Boards

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*

Siouxsie: always liked the Banshees art.

ELO. Fleetwood Mac.

but I can respect the album art.

has too many stinkers in there. So Divided is junk and so was the new one.

http://www.silverdisc.com/images/80/823566506720.jpg

i do not recommend google image searching that band name.

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.

But Madonna, Source Tags, the Elena ep...awesome.

There. I did it.

Hunky Dory font is gross but very insignificant.

Diamond Dogs is all time. SO great.

The Cure
Sonic Youth

1980-1994 with barely a foot put wrong. Lots of great stuff outside that timeframe too.

Every single/album sleeve during their Factory years was sublime. All went to shit when they moved to London mind.

It is certainly not Pere Ubu

/thread

Love a bit of ray pettibon.

Predictable answer but probably Bjork.

Converge

Stuff was good too

top that.

<3

Heavy Winged - Alive In My Mouth has the best art of all time.

Nine Inch Nails
Swans

this'd for Foetus.

^This to New Order (Factory years) and Underworld too.
Pretty obvious, I guess, but the common thread is a brilliant designer behind the artwork.

just for the Medicine Show Covers

Cocteau Twins

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.

Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism and Virgin Killer are all questionable!

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.

is bordering on genius though.

All the studio albums at least.

which has horrible artwork.

Radiator, Guerrila, Mwng, RATW. Phantom Power. Although I am aware they are not to everyones taste..

The other 2 are good.

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.

Led Zep too

every cover the same idea (i.e. Bjork) and yet refreshingly different

has to be Bjork

the last two Dinosaur Jr. records have had brilliant drawings on them as well.

...Thread ends.

Particularly Infinity Land and Puzzle

Tweez, Spiderland, the s/t EP, enigmatic in b+w.

Red House Painters. entire discog.

Let's not forget these monstrosities:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MUR7AnrkhEY/UC1DQEroSRI/AAAAAAAAM-M/P1n-oZ1BeGc/s1600/Dance_of_Death_-_Iron_Maiden.jpg

http://files6.fliiby.com/images/_original/46nqnit8xz.jpg

http://cdn.head-fi.org/c/cd/cda0379b_iron-maiden-the-final-frontier-530-85.jpeg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BKtG6pLw-do/TJ0fHMlMsgI/AAAAAAAAAL4/JuY9zfnq2EY/s1600/Iron_Maiden_-_The_X_Factor.jpg

the covers from Pink Flag way up to Red Barked Tree are all awesome and really memorable.

I wasn't talking about labels.

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 )

would enjoy the cover of the last Dino Jr

easy

But I think they ran out ideas later and became formulaic.

Great style.

All releases from Anyway That You Want Me to Live At The Royal Albert Hall.

The rooster on the Watery Domestic EP being my favourite.

Kraftwerk also put out good ones

but if we were to allow one infraction, this would be the winner of course.

something Ive never heard of.

All their album covers up to and including TNSG are incredible.

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!

PG is awesome too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv1NiEh3sa0

Although Joy Division's were probably more consistently brilliant. Even if they have been hipster t-shirted to death now.

then it gets embarrassing

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!

Good old Slint

anything from Propellor onwards has an awesome, ramshackle collage feel

Guys.

I think it looks wicked

Almost like the Money For Nothing video in its cackhanded attempt at new technology/CGI.

Each album cover iconic in its own right. Drukqs in particular is a beaut.

You could probably throw Autechre in as well.

as a band - yeah? Good.

amongst others, his name is Storm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Thorgerson

Someone further down the thread got told off when they tried to do the same with Blue Note

I concede defeat and I will never darken your doors again.

FAREWELL CRUEL WORLD.

Fairport Convention or Cannibal Corpse, except the latter one's a bit cartoon-y

But it's TheShipment's thread and we have to play by his rules

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hot+water+music+album+art&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=1uOnUJf2LPDJ0AWch4GQAg&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=709

When most would agree that Radiohead are utter shite

With the embossed fossil cover. It's very nice

I really liked the first releases by RIDE:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4kbBtb1KHKQ/SuGx0SJcYhI/AAAAAAAAAR4/do7w5-gqxBk/s320/rideep.jpg

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/11165.jpg

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/11482.jpg

Great consistent design, look nice all lined up on the shelf

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/de/RF-D-front.jpg/220px-RF-D-front.jpg

that was...interesting

wrong post, thats to hirsute pursuit

No contest.

but the first 7 are legendary. Out of the ones you posted only Dance Of Death is truly awful.

best known for his work with yourcodenameis:milo

#what

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Jam_%28album%29

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.

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 them

or 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)

is arguably their best album

weren't there six diffrent versions of it?
& you couldn;t tell which one you had cos of the brown paper bag sleeve

was this the first time a band had released alternate sleeves?

no

hood/album leaf/bonnie prince billy/max richter

His covers are the right answer to the OP

In fact, they were the first band that I thought of.

Particularly the Creation years. charts their rise in a way.