08-18-09

A Collection Of My Favourite Album Covers

I’ve been checking out heaps of blog posts showing great examples of album art. Most notably these articles on Smashing Magazine; 35 Album Covers, 100 Obscure & Remarkable Album Covers, and these articles from Abduzeedo; Part One, Part Two.

Those posts mentioned above really show a great collection of album art. It’s a shame how this art has died away since music has mainly been assessed online. I love going through people’s ‘vinyl’ collection and staring at the album art printed onto a nice big sleeve. Some people say album art is dead, but I still make the album art show up on my computer when I listen to tunes. I even know people who will impulse buy albums just because they like the cover, without even listening to the music! So I still think it’s important to get good album art for your cd. If your album art is average, people will think your music is average and will most likely put your cd back in the rack and move on.

I decided to go through my collection and pick out my favourite album art, just to get some inspiration before I start on my own. Although the collections of album art on smashing magazine and abduzeedo have already done excellent posts on this, it was good to go through my own collection and pick out the album covers that I never seem to get sick of.

The list is in no particular order, in fact I went through my music collection, picked them out then randomized the list!

The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow

Air – Moon Safari

Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears – Flight Of The Knife

Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards

Eels – Electro-Shock Blues

The Go! Team – Proof Of Youth

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III

Beck – Odelay

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon

Dr. Dog – East Beat

Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch

Man Man – Rabbit Habits

Deerhoof – The Runners Four

Zero 7 – Simple Things

Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Beirut – Gulag Orkestar

The Herbaliser – Take London

Oh No! Oh My! – Oh No! Oh My!

The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

Elliot Smith – Figure 8

Spoon – Kill The Moonlight

The Beatles – Abbey Road

Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise!

Radiohead – OK Computer

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Clogs – Lantern

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline

Dappled Cities – Granddance

And last, but not least,
Spinal Tap – Smell The Glove

If you’re still eager to check out more album covers, then look no further than this website called Sleevage. It’s pretty much an awesome blog about design and music, focusing mainly on album art.

I particularly like their article on 10 Landmark Albums That Have Created Landmarks.

Have fun.

Posted by William » Inspiration, Music, Ramblings

One Comment on “A Collection Of My Favourite Album Covers”

  • Humphrey says:

    Awesome job man! There are some sweet as covers in there. I think you’ve inspired me to go CD shopping and to check out some of those!

    When I was young cassettes where the crazy, but they were tiny and barely had room for art. Then CD’s came out, art could once again be visible. But still rather small.

    But then I was in JB the other month (while in Melb) and they had a whole section of vinyl’s. And boy, my eyes where opened to what album art would be. So big and cool!

    And for the record, I only buy music online if it’s too much effort (or expensive) to get it in a CD with a case. :-) None of that crappy DRM for me!

    Keep the blog rolling dude.

    08-25-09 » 2:40 pm »

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