music, such good typography, my favourite colours, everything is cool and makes me want to play it again.
The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band
You don't seriously need me to write something here do you?
FSUK #1
Awesome compilation of breakbeaty things from the nineties, "Future Sound Of The United Kingdom #1" ...very nice artwork. "messy" is a very hard style to do right. Sorry this is a bad jpg but it's hard to find.
I really dig the Revolver album cover from The Beatles. It used to be in my father's LP collection when I was a kid, and I always thought it was trippy. And, I really love the Pink Floyd Animals album, because eventhough it appears to be a painting, it's really a photograph. From Wikipedia: "The giant, helium-filled pig seen on the cover was actually flown over Battersea Power Station for the photo shoot."
Priceless.
Spirit "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" Do yourself a favor and hear this album. Possibly the most overlooked album of its era.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002AF2.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Mountain "Nantucket Sleighride"
http://img3.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/9/9/c/d/7/99cd78481596a66260f12ddb1f93a268_full.jpg
Yes "Fragile"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Fragile.jpg
Jethro Tull "Heavy Horses" "Bring me a wheel of oaken wood, a rein of polished leather, a heavy horse and a tumbling sky, brewing heavy weather."
http://remus.rutgers.edu/JethroTull/Photos/heavy_horses.jpg
Rage Against The Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
I have to check my collection at home for me, but for now I dig chicks
Meanwhile check out this great site for Album Covers. http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/cover_art_list.html and this one as it gives alot of background information. http://www.superseventies.com/greatestalbumcovers.html
As an aside, do you remember how many 80s heavy metal bands had mascots?! Motley Crue's Allister Fiend?! Anthrax's Not Man? A quick Google search netted this site with a list of 80s band mascots. Classic stuff.
faith no more: songs to make love to
korn: follow the leader
iron maiden: several of them, seen here redone, using Spongebob instead of Eddie!
>> ^blankfist:
Here's a list of some of my favorites! "Ken: By Request Only"!
2 other people mentioned iron maiden covers, while i was looking for good pics of the album covers i remember digging as a kid. hehe. knew i wouldn't be the only one.
I couldn't say it's my favorite, because I've never really thought about album covers that way, but "Bitch's Brew" is definitely on my list of eye candy.
^The Battersea Power Station is really cool. Ian McKellan used it in the ending of his version of Richard III.
also put to surreally good use for the film Children of Men
http://www.shillpages.com/music/index.htm
wow blankfist - that's a trove of avatar goodness. I really think you should go with Joyce, though - Tino doesn't quite fit, so to speak.
Tino fits just fine. Just fine.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7508/7beastsco2.jpg
http://www.thefunkstore.com/CurrentCDs/August2006/CD-ReddFoxxYouGottaWash.jpg
Here's a list of some of my favorites! "Ken: By Request Only"!
The "Joyce" album cover show in that link has also become iconic itself. At least it's iconic enough for people to parody it:
http://snobsite.com/archives/2005/11/re_joyce.php
my weird...
http://www.worldtributebands.com/cov-a.jpg
http://www.truemetal.org/metalwallpaper/images/kansaspointofknowreturn.jpg
http://www.bluesnaggletooth12.com/goodies/nursery.jpg
http://tubular.net/covers/large/TubularBells.jpg
http://mnmedia.musicnation.com/Blog/2008/080124/gabriel.jpg
http://www.videosift.com/video/Battle-of-the-Album-Covers
I love the album cover to blankfist's first EP
my weird...
I never knew I was a Samoan.
http://www.sound.jp/hipgnosis/yapwall/yhip.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipgnosis
Too bad the group dissolved in 1983, but one of its founders, Storm Thorgerson, still does album (CD) design.
oh and, you kids and yer cd inserts.....those are not album covers-Nothing beats the look, feel, and flavor of vinyl, and a 12"-plus sleeve to handle and pass on to yer rugrats......
Here's a cover that may be largely responsible for a 40-year career (it helps that the music was and has stayed great too):
http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/K/king_crimson_court.html
Roger Dean was a great match for the music of Yes--really seemed to complete them. His most elaborate work for the band:
http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/Y/yes.html
Led Zeppelin also produced a couple of fun covers, with cutouts and moving bits so you could customize them, kinda. Zeppelin III had cutouts with a rotating inner layer of different pictures that showed through. Physical Graffiti had a bunch of windows cut out, with different scenes for each one on the various inner sleeves of the double album. You can't get that with a CD, and the Internet images I found weren't very helpful either.
There are a couple of CDs with fun covers, though. Tool, also mentioned above, had a 3D cover for Ænima and another kind of 3D booklet and glasses for 10,000 Days; Lateralus featured a booklet printed on clear plastic, so you could peel away the image like in some anatomy books you may have seen. Also Beck's "The Information" was basically blank and came with lots of stickers so you could make your own version.