What's Your Fave Album Cover?

[blue-starfish]

What's your favourite Album Cover? Musical content aside

I got to admit it. I have bought albums simply because I liked the design on the cover. Something about a full color 12" cover, esp gatefold that has me reaching for my wallet. Never mind the music quality or genre.

Mine are:
Steely Dan - Cant Buy A Thrill (the music and recording quality was a bonus)
Osibisa - Welcome Home
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

[JoshWard]

Pink Floyd- The Division Bell
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This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with

[DaveyW]

Too, too Many to choose from really, but one that stood out for me when I first saw it and still does today is this;



If a cover ever captured the essence of the music held within, this is it.

And what music.

It indeed was Rainbow Rising from what was a Blackmore led Elf.
Dio and Blackmore at their most fertile.
The first track "Tarot Woman" was just spell binding when I first heard it, gently building on a wave of mid 70's synthersizer until Cozy kicks in with the rest of the band - Superb!

This track and the majestic "Stargazer" are forever synonymous with that iconic cover.

It remains an all time classic in terms of cover and content.

[JoshWard]

Oh yes that's also a great cover, mine is near mint too
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This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with

[NickT]

Hawkwind have two of my favourite LP covers - "Space Ritual" and "Warrior on the Edge of Time". Both are fine examples of wonderfully ridiculous '70's vinyl packaging with their triple or quadruple gatefolds / fold out sleeves and pretty mind-bending artwork. Space Ritual is one of the late Barney Bubbles finest design moments.

http://www.johncoulthart.com/f.....-designer/

http://peppermintstore.blogspo.....-time.html
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If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?

[Dadimo]

Easy one for me:
Led Zeppelins Physical Graffiti. All those odd pictures in the windows, and you can change it around a bit for a goof too : ) The music was not shabby either...

[JoeE SP9]

Two that come to mind are;

Sticky Fingers with the zipper
Schools Out with the paper panties
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ARC SP9 MKIII, VPI HW19jr, Rega RB300, Marcof PPA1, Shure, Sumiko, Ortofon cartridges, 2 modified Hafler DH200, 1 Adcom GFA-545, 2 radically modified Dyna MK-III's. Acoustat Spectra 22/SPW-1 (front), Acoustat Model 1(rear), 2 12" Transmission Line subs

[audiofool51]

Left this for a while so there may be duplication, but the first ones off the top of my head: Cheap Thrills; American Beauty; Strange Days; Santana; Axis: Bold As Love; Let's Get It On; Farewell To The First Golden Era (Mamas & Papas); Buckingham/Nicks; Sgt. Pepper; Revolver; Satanic Majesty's Request; Hoodoo Man (Jr. Wells); Otis Blue; Allman Bros. Filmore East; Disraeli Gears; Layla; Crown of Creation; Naturally (J.J. Cale); London Calling; Gilded Palace of Sin; Sweetheart of the Rodeo. If I start through the stacks, there'd be plenty more.

[Axlinscotland]

Call me cheeky but sometimes i see myself looking for minutes to Roxy Music Country Life. Very catchy and sexy. In the same category we have Electric Ladyland.

I also like Sticky Fingers and crime of the Century... Abraxas maybe...

Cheers
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This damn vinyl addiction is leaving me alone...

[TheArc]

Gotta go for some Roger Dean and some Hipgnosis

Pink Floyd - Animals (one of the most iconic ever?)

Yes - Yessongs (the records contained inside didn't offer much to the Yes story but the triple gatefold sleeve is a monument to prog excess)

Led Zeppelin - III and Houses of the Holy (when I was a kid all those Zep covers were just awesome, loads of mystery and esoteric rock weirdness, these two though, with the wheel and Houses' hand tinted kids drawn to by something weird to the Giant's Causeway) said everything about how cool rock music could be.

Radiohead - OK Computer (dunno why but I love the design of this sleeve - the airline safety messages and schematic look of it is perfect for the times it speaks of)

Kansas - Monolith (another iconic cover for me when i was 12 or 13, painted native americans in space helmets hold rituals beside the ruins of freeway flyovers - awesome!)

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (Terrible album made by terrible, rampant egos but the HR Giger foldout cover is absolutely brilliant - cannot imagine anyone doing something like this with a CD cover. And as for download....errrr)

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (if ever a cover made a statement about the kind of music inside this is it -and also maybe Black Sabbath's witchy-looking debut. Prepare yourself for a long strange trip. Must have been a pretty intense experience all round in 1969.

There are loads of others - almost all from the '70s the decade that properly celebrated the album as art form.

[fscl]

Great list apfool51,

I'm mentally cover flowing these covers through my mind. .

Raised on Vargas illustrations, my vote still goes to:

http://www.vinylengine.com/php.....;full=true

Fred
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Music is Everything....Except Predictable....WFUV Fan.

[jake]

I like sun ra's ASTRO BLACK, the eyes follow you around the room.

[kai0ty]

Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream and Other Delights. A whipped cream dress cannot be beat.

[ForTheRecord]

Here's one I bet many haven't heard of:

The Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies:


I've actually visited where this photo was taken, at the Archway Tavern in North London.

It's not "cool" like some of those other ones everyone has posted - no spaceships, rainbows, or ladies - but I like it. So there.
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"We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it... life is long if you know how to use it." - Seneca

[Alec124c41]

Dark Side Of The Moon.
Simple, brilliant graphic design, instantly recognized anytime, anywhere.

Cheers,
Alec