Record Covers S & D

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Instead of simply asking what are some of the best record covers out there, maybe it would be better to ask what recent ones have had a truly positive or negative effect on the record within? I know this is an incredibly broad question, and I hope it hasn't been asked already.

― hans, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beating a dead horse, yes, but Lateralus has one heck of a cover, hell, overall design, even the plastic slipcase on the outside of the CD.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aha: this is my chance to mention the Sam Prekop solo record. You should see this thing on vinyl. And you should see the back cover as well ...

― Nitsuh, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It is quite handsome

― hans, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I find the cover to Smell the Glove -- I mean Is This It -- to be riotously funny, like a detail of a Scorpions sleeve.

― Andy, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Unfortunately, the strokes probably have no idea.

― hans, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If that record only included big bottoms, everyone would be better off.

― hans, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think this is a great question. Just yesterday I was thinking about how record covers might influence one's (look, I am pretentious) perception of the music contained within. Imagine some of your favourite albums with radically different covers. Idea: the more abstract the music, the greater the images associated it will influence the way you understand it.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Y'know, I prefer the US 'Is This It' cover.

― DavidM, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You know one of the reasons I asked this question is because I can't quite put a finger on what covers if any I actually really love. I suppose the more abstract the cover (atleast for me) the better. I like Bone Machine by Tom Waits' cover. Someone mentioned that the other day to me and I thought it was a very good choice. I also like really busy covers. Some Girls is an example of this (though not a great one) and also that Talking Heads Live record... I guess two important qualities are color choice (maybe even more so than the actual images), as that always seems to effect how I remember the music, and then also the details in a record's design. I always find it exciting when I'm stuck somewhere after buying a record and there's alot to read and look at while I wait to hear it.

― hans, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Layla and anything from No Limit Rec.

― JM, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've always held a torch for Stereolab's Dots and Loops, because the packaging accurately vividly and abstractly describes the music within. The songs on the CD actually sound like the 70s pop abstractions on the booklet.

Also, Selected Ambient Works vol. 2 is excellent for its thorough and logical yet extremely complex nature. If you didn't know, the songs on the release are named by pictures, which are located in the booklet/gatefold sleeve of the album and identifiable by a corresponding circle with wedges in it (a la Trivial Pursuit) on the CD or LP label, starting at 9 o'clock and going around in a clockwise direction. The wedges themselves within the circles indicate specific movements and the time they take up within the pieces. This only works if you have one of the UK releases, since Sire cut a track and then rearranged the packaging of the US release, having no idea what it was. The original, though, is a beautiful concept and a very attractive execution.

― matthew m., Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: The cover & artwork in the Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie.." for the smiling cat with a bandage over his eye. MBV's "Loveless" looks like the most gorgeous mess, and it's all the best colors, too. Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" (was that its name? the one with all the skeletons). BEST OF BRICK! because they have trowels and wheelbarrows and the like. Awesome! I like the back cover to Brick's "GOOD HIGH", too, it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Pavement's "Terror Twilight" is a riddle I still haven't solved.

Destroy: Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell", esp. since this girl I stayed with had this awful poster of it and it was all I could stare at as I failed to sleep. Those faces are so ugly. The Bob Dylan album with his self portrait. Kid A because if I just glance at it instead of actually seeing it, I always think it's a picture of the KKK. Awful.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was just appreciating Yo La's cover to I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One yesterday.

― bnw, Friday, 24 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Macro Dub Infection on vinyl is one of the most lovely covers of the 90's. Also Routes From THe Jungle.

― David Gunnip, Saturday, 25 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I read that the Strokes aren't using the "smell the glove" cover in the states due to complaints from woolworth's. I'm not sure what the alternate cover will be. Maybe they'll follow Spinal Tap's footsteps again..."You ask yourself how much more black could it be and the answer is none... none more black", perhaps?

Those dudes better hurry up an get their Gap commercial made...

― fritz, Saturday, 25 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

favourite covers: Nevermind. GBV's 'alien lanes'. 'Talking Book'. jsbx 'orange'. sabbaf 'vol 4'. the cute dog on 'everbody knows this is nowhere'. fugazi 'in on the killtaker'. beasties 'check your head'. 'baduism'. 'atomiser'. camp lo 'uptown saturday night'.

― stevie, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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