Top 10 Most Artistic Album Covers
The Velvet Underground And Nico
The Rolling Stones - Loveyoulive
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
David Bowie - Diamond dogs
Nirvana in utero
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
The Chemical Brothers - Push the Button
Van Halen - 1984
Michael Jackson - Dangerous
Elton John - Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
I like 2nd and 3rd the most!
Banana album is one of my favorite.
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND and Nico is one of the all time greatest albums.
None of these are as good as Dark Side of the Moon’s cover. That one just exudes epicness.
Seriously!? How could you forget Tool? Look into 10,000 days, its way more artistic than the chemical brothers and the velvet underground….
It’s just a banana! Great music though.
It may not be classic art but surely ‘Dookie’ by Green Day should be on that list somewhere. I’ve got the poster of the cover and you notice something new everytime you look at it, and it’s pretty funny!
That’s it? Nothing to say about them, just toss them up on a website and get the hits? At least defend the covers you chose.
You gues, just one thing I’m asking. There was a pre-release version of the “In Utero” which is way more interesting than an official version as I’ve heard. Write me back if you know were to get one.
P.S. I got “Nevermind” with 3000+ kbps sound quality if someone is interasted.
bah.
New Order….http://www.niagara.edu/neworder/graphics/fep313.jpg
this is just one and most are better then all of those
Sorry….this top 10 is FAIL!!!
Fail, except for Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground (because its Andy Warhol) and perhaps Radiohead.
The others may be your favorites, but they are just Graphic Art that might look good but is essentially illustrative.
Nothing is better than Michael!
Nice collection, however, I would definetely add more… f.e. Queen: A night at the opera
why isn’t there pink floyd’s dark side of the moon?
http://mnmedia.musicnation.com/Blog/2008/080124/pinkfloyd-album-dark_side_of_the_moon1.jpg
what about revolver or sgt. pepper?
You forgot, Overnite Sensation by Frank Zappa.
Where’s “The Downward Spiral” ?
What about “Yellow Shark”…
I guess you should rename that post “My 10 favourite album covers”.
They are mostly by US artists. Your point of view is not that wide open, man.
The Chemical brother’s one is not that original and, in my opinion, you are too fashinated by common and insipid styles. See http://www.trovadores.net/imatges/0439.jpg, and http://www.radio.rai.it/RADIOSCRIGNO/img_schede/10-76-Inti-Illimani.gif they are from the 70’s).
And, come on! Diamonds dog is awful.
the van halen one was the best/funnies
What about the amazing Parliament/Funkadelic Covers. One should be at least in the top five. You have “One Nation Under A Groove”, “Cosmic Slop”, and five to ten other great designs from the psychedelic-funk genius of George Clinton and crew. See for yourself: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/parliamentfunkadelic/music2.html
or at:
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/funkadel.htm
or see some of Parliament’s best youtube videos:
http://formonksonly.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-kind-of-music-do-i-like.html
Todd Rundgren ”a wizard a true star”.
you should listen to it too.
Wow. I’ve seen some arbitrary lists in the past, but this one takes the cake.
I think the album cover of “Animals” by Pink Floyd would have been a better choice instead of “The Division Bell.”
I really like Styx The Grand Illusion.
Andy Warhol is King of Pop-art.
I ‘d also liked to See his Sticky Fingers-Rolling Stones
Keep ROCKING !!!
Passion by Peter Gabriel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B000065V9J/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0
http://www.bigshinything.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/joy-division.jpg
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
what ever happened to joy division’s “unknown pleasures” cover? thats the best cover of all time!
OMG Van Halen 1984 so totally Rocked! heck I was fresh out of High School when that came out. Those were the days! I miss big hair!
Lisa
/www.privacy.es.tc
Where’s http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/kam_1256/AllCDCovers_depeche_mode_a_broken_f.jpg ?
Blur’s Think Tank should be on here, great album and the Banksy cover is wonderful, Sgt Pepper needs to be there too, its iconic. I’ve never liked Elton Johns’ or Michael Jacksons’ album covers, seems like they are trying to forecfully create “art” and they just end up looking like a creepy mess. Gnarls Barkleys, St. Elsewhere on the list instead of Chemical Brothers, maybe?
How about 10cc’s Original Soundtrack. Masterful pencil work.
How all of thesse aren’t storm thorgerson/hypnosis covers, i’ll juat never understand…
Mainly “How Dare you!” by 10cc, man the intracusies of the cover and inside, totally make this the best album cover ever…also to agree Dave how can you not defend the covers, otherwise you’ve just got a bunch of pictures that look kinda cool. WHY are they the MOST artistic album covers? also, most of Frank Zappa’s album covers are pretty cool
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief is cool.
What about Fleetwood Mac Mystery to Me?
Um, _Spectrum_ by Jega?
http://snurl.com/3v16x [ecx_images-amazon_com]
Dead Mountain Mouth by Genghis Tron should be in there.
FAIL MISERABLY
Where are:
1. Any YES album before 90125
2. Any Led Zeppelin album
3. Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
4. Aja, Steely Dan
5. Back in Black, AC/DC (simple but powerful as hell)
6. London Calling, The Clash
7. Paul’s Boutique, Beastie Boys
8. It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
9. Nevermind, Nirvana
10. Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division
how can we leave out butchered at birth? bwahahah
I’ll just Reiterate TOOL and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and Add the Beatles White Album.
Am i kidding?
[...] Top 10 Most Artistic Album Covers [...]
Some are nice … especially the Van Halen one !
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
http://www.Wallpapers-room.com
No ones mentioned “In the aeroplane over the sea”? :O
What about Talking Heads’ 1986 album cover of the year for Little Creatures?
http://www.talking-heads.net/graphics/little.jpg
Painting by Rev. Howard Finster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Finster
Has everyone forgotten about the Wish You Were Here album???
http://iadtmusicappreciation.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cover.jpg
NO TOOL WTF!!!!!!
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just a reminder: art is subjective, and therefore any rating thereof is also subjective. so, you there’s no point in trying to prove the author(s) wrong with you own suggestions.
anyways, black crowes’ amorica cover is clearly the best ever (the original, not the lame-ass, censored version). you don’t even have to appreciate art to appreciate it.
or that dwarves cover with the naked chicks and midget, all covered in blood.
My all-time fave is still The Dwarves’ “Blood Guts & Pussy.”
Google Image it with safe search off (NSFW).
Ditto Dopey Joe re: “Unknown Pleasures.”
Where is “In the Court of the Crimson King” by King Crimson? That’s easily Top 5 material; and possibly Top 2:
http://landbreeze.net/mft/transition/image/king_crimson_crimson.jpg
Like the list, like the suggestions better. How about this one - Jim White “Wrong Eyed Jesus”
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002NCL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Jackie Gleason’s Lonesome Echo - done by Salvador Dali for f*ck’s sake.
Frank Zappa - Overnite Sensation or Weasels Ripped My Flesh
The Beatles - Revolver or Sgt Pepper’s or Yellow Submarine
Any Iron Maiden cover by Derek Riggs
Any Patti Smith cover by Mapplethorpe (photography is art, too)
Kiss - Destroyer or Love Gun
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon
Any Ozric Tentacles cover
Any Yes cover from the 70’s
Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime
The Rolling Stone’s Sticky Fingers - A far better Warhol than the predictable choice of the Velvet Underground.
Aerosmith’s Draw The Line by Al Hirschfeld
Any album cover drawn by Derek Hess
Any album cover drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz
Any given album cover drawn by Dave McKean
Badfinger’s Say No More by Peter Max
Just to note re: where is Tool? The Nirvana cover was designed by Alex Grey who is also responsible for a lot of Tool’s art.
Whaaaa?? No Molly Hatchet?
Damn. Just….damn.
Short memories.
Thank you ! Very beutiful !
Don’t forget “Gentlemen” by The Afghan Whigs!
http://images.google.com/images?q=gentlemen%20afghan%20whigs
What about Kraftwek’s ‘Autobahn’ or Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’?
I must agree with Stoops that all art is subjective, but I do think there should’ve at least been an attempt to explain rather than defend the choices to give folks food for thought. I also think it should be irrelevant in this case whether someone actually likes the music or not, since this is supposed to be about the art.
That said, I agree there are better Pink Floyd covers than ‘The Division Bell’ (just about any from the classic lineup present good discussions/arguments, including the two official Syd Barrett solo records but not really ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ - a cool cover but not a work of artistic genius). I love the VU banana cover, but would it get the same response if no one knew the creator was Andy Warhol (just a well-meaning talking point, not a snooty jab or criticism). I agree that Diamand Dogs is somewhat hideously garish, but I also admit that I’ve stared at that cover cumulatively for so long with a variety of emotions and opinions since I was a kid (when it just plain freaked me out) that I bought a wraparound t-shirt of it about 5 years ago and still wear it regularly. Bowie’s had so many brain-branding images from his album cover arsenal alone (some outlasting the longterm value of the music inside, unfortunately… but a man who’s given so much can be forgiven the occasional misstep) that a fat handful coulda made the cut! Personally, I like the color saturation of ‘Low’ immensely. Again, there are more interesting Stones covers a few years in either direction of 1970 (we probably all know why ‘Sticky Fingers’ is great, but I imagine the truly trashy ‘Exile’ covers continued to give parents a reason to fear the gutteral lure of those filthy reprobates and their music-for-criminals-and-lowlifes). Nirvana & Radiohead are represented with perfectly respectable covers but there are certainly better ones out there, and the others just look dated to me (Michael Jackson? Really? Music aside?). I gotta side with those who’ve seen the stark beauty of ‘Unknown Pleasures’ or Led Zep, who came from a time when the importance and synergy of artwork with great music was a given.
It’s always been my greatest fear that listeners the digital music age would slowly lose the connection between great music and great art, ultimately losing out on enjoying the extra dimension/ alchemy created when the two are in sync.
Finally, allow me to throw in for consideration such alchemy created by the art draping the music of Killing Joke’s ‘What’s This For…?’ ; The Birthday Party’s ‘Junkyard’ ; Sex Gang Children’s ‘Song And Legend’ ; The Fall’s ‘Perverted By Language’ ; The Dead Kennedys’ ‘Plastic Surgery Disasters’ (at 13, I was genuinely intimidated by this cover and the record did NOT disappoint!) ; Tom Waits’ Fellini-esque ‘Swordfishtrombones’ ; Pram’s ‘Museum of Imaginary Animals’ (whose every scrap of artwork is like a peek into another dimension where childhood vision never disappeared, yet grew up in accordance to the laws of a comatose god who only saw our world through the prism of our deepest dream symbolisms. Those who know the films of Jan Svankmejar might soil themselves in delight… probably appreciate highly imaginative music that often sounds made by Dr. Seuss-ian instruments, as well!); Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ (this was hard to choose over the rich Santerian flavor of ‘Ritual De La Habitual’, but it was the first mass taste of Perry’s evocatively erotic sculpture work… plus it’s on fire); and how could I forget Chrome’s ‘Third From The Sun’, which uses an ultra-simple collage technique to superimpose huge insectoid eyes onto an old lion door-knocker to create one of the most memorable mascot-like images to ever be then-consistantly associated with a band (okay, their still pretty damn obscure, overlooked & underrated, but once you know… yer haunted, baby!).
Lastly, I know stared with the best of intentions to be short & sweet, but my big ol’ obsessive heart kicked in and could stop ramblin’ about a subject near and dear to me. I’d like to leave on a note concerning those lovely mavericks who work both sides of the coin. I’m talkin’ the claustrophobically detailed pen-and-ink artwork of Rudimentary Peni’s Nick Blinko, who wants to trap you forever in his album covers, like ‘Death Church’ and the truly strange, difficult, ultimately esoteric hardcore ‘Cacophony’. It’s only natural he’d evolve as a person from the Crass camp (a breeding ground for hardcore punks who had a lot more to offer over time) into the deeply metaphysical company of folk like Coil & Current 93 (also evolving from B&W to color work of sharp detail & intensity). Nik Fiend’s work is equally intense, if not a bit easier to penetrate. Full of B-movie horror & sci-fi imagery fed thru his clever meat grinder mind, the linework is often very scratchy & overlaid, the colors splashed around as if trying to escape, backgrounds dotted with semi-toonish spaceships & oddball critters. Maybe they’d have been cute in another life if not filtered thru the skeevy drugs also littering Nik’s multimedia habitat’s for Alien Sex Fiend (hey, the man’s a ringer for Herman Munster on LSD… he truly lives as he paints in his artist persona). ‘Acid Bath’ and the early fold-out poster/singles capture the late-nite Vampira-fest Drive-in-that-dripped-blood-and-flew-into-The-Sun vibe perfectly. A whole lotta more successful artists who weren’t as ahead of their time owe Alien Sex Fiend for a helluva lot of inspiration. Oh well, at least Nik’s paintings recieved some proper recognition touring more adventurous art galleries as the times eventually caught up with him. I leave on the mention Plasmatics’ partner-in-crime, Rod Swenson. Rod was the man-behind-the-curtain to Wendy O. Williams’ confrontational antics in one of the most viscerally brutal acts in the lexicon of rock, a studied performance artist and all-around social imp was a perfect foil for metalpunk fusion that was too prescient in the late 70’s and early 80’s to be accepted by more than a cult audience, though their antics and Wendy’s uninhibited sexuality certainly gained them a larger audience at the time than if the band weren’t intrinsically tied to the art side of the project. You know about the taped nipples and chainsaws, as well as the tendency to explode symbols of the media and social status (at least , you kinda do now), but Rod was also a bit of a subgenius at conceiving and photographing their album covers. From driving a luxury car into a swimming pool for their debut while Wendy perches atop the mini-Titanic in her nurse gear, the guitarist in an inner tube in front complete with tutu and mowhok blue, etc. It was a sight to behold, and quite befitting the musical carcrash of their debut. Equally if not more ambitious covers followed as the music became more ambitious (most, including video work had only one chance to be done right. That kind of energy does transfer to the effect of the final product, especially the more dangerous elements involved, like jumping off the top of a school bus in the desert into a wall of televisions that explode on contact).
So I rambled a bit off-center. Consider this a dvd and the last paragraph or so bonus material. We all like bonus material, don’t we?
Not only was I smoking better pot, but our LSD is now a thing of the past. Number one Pink Floyd Ummagumma ” count the gnomes.
Number two would be any Little Feat album.
Number three is the dancing frog on Leon Redbone’s albums.
Number four the cartoon covers of Savoy Brown albums. And not only getting
lost in the Moody Blues music, but their album covers took you to the Threshold
of a dream. And heres my favorite, Moby Grape “WOW”. You’ll just have to see it for yourself. Gotta go feel a flashback coming on.
Please forgive the occasional bit of incorrect punctuation & spelling (i.e. “their” instead of “they’re” when talking about Chrome). I was moving fast and didn’t double-check before submission. Oops!
Excuse me while I go count the gnomes until I go blind or my head explodes!
Where is Santana’s Abraxas?
I won’t quibble with the list, but I want to add that one of the coolest album covers *I* have ever seen is Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Snake Farm,” which you’ll never, ever forget once you’ve seen it.
I love Loveyoulive’s cover.
I nominate Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes.
My friend painted the AirHammer album cover which I love…
He’s like one of these guy you find a a party who is sketching on a napkin and then you look at what he has done and it amazing!
Here is the page:
http://www.airhammersite.co.uk/new-album/
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Dee,
I’m Interested. Contact Me If I don’t contact you first. My schedule is kinda haywire right now, but I wanna check your site as soon as I can get to it. I’m going to be Editor-in chief and Media Director for a new site Good Ship Liana as soon as it is ready (very soon), which will probably be the best place to catch me checking my e-mail (My Space running a close second). I’m known as Ibis Scribus on the new site. Your enthusiasm has caught my eye. I also have some old stuff on My Space posted under the band moniker White Light Revolver (It’s my band from the early-mid Nineties… a post-punk influenced psychedelic love letter to the stuff my bandmates & I grew up on). I won’t be offended if it’s not to your taste:) My recent project, Ancestral Vessel is on hiatus due to two members’ health problems. Our posted material isn’t really indicative (more like early practice sessions) since our better material was too long to post without technical assistance (we really need a more technically-minded person in the project, but we live in a small area and haven’t had much luck). Anyway, I’m more interested right now in focusing on the work of others, as I was a music journalist during most of the last decade. I’m rambling again. Hope to see what your site’s about soon!
Chance
I think that Grateful dead discography have the most artistic and fantastic cover albums ever (in a rock and roll history)…..American beauty, grateful dead 71, wake off the flood, blues for allah, shakedown street, and many more, review its article please!
what about Relayer by Yes
I agree with andy warhol’s velvet underground and nico… clever choice