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35 Beautiful Music Album Covers
Album cover art is often considered to be one of the “extincted” fields in modern graphics design. In times when digital copies are cheaper and quicker to get, album covers have somehow lost their importance as less and less customers actually buy CDs and LPs in the stores. That’s a pity because album covers can be extremely expressive and convey the message of the album in a number of creative ways. This post attempts to prove exactly that.
Music and art go hand in hand. And the best way to get a potential buyers’ attention is with an eye catching album cover. We all know you can’t just judge a book by it’s cover but it doesn’t hurt to give a CD a spin based off a sexy piece of art.
Below we present 35 excellent examples of beautiful, creative and impressive album covers that will certainly inspire you to head down to the local record shop and start browsing through records and labels. We have tried to address various cover designs and present both CD covers and LP covers from 60s to 2000s, however some excellent album covers are definitely missing. Please let us know about them in the comments to the post!
This post was updated. Thank you for the comments!
[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]
Album Covers
The Mars Volta “Frances the Mute”
Danger Doom – The Mouse and the Mask
Michael Jackson: Dangerous by Mark Ryden
Devil’s Gun – Raising The Beast
Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist by Shepard Fairey
Keane: Under The Iron Sea by Sanna Annukka
Kisschasy: United Paper People by Debaser
Editors: The End Has a Start by Idris Khan
Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue
Ground Components: An Eye for a Brow, A Tooth for a Pick by Jonathan Zawada
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon 1973
Gallows: In The Belly of a Shark by Dan Mumford
Muse – Origin of Symmetry (thanks, Paul)
Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons by Airside
Tool: 10,000 Days
Circa Survive: On Letting Go
The Last Goodnight – Poison Kiss
Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
Thom Yorke: The Eraser by Stanley Donwood
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (thanks, yaara)
Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This by Will Sweeney
The Chemical Brothers: Push the Button by Tappin Gofton
Rafale: Rock It, Don’t Stop It by Akroe
Dream Theater – Scenes from the memory (thanks, OverZero.it)
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction
New Order – Power, Corruption and Lies
Designed by one of today’s most influential designers Peter Saville (thanks, Shaun)
The Police – Ghost In The Machine
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Genji Siraisi: Censorsh!t by Razauno
VHS Orbeta – Bring On The Comets
Fort-Minor – The Rising Tied Front
The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
Elton John – Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Queens Of The Stone Age: Era Vulgaris by Morning Breath Inc
Beck: The Information by Big Active and you
“The album was issued with a blank sleeve and booklet and one of four different sheets of stickers for fans to make their own album art. Beck explained to Wired magazine he wanted no two copies of the CD cover to be the same: “The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity.” However, because the unique album art concept was seen as a gimmick to bolster retail sales, The Information was deemed ineligible to enter the UK Albums Chart.”
Merzbow – Frog: Remixed and Revisited
Last Click
The World’s First Album Cover
Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic sleeves. Please notice that there is the word “smash” on the cover.
Related posts
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
Ashley Ringrose is better known as Mr Truffle and editor of Sleevage a music design blog. He occasionally plays with Mr Potatoheads and dresses up in costumes. He is also a founding member of Soap Creative an Australian based digital agency.
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
Loading ...- 269 Comments
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March 24th, 2009 12:09 pmi think the “Nightmare” album cover by Lil’ Wayne should be apart of these album covers, it would make this page more unique
- 253March 24th, 2009 12:14 pm
i like all of these but it shouldve included SOAD’s debut album by the same name
- 254March 25th, 2009 11:48 am
they were very cool and interesting to look at.
- 255March 25th, 2009 11:48 am
The album covers are TITE! i like The Mars Volta album cover!
- 256March 26th, 2009 11:38 am
There are a lot of great works and some of my favorite albums of all time are on this list. I don’t like the song that well, but I love the album cover for Gallows: in the belly of a shark. The song is decent but the album cover is amazing.
- 257March 26th, 2009 11:53 am
LED ZEPPLIN SUCKS!! PINK FLOYD ROCKS! SO DOES THE REST OF THE BANDDSSS! MUSIC IS LIFE. PEACE OUT!!
- 258May 15th, 2009 6:57 pm
I enjoyed looking through your list, but I think KISS “Destroyer” is a serious oversight.
- 259May 21st, 2009 11:59 pm
Some criminally-overlooked covers…
Porcupine Tree, “Fear of a Blank Planet”
Levitation, “Need For Not”
Andy Prieboy, “…upon my wicked son” and “Sins of My Fathers”
King Crimson, “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” and “Discipline”
Jethro Tull, “Thick As a Brick”
Pure Reason Revolution, “The Dark Third”
Barkmarket, “Vegas Throat”
ELP, “Brain Salad Surgery” (HR Giger, for crying out loud!)
Eloy, “Colours”
The Mars Volta, “Deloused In the Comatorium”
Mike Oldfield, “Tubular Bells”
Primus, “Frizzle Fry”
VAST, “Visual Audio Sensory Theater”
Devo, “Q: Are We Not Men?” - 260May 29th, 2009 5:01 am
Lykke Li is defiantly missing, i love her album cover it’s very victorian inspired.
- 261August 7th, 2009 12:11 pm
Friends, I love the major of cover you have posted herr,but for me the one of the most beautiful album cover is Nirvana Nevermind.
B.r
- 262August 7th, 2009 12:13 pm
Friends, I love the major of covers you have posted here,but for me the one of the most beautiful album cover is Nirvana Nevermind.
- 263September 13th, 2009 9:30 am
only one from New Order? it is clearly the band with the best covers ever, perhaps the list should have at least the Technique one
but good list anyway - 264October 6th, 2009 11:35 am
Would liked to have seen Blue Note represented but your list gets mega points for the inclusion of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s, Lift Your Skinny Fists…
Thanks for the cool article.
- 265October 27th, 2009 7:05 pm
Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What about Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips!!
- 266December 6th, 2009 12:54 pm
Absolutely wicked… Love the creative, clever and talented artwork.
One to add… please?
Powderfinger’s 1st? album cover… it won the Aria for Best Album Cover Art. - 267December 31st, 2009 3:13 am
Dunno if anyone ever posted this suggestion, but Rod Stewart’s Foot Loose & Fancy Free has the most beautiful cover art ever. Not to talk about the booklet inside. So there. I’m talking about vinyl LP cover arts. Ok? No cd’s…
- 268December 31st, 2009 3:20 am
Dunno if anyone ever posted this suggestion, but Rod Stewart’s Foot Loose & Fancy Free has the most beautiful cover art ever. Not to talk about the booklet inside. So there.
- 269January 20th, 2010 1:53 pm
love those covers! should’ve had dookie by green day though
- 00
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I liked the end has a a start. The cover shows alot of motion. I adore the michanical look to the structure inside the wooshing motion, It is a very cool peice. =)