Who has the best run of album art over their career?
Let's agree to no less than 7 albums/EPs as a cut-off point.
- Relevant artist taggings:
- None
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lyserge, Faceless_Opinion, seedler, Silkyskillz11, alxmoore, Matt_was_taken, and shadyadie this'd this
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Bowie
for me, obv. I suppose you have to be attracted to the man, though.
The flaw in the RCA run is using two MWFTE movie stills for Low and StS. But those are really great shots, so...
*will think of artists' cover art I'm not so attached to*
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Conrad's art for ToD is usually really great
Siouxsie: always liked the Banshees art.
ELO. Fleetwood Mac.
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I'm not attracted to Bowie at all personally
but I can respect the album art.
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Eh, TOD
has too many stinkers in there. So Divided is junk and so was the new one.
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http://www.silverdisc.com/images/80/823566506720.jpg
i do not recommend google image searching that band name.
theShipment this'd this -
For the most part, they are head shots...
MWSTW Mr Fish dress really was outrageous for the time. Had to have a different cover for the US market. My most prized possession is the Mercury original.
The font on Hunky Dory is kinda shitty, but the pixelated photo is cool.
Ziggy. Not really my fav, despite its icon status.
Aladdin Sane. Awesome, obv.
Pinups. Twiggy and Bowie looking into the future or back in time or something weird.
Diamond Dogs. French painter, forget his name. Had to airbrush the dog's dick off... find one with the dick and you're rich!
Young Americans. Looks normal. But wait... what's wrong with this photo... omg, this fucker doesn't have any eyebrows!
StS. Low. Awesome Thin White Duke era photos.
Heroes. My fav: The glassy eyes make him look like a human mannequin.
Lodger. Didn't like it at first, but now one of my favs.
Scary Monsters: Bowie's last perfect album. Edward Bell, I think, did the cover art. I stole hundreds posters--including several rolls of different version of Bell's art--from a Bowie event way back then. Still have most of them somewhere.
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True, I was thinking that
But Madonna, Source Tags, the Elena ep...awesome.
amyblue and JaguarPirate this'd this -
Radiohead
There. I did it.
kostenurky and ThisTemporaryLife this'd this -
Good post.
Hunky Dory font is gross but very insignificant.
Diamond Dogs is all time. SO great.
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Nick Cave
The Cure
Sonic Youth -
The Cure
1980-1994 with barely a foot put wrong. Lots of great stuff outside that timeframe too.
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New Order
Every single/album sleeve during their Factory years was sublime. All went to shit when they moved to London mind.
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I'll tell you who it isn't
It is certainly not Pere Ubu
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Iron Maiden
/thread
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Maybe black flag.
Love a bit of ray pettibon.
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New Order are a good shout
Predictable answer but probably Bjork.
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The Smiths
Converge
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Most of the Arab Strap and Underworld
Stuff was good too
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lemonbrickcombo this'd this
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Godspeed
Heavy Winged - Alive In My Mouth has the best art of all time.
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JohnEW and Matt_was_taken this'd this
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Foetus
Nine Inch Nails
Swansmoshymoshy this'd this -
this'd for Foetus.
Loui_Tacceh this'd this -
Pixies
^This to New Order (Factory years) and Underworld too.
Pretty obvious, I guess, but the common thread is a brilliant designer behind the artwork. -
Madlib
just for the Medicine Show Covers
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Sigur Ros
Cocteau Twins
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This must be the right answer
Peter Saville's covers for the early albums and eps were particularly fantastic. The bronze sleeve for Ceremony, the paint speckled one for Temptation, the abstract image on Everything's Gone Green, the constructionist Procession and the clever use of lettering on Movement are all fantastic.
Throughout the Factory period I can't remember a single bad sleeve design until the Regret single and the Republic album (which are both hideous). That's 12 years of superb design.
I also like the way the graphics associated with the band developed as their sound did, from the austere early ones to the bright, colourful but still really stylish covers on Technique and True Faith.
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Some of their cover art is very dubious.
Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism and Virgin Killer are all questionable!
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Christ yes
they look so frickin cool. I have been known to buy some blue note LPs by the cover art alone, you could just frame it and stick it on the wall if nothing else.
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oldshitnewshit and pichaelmarker this'd this
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Tao of the Dead cover
is bordering on genius though.
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chadders this'd this
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Roxy Music.
All the studio albums at least.
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Stuzza this'd this
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Up until Dark Days/Light Years
which has horrible artwork.
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I have a soft spot for Pete Fowler era SFA covers..
Radiator, Guerrila, Mwng, RATW. Phantom Power. Although I am aware they are not to everyones taste..
Olivarez this'd this -
Virgin Killer is just wrong.
The other 2 are good.
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I really like it when a band has the same artist do all their covers
when it's done well, obviously.
As well as Pink Floyd/Storm Thorgerson, I can think of Talk Talk/James Marsh and Dirty Three/Mick Turner as bands with an artist who really nails an aesthetic for them.
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Yes have had some very interesting covers.
Led Zep too
Stone_Wick this'd this -
Bjork
every cover the same idea (i.e. Bjork) and yet refreshingly different
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came here to post this
has to be Bjork
the last two Dinosaur Jr. records have had brilliant drawings on them as well.
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The first 7 Iron Maiden albums
...Thread ends.
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Biffy Clyro
Particularly Infinity Land and Puzzle
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Slint had three great covers
Tweez, Spiderland, the s/t EP, enigmatic in b+w.
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another consistent and evocative aesthetic
Red House Painters. entire discog.
theShipment and JohnM this'd this -
Wire
the covers from Pink Flag way up to Red Barked Tree are all awesome and really memorable.
Oissin_ this'd this -
I figured someone would cop out.
I wasn't talking about labels.
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Daft Punk - amazing concept
Depeche Mode (except SOFAD, everything else is awesome)
AIR
Boards of Canada
Ladytron (wonderful covers)
Orbital
The Chemical Brothers
Solar Fields
New Order
The Future Sound of London
Vangelis
Pink Floyd
Jean-Michel Jarre (except 3-4 covers, everything else is amazing; he released many albums)
Kraftwerk (esp. the remastered versions: http://whiteboardjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Kraftwerkmain.jpg ) -
Loui_Tacceh and Antelope this'd this
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oldshitnewshit and TheWza this'd this
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only the blind or insane
would enjoy the cover of the last Dino Jr
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Two best answers
easy
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Early Smiths covers are fantastic
But I think they ran out ideas later and became formulaic.
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medulla this'd this
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Spiritualized
All releases from Anyway That You Want Me to Live At The Royal Albert Hall.
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Pavement
The rooster on the Watery Domestic EP being my favourite.
Kraftwerk also put out good ones
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Breaking the rules, shucks!
but if we were to allow one infraction, this would be the winner of course.
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Antelope this'd this
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This is what Im talking about,
something Ive never heard of.
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The Fall
All their album covers up to and including TNSG are incredible.
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Came here to post Led Zeppelin
I suppose Physical Graffiti wasn't all that exciting, but still solid. In Through The Out Door - the cover was arguably the best thing about the album!
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Its all about Presence imo.
PG is awesome too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv1NiEh3sa0Stone_Wick this'd this -
True
Although Joy Division's were probably more consistently brilliant. Even if they have been hipster t-shirted to death now.
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first four albms
then it gets embarrassing
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I should have phrased that better.
Not that it wasn't a great cover, more that it wasn't as immediately interesting as some of their others.
Presence was great - I'm still amazed how they were able to communicate such an abstract idea so effectively.
And then there's III, an unfortunate casualty of the format wars.
To this day I still have a hard time remembering that the heads were airbrushed in on II, it was so well-done.
But really, the fact that they didn't tell anyone about the water-activated colors on ITTOD was just awesome. Everyone thought they discovered something secret and cool that no one else knew! -
I love the Tweez cover so much for some reason
Good old Slint
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Guided By Voices
anything from Propellor onwards has an awesome, ramshackle collage feel
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throw me in with the blind and the insane
I think it looks wicked
emmettcruddas and Stone_Wick this'd this -
Dance of Death is an APPALLING cover.
Almost like the Money For Nothing video in its cackhanded attempt at new technology/CGI.
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Aphex Twin
Each album cover iconic in its own right. Drukqs in particular is a beaut.
You could probably throw Autechre in as well.
Antelope and stanstubbs this'd this -
well let's just count Factory records
as a band - yeah? Good.
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that's the same artist who did yourcodenameis:milo
amongst others, his name is Storm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Thorgerson
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I think you'll find that's against the rules
Someone further down the thread got told off when they tried to do the same with Blue Note
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well in that case
I concede defeat and I will never darken your doors again.
FAREWELL CRUEL WORLD.
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Fairport Convention or Cannibal Corpse, except the latter one's a bit cartoon-y
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It's tough
But it's TheShipment's thread and we have to play by his rules
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guntrip this'd this
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I would have thought this is one of the few times on here
When most would agree that Radiohead are utter shite
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I have the version of Fossil Fuel
With the embossed fossil cover. It's very nice
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Kraftwerk!
Great consistent design, look nice all lined up on the shelf
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that was...interesting
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wrong post, thats to hirsute pursuit
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Pet Shop Boys.
No contest.
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Yes
but the first 7 are legendary. Out of the ones you posted only Dance Of Death is truly awful.
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Storm Thorgerson
best known for his work with yourcodenameis:milo
#what
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Massive Attack
Even if the albums are a bit ropey (ie. any album after Mezzanine), the art is always good.
Also, as someone else has already mentioned, Boards of Canada manage to make interesting and consistent artwork. Spooky fun.
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well lets just count new order & joy division as one band then
75% of the members of jd were in no after all
but if you can find me a band that have a better understanding of how to present their records than jd/ no then you have done remarkably
bornin69 sums it up pretty well
without mentioning the die cut sleeves of pc&l or blue monday that were allegedly so expensive the label lost money on themor that the sleeves often had no mention of the bands name & yet you still knew who it was, such was the coherent vision of how sleeves worked
the one song that saville didn't like didnt have a picture sleeve
add in his work on section 25, ultravox & early omd & this has to be the premier sleeve designer of all time (let's forget about last christmas) -
in through the out door
is arguably their best album
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also
weren't there six diffrent versions of it?
& you couldn;t tell which one you had cos of the brown paper bag sleevewas this the first time a band had released alternate sleeves?
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ha ha ha
no
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i like the fairly basic but effective stuff
hood/album leaf/bonnie prince billy/max richter
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It's just a case of Pete Fowler's artwork being amazing.
His covers are the right answer to the OP
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Me too.
In fact, they were the first band that I thought of.
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Oasis
Particularly the Creation years. charts their rise in a way.
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Pink Floyd, obv.