Apple Bits Cut and Paste Bears Folk Art Painting Patterns

The coolest, best, greatest, most iconic, near famous anthology covers of all-time. It doesn't actually matter what sort of adjective you want to put information technology in front of the words "anthology cover," because lists of this sort of are always incredibly subjective. What we tin say for sure, though, is that anthology covers are vitally important to how a record is received by the public. (It'southward hard to imagine Sgt. Pepper's with the embrace to the White Anthology and vice versa.) Fifty-fifty in today's digital age, a absurd record encompass can have a huge impact. (Artists as varied as Young Thug and Glass Animals can adjure to that.) So, without further ado, hither is our choice of but 100 of the greatest record covers of all-fourth dimension.

100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (pattern past Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan)

Bandleader Cyril Jordan's terrific comic art has turned upwardly on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were there to remind you lot how much fun rock'n'roll was supposed to be.

99: The Bee Gees: Odessa

If The Beatles could practice a double "White Album," the Bee Gees could practise a fuzzy red one. The red velvet encompass, with gold embossed lettering, served notice that Odessa was going to be unique and cute, which it was.

Listen here:

98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (design by Barry Feinstein)

Beggars Banquet is a rare example where an album'southward two famous covers actually complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the U.s. replacement, and yous've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the fourth dimension.

Mind here:

97: Ol' Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (pattern by Alli Truch, photo past Danny Assure)

Whenever hip-hop started to accept itself too seriously, ODB was in that location to disrupt, agitate, and give the middle finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID card on the front comprehend of his solo debut, equally both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assistance. Every bit he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Dog Sh_t,": "Got meals merely withal grill that erstwhile practiced welfare cheese."

96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Absurd/Pure Popular for Now People (design by Barney Bubbles)

On an album that made a mad dash through the whole of popular history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a agglomeration of different guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were dissimilar pics on the US and UK versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.

95: Jefferson Plane: Long John Silvery (pattern by Pacific Eye & Ear)

Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silver hails from the golden age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.

94: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Become? (blueprint past Kenneth Cappello)

Whatsoever artist who dares to look this terrifying on the cover of their first anthology deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired by the album's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish'southward When Nosotros All Autumn Comatose, Where Exercise We Go? served observe that Eilish was hither to mess with your head.

Listen here:

93: Parliament: Mothership Connection (photo by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)

George Clinton'southward gonzoid have on outer-space gamble found its perfect lucifer in the effortlessly absurd spaceship-party cover for Parliament'southward Mothership Connection . The fact that it looked remarkably low budget but made information technology funkier.

Listen here:

92: Geto Boys: We Can't Exist Stopped (blueprint by Cliff Blodget)

Walking a razor-sparse line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and cypher exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album encompass art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Beak at the hospital was as unflinching as their music.

91: The Cars: Candy-O (blueprint by Alberto Vargas)

Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pin-up artist before designing the famous cover for The Cars classic 1979 album Processed-O, simply this painting of a stylish redhead, on a auto of course, became his most famous piece. Candy-O is one of the two best uses of pin-up fine art on a rock record, along with…

90: Courtney Honey: America's Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)

For her debut solo album, Courtney Love took the Cars' concept a pace further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-upward creative person (known professionally equally Olivia) to pigment her. Of grade, information technology got an actress dimension by playing with Love'south own epitome at the fourth dimension.

89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design past Michael Cooper)

The Rolling Stones probably couldn't beat the Beatles for a psychedelic anthology in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album encompass, the starting time 3D sleeve in rock. Ten points if y'all can find where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Listen hither:

88: Public Epitome Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL's follow-up to their famous Metal Box album comprehend was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous wait in her eyes.

87: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (blueprint by Andy Warhol)

It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico skin-away banana anthology cover became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.

Listen here:

86: The Miracles: Hi, We're The Miracles (pattern by Wakefield & Mitchell)

The cool album cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the old-school showbiz that Motown would soon lead the world away from. But it'south so cheerful that you notwithstanding have to honey it.

85: The Get-Gos: Beauty & the Beat out (design by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)

The Go-Go'due south sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . It was their party; y'all could bring together if they allow yous.

Heed here:

84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (design by Michael Benabib)

This famous album cover did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre'south solo debut The Chronic , the design assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him appropriately.

Heed here:

83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)

Jeff Bridges' got nothing on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic anthology embrace character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – every bit his cross-cultural LP proved – but he also had an center for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an fine art gallery and took information technology home for inspiration.)

82: Cocteau Twins: Sky or Las Vegas (design by Paul West)

The pattern-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably cute, yet you never know just what it means…just like their music.

81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)

Arriving one year after his milestone album The Payback , Brown delivered the double-album Hell, which chosen out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated encompass. Designed by artist Joe Belt, who made his proper name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Chugalug trained his aim on some other dark chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the about famous funk album covers ever.

80: Slayer: Reign in Claret (design by Larry Carroll)

One of the greatest metal covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer'due south thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.

79: King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson Male monarch (blueprint by Barry Godber)

Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Court of the Crimson Male monarch was completed and knew it perfectly suited the music, with the crazed comprehend effigy as the 21st century schizoid man. Sadly, the creative person passed away only months after.

78: Moby Grape: Wow (design past Bob Cato)

One of the psych era's neat hallucinations, the famous album cover for Moby Grape's 1968 double LP Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the world'southward largest bunch of grapes. Wow indeed.

77: Kayne Due west: Yeezus (design past Kanye West and Virgil Abloh)

One of the most famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye Westward brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. You could also meet Yeezus equally the last celebration of the concrete CD earlier it disappeared.

Listen hither:

76: Elvis Presley: fifty,000,000 Elvis Fans Tin can't Be Incorrect (blueprint by Bob Jones)

Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny aureate Nudie suit) gets multiplied in ane of the most enduring early 60s images and greatest anthology covers. If at that place are that many Elvis fans, we will, of grade, need fifteen Elvises.

75: Black Flag: My War (pattern past Raymond Pettibon)

Blackness Flag's trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this case, not quite as grisly as the album itself.

74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (pattern by Robert Rauschenberg)

The brainchild of the Talking Heads' beautiful, moving-parts comprehend for their 1983 record Speaking in Tongues couldn't take better represented the music within. It would have been rated college if the thing wasn't then tough to store.

73: The Mothers of Invention: We're Only In It for the Money (design by Cal Schenkel)

Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie culture We're Only In It for the Coin in an every bit vicious parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album cover to nifty success.

72: The Pogues: Peace and Honey (design by Simon Ryan)

One of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect prototype for the Pogues, but don't miss the subtle flake of play hither. (The word "peace" of form has five letters.)

71: Blitz: Moving Pictures (design by Hugh Syme)

Blitz'due south greatest album covers expressed both their one thousand concepts and their cerebral sense of humour. In this staged encompass for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, nosotros detect at to the lowest degree three unlike visual plays on the album'due south title.

Listen here:

70: The Beatles: Abbey Road (blueprint by John Kosh)

As information technology turns out, The Beatles were just too lazy to become to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original programme – so they came upwardly with something just as memorable past leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Route anthology cover. It's since gone done as 1 of the greatest of all time.

69: Marvin Gaye: I Want You (pattern by Ernie Barnes)

All of Marvin Gaye'southward cool anthology covers are works of art in a way, but Ernie Barnes's 'Carbohydrate Shack,' which graces the cover of I Desire Y'all , is the simply one currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'southward sensual figures and celebrating dancers reflected the lecherous nature of Gaye'south 1976 album.

Listen here:

68: Joe Jackson: I'm the Man (pattern past Michael Ross)

There's plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson's album cover for I'm the Homo, where he portrays the hero of the championship vocal – a sleazy character who'll sell you anything – every bit long every bit you lot don't really need it.

67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (design by Robert Whitaker)

Okay, so it was a little graphic and provocative, merely as the single most controversial affair The Beatles e'er did (and the most expensive for an original), the embrace of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a list of the greatest album covers.

66: Alice Cooper: School's Out (design by Craig Braun)

In that location were nearly as many copies of Alice Cooper'due south School's Out in 1970s high schools every bit there were actual schoolhouse desks. X points if y'all got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.

65: Aerosmith: Describe the Line (design by Al Hirshfeld)

Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the work of the line-cartoon caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith'southward members here. As always, his daughter Nina'due south name was hidden a few times in this famous anthology cover.

64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (pattern by Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-style outfits and the piles of money in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim's sophomore album Paid in Full said it all about going bigtime in 1987 and is considered one of the greatest anthology covers in hip-hop.

63: Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (design by Peter Saville)

The cover of Joy Sectionalisation's 1979 debut tape is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark black-and-white embrace became so iconic that it'due south at present worn proudly on T-shirts past teens who've never heard of the band.

62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, pattern past The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)

P-funk's wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and pop art extended beyond music, resulting in some of the most provocative LP covers of the era. Model Barbara Cheeseborough's screaming visage on the cover captured the swirling chaos of the 70s and searing funk-rock of Maggot Brain.

61: Family unit: Fearless

Ah, the days when bands had the money to bear out their wildest ideas. The encompass for the British prog-rock outfit Family's 1971 album is a multi-foldout caricature and features an early estimator graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty blur at pinnacle right.

60: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (design by Robert Freeman)

The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the U.s. and Great britain anthology version of Run across The Beatles! was merely the opposite of the grinning pic that everybody expected to see, and the starting time of many acquit-overs from the Beatles' fine art-school days.

59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)

Well-nigh of Pink Floyd's covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest album covers, but we wanted to highlight something that wasn't Dark Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the same photo (except that the ring rotates one position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.

58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (design past Stephen Gorman)

Metallica'south trademark mix of stupor value and social commentary had few better expressions than this prototype of a modernistic accept on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 anthology comprehend to …And Justice For All .

Listen hither:

57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (design past Guy Webster)

With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the comprehend said more than virtually The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If Y'all Tin Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to be a no-no in 1966.

Listen hither:

56: Madonna: Madonna (design by Carin Goldberg)

All of Madonna's album covers are striking in their ain way, simply at that place'south something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks similar she can see everything that's going to happen to her in the next 40 years.

55: 10cc: 10 Out Of 10 (design by Hipgnosis)

The cover for Ten Out Of 10 remains i of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more overlooked albums. Here they're on the tenth flooring of a hotel continuing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about information technology.

54: Thelonious Monk: Secret (photograph past Horn Grinner Studios; fine art direction/design: John Berg and Richard Mantel)

A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz creative person, Secret casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers similar Bob Dylan'south Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, but this was likely one of his more expensive: They congenital an unabridged fix, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk's arresting album encompass.

53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (design by David Juniper)

It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page's who created this mythic cover past superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI High german fighter pilot the "Red Baron" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing there simply it was actually French actress Delphine Seyrig.

52: The Pocket-size Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Chip (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)

I of the first circular covers, the tobacco-tin can design for this psychedelic jewel stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the album'south primary suite.

51: Dave Mason: Lone Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)

This album cover was more of a multimedia aggregation, incorporating the die-cut edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall pattern and giving an instant visual image to the top-hatted Dave Mason.

50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm But the Piano Player (design past David Larkham and Michael Ross)

Some of Elton's greatest album covers were a bit splashy, others a piffling somber. The i for Don't Shoot Me I'yard Only the Pianoforte Player was but correct, cartoon from his soon-to-be-legendary love of movies.

Listen here:

49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design past Barney Bubbling)

1 of many great Stiff Records album covers, this defenseless Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbles also did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury'south.

48: Dave Brubeck: Fourth dimension Out (comprehend past Neil Fujita)

Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Fourth dimension Out is likely the most famous use of pop art on a jazz cover. In this case, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album's innovative fourth dimension signatures.

47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design by Chika Azuma)

Sporting a photo of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic album Switched-On Bach was unlike anything people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. Equally the first classical album to become platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Raise your hand if you as well thought the cat was a head of lettuce.

46: Pink Floyd: Animals (blueprint past Hipgnosis)

Not every band would fly a pig over Battersea Power Station, but few other bands would make an album that absolutely called for it.

45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (design by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)

The anthology cover for Hüsker Dü's last studio album is one of those cases where a embrace is exactly like the album: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming way.

44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design by John Crawford)

Similar all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a strong sense of the dramatic. The coiled-upwardly trunk on the cover of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.

43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (design by Ramey Communications)

The great thing almost the famous Blondie Parallel Lines anthology cover isn't just the black-and-white composition simply the way Debbie Harry (the just one not smile) exudes ability, while all the guys look a bit goofy.

Heed here:

42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (pattern by John Wagman)

This Reagan-era concept album makes its visual betoken past using a photo of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon's "more pop than Jesus" remarks. But in this case, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they're burning is the very ane they're standing in.

41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)

On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, but incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious image on 1989 's comprehend was an easy ane for her fans to copy, and they did.

Listen here:

xl: Apprehensive Pie: Rock On (blueprint by John Kelly)

Why in the earth did Humble Pie get a bunch of policemen to form a human pyramid? Considering they could, of grade.

39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli)

One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the band'south drummer – represents diverse personal dreams of the band members.

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring Y'all My Love (design by Valerie Phillips)

Information technology may be a more glamorous embrace afterwards her first two, but this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could hands be mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – unsaid that a newer, softer image comes at a price.

Listen here:

37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (design by Brian Cannon)

Their debut album pictured Haven in the world'southward coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to be living.

36: Grace Jones: Island Life (blueprint by Jean-Paul Goude)

Graphic designer and art manager Jean-Paul Goude met his friction match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's visual re-imagining of the androgynous singer led to some of the best album covers in music history, from Nightclubbing to Slave to the Rhythm and the arabesque grandeur of Island Life. "It looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and conflicting."

35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)

Like a proto XXL "Freshman Form", the iii alternate covers of A Tribe Phone call Quest's classic tertiary album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, like the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric cover came to fruition with the help of Nick Gamma, the sometime art director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (design by Desmond Strobel)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing whatever it was they were doing on the famous Rumours album cover. It'southward fair that the cover was a fiddling mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.

33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (design by Raeanne Rubenstein)

Though Steely Dan was long associated with Los Angeles, the cover for Pretzel Logic (really shot at 5th Avenue and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.

Listen here:

32: Peachy Pumpkins: Adore (blueprint by Yelena Yemchuk)

Smashing Pumpkins' album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this cover (created by Baton Corgan'due south then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Adore.

31: Ohio Players: Climax (blueprint by Joel Brodsky)

All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early on Westbound ones were considerably more daring than the striking-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would take bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.

30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (design by Ira Louvin)

Mod death metal bands got nothing on land duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked great in white suits while doing information technology.

29: David Bowie: Heroes (pattern by Masayoshi Sukita)

David Bowie has at least v of the most iconic album covers of all fourth dimension. From the lightning bolt on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, information technology's hard to pick. But the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photograph tells y'all everything you lot need to know about the creative madness of his Berlin menses. The cover was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades afterwards.

28: Kate Bush-league: The Kicking Inside (design by Jay Myrdal)

The more commonly known US encompass is nice enough but makes information technology look like a conventional singer-songwriter album and Kate Bush-league is anything merely. We're referring to the original U.k. "kite" cover that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush-league was all nearly.

27: Janelle Monáe: Muddy Computer (design past Joe Perez )

The perfect cover for a cool, sensual and futuristic concept anthology, this captures Janelle Monáe's depth and mystery and is a beautiful piece of art in its own right.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design by Mati Klarwein)

Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded similar no other previous jazz albums, it couldn't look similar 1 either. Information technology took a German language painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk fine art and psychedelia.

25: David Bowie: The Next Day (pattern past Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an immediate double-accept when they saw Bowie's act of self-sabotage here. By defacing the Heroes cover, Bowie found the virtually dramatic way of saying "that was then, this is now".

24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (pattern by Roy Eldridge)

Largely written past bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with help from Chrysalis staffer and quondam journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper encompass of Thick every bit a Brick is full of cross-references and cerebral wit – simply like the music – and Anderson said it took just as much work.

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (pattern by Robert Fisher)

The image of a baby grasping at a dollar bill became one of grunge'due south coolest and nigh indelible symbols, an album cover that captured the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The infant in question, Spencer Elden, fifty-fifty recreated the photo 25 years later.

Mind here:

22: The Who: Who's Side by side (design by Ethan Russell)

The iconic cover for Who'due south Side by side worked on 2 levels: first as a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and second, when you noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.

21: Uriah Heep: The Magician's Birthday (design by Roger Dean)

This encompass is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you walked into a tape store, you could see this album clear beyond the room.

20: Cream: Disraeli Gears (encompass by Martin Abrupt)

Psychedelic album covers were an fine art form in themselves, and the explosion of colour (with the ring looking suitably avuncular) fabricated Cream's Disraeli Gears one of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote one of the anthology'southward most brilliant lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

Listen here:

19: Santana: Lotus (design past Tadanori Yokoo)

You don't necessarily get a thing of rare beauty when you load a encompass with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an 11-inch disc tin concur, only Santana certainly did in this case, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana'due south performances in Osaka, Japan, the full sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, forth with Yokoo's signature pop art style.

18: 10cc: How Cartel You! (design past Hipgnosis)

The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not only inspired by one of the songs (the phone sex-themed "Don't Hang Upwards") but is full of hidden gags, with the same people turning up in each of the four primary photos.

17: XTC: Go 2 (design past Hipgnosis)

Another Hipgnosis job, the famous anthology cover for XTC'south Get 2 boasts a dumbo cake of typed re-create that taunts and messes with the anthology buyer's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved information technology.

16: Bruce Springsteen: Built-in to Run (blueprint past Eric Meola)

It's hard to pick ane Bruce Springsteen embrace, when so many take ascended to iconic status. Information technology could have just as hands been Born in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photograph and Bruce in a white t-shirt and bluish jeans in forepart of an American flag. We decided to go instead with this kinetic photograph that captured the camaraderie of the band and the sense of stone'n'roll mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the embrace did the same for E Street Ring's sax homo Clarence Clemons.

fifteen: Ramones: Ramones (design past Roberta Bayley)

The cover of The Ramone's 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A good cover became a smashing one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.

14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by Vaughan Oliver)

The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and full of secret meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photo that was staged for the encompass shoot.

13: Yes: Relayer (pattern past Roger Dean)

Roger Dean's fantasy paintings became as much a part of prog-rock iconography equally the music. He fittingly put his coolest album cover on Yep' most creative album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the anthology's state of war-and-peace theme.

12: Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me (blueprint by Jon Jonson)

Each one of Sinatra's Capitol-era album covers was cool and classic in its own style, from the lonely scenes on the carol albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Fly With Me caught both Sinatra's natural charisma and the attraction of the jet-set era.

Listen here:

11: Patti Smith: Horses (design past Robert Mapplethorpe)

If Horses wasn't enough to brand Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe anthology cover certainly was. Nobody ever slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.

10: Talking Heads: Trivial Creatures (design by Howard Finster)

Howard Finster'south uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' back-to-roots album (and for R.Due east.Thousand.'south Reckoning around the same fourth dimension). While some of Finster'southward work had a darker streak, for this anthology he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.

9: John Coltrane: Blue Train (design past Reid Miles, photo past  Francis Wolff)

Most of the classic Blueish Annotation covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane's Blueish Train, whose cool album cover photo and mood lighting marked information technology as a work to accept seriously.

Listen here:

8: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (design by Peter Whorf Graphics)

This iconic album cover said it all about coy mid-60s sexuality, available-pad style. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-foam clad model was actually wearing a nuptials dress.

7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Complimentary)

Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, simply Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the chore, every bit K dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious political party on the White House lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice system.

Heed here:

vi: The Rolling Stones: Let It Drain (design by Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones always had absurd, attending-grabbing album covers. Only while Sticky Fingers has a great story, Let It Bleed was as unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology's original championship Automated Changer, the front has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. Nosotros assume the mess on the behind happened after someone pressed "start."

Listen hither:

v: Large Blood brother & the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (design by R. Crumb)

Arguably the coolest 60s anthology encompass of all, the fine art for Big Brother & the Holding Company's sophomore record was also most people's introduction to the style of cloak-and-dagger comic art perfected past R. Crumb. This style of art would be associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Crumb was a bit anti-hippie himself.

4: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Society Band (design by Peter Blake)

Peter Blake's popular-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper's famous anthology changed tape covers forever, and kept many of united states of america occupied for weeks trying to identify everybody at the ceremony.

Listen here:

3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (design by Robertson & Fresch)

RCA wasted no time in cleaning upward Elvis, who'd look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly everyone's parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of class leads us to…

two: The Disharmonism: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)

A rare case where a parody (of the higher up Elvis embrace) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover epitome of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams rock'n'ringlet, merely like the music inside.

1: The Beastie Boys: Paul'south Boutique (design by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)

This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the anthology cover of Paul's Boutique did everything possible to put y'all right into the Beastie Boys' world, making it expect both funky and inviting. It also made information technology essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.

Listen here:

Looking for more than? Find the worst album covers of all time.

wallhadvals.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/

Share this post