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Album Covers |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,838
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Album Covers
The covers of albums can help the sales quite considerably, if they are eye-catching.
An obvious example is Roxy Music's 4th album "Country Life." But some are more subtle. I've a few Chris Rea albums, but not this one. But I like the cover. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ch...ox%3B500%3B500 It's an homage to Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: The rolling Green of Wales.
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I do love album covers and agree some become as iconic as the album themselves some of my favourites:
Madonna- Like a Virgin Katy Perry- Teenage Dream Kate Bush- Hounds Of Love Britney Spears- ...Baby One More Time (international) Bork- Homogenic |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
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As a Rock fan the artwork of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson from Hipgnosis has always been of interest to me. I have several of their books including one signed by Storm.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 8,322
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I love the covers for Rihanna's Talk That Talk (very eye catching) and Loud (just stunning and quite simply sums up the image of that era)
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#5 |
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 788
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Dark Side of the Moon
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#6 |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
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Roger Dean's work on numerous Yes albums
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#7 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,419
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We all like a nice cover on an album and it will help sales by being attractive in the store racks but I can never understand people who refuse to buy an album because they DON'T like the cover. Surely the only thing that really matters is the music.
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#8 |
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
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Quote:
We all like a nice cover on an album and it will help sales by being attractive in the store racks but I can never understand people who refuse to buy an album because they DON'T like the cover. Surely the only thing that really matters is the music.
Of course the title had to be copied by a group of uninspired numpties decades later, but that's the way it goes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somethi...7_Else-jpg.jpg |
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#9 |
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Join Date: May 2011
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Much as I appreciate album covers and picture bags on singles I do think it may have been better if everything just came in a white sleeve or company sleeve because then we would be less swayed by packaging and the artist's 'image' and more concentrated upon the music. Obviously that would be a very worrying situation for some of today's pop stars especially!
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#10 |
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,275
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Quote:
Much as I appreciate album covers and picture bags on singles I do think it may have been better if everything just came in a white sleeve or company sleeve because then we would be less swayed by packaging and the artist's 'image' and more concentrated upon the music. Obviously that would be a very worrying situation for some of today's pop stars especially!
My favourite covers include John Martyn's 'Solid Air', Joy Division's 'Closer' and 'Unknown Pleasures' Many reckon this is the best cover of all. The Clash 'London Calling' |
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#11 |
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Join Date: May 2011
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Quote:
I'm surprised you say that as I think the visual element in modern music is lost as so much is downloaded and there is little need for packaging.
My favourite covers include John Martyn's 'Solid Air', Joy Division's 'Closer' and 'Unknown Pleasures' Many reckon this is the best cover of all. The Clash 'London Calling' Yes, I do like the sleeve art but I have mixed feelings about it, like I would about any sort of presentation of the artist (especially the promo video), as I feel that this can colour people's views of how they perceive the music. I guess I'm harking back to the days before my time when people used to hear a record on the radio and go out to buy if based on the sounds they heard alone. They didn't know what an artist looked like. I believe that can really level the playing field. There is a simple honesty in it. Don't get me wrong: I love video footage too but it influences people's choices. I own some records by people who you can barely find images of, never mind video footage and unless you love the printed labels or memorising matrix numbers it has to be all about the music - no aspect of the artist looking 'hip' or aspirational. I'm quite sure I was attracted to the Sex Pistols appearance when I was a kid. I have quite a lot of Jamaican 45s and they don't tend to have picture sleeves, so if the artist never was lucky enough to get an album release you might not have even known what they looked like (pre. the internet) unless you bought books or magazines. Another unrelated bugbear is how vulnerable picture sleeves are to damage. CDs, often with their jewel case 'exoskeletons' survive far better but regardless of the arguments over which format sounds better, there's no doubt that vinyl is the looker and the twelve inch format is the ultimate means of displaying sleeve art. Last edited by scrilla : 03-02-2015 at 22:38. Reason: more |
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#12 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 26,160
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Quote:
I'm surprised you say that as I think the visual element in modern music is lost as so much is downloaded and there is little need for packaging.
My favourite covers include John Martyn's 'Solid Air', Joy Division's 'Closer' and 'Unknown Pleasures' Many reckon this is the best cover of all. The Clash 'London Calling'
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
Posts: 10,402
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Quote:
Much as I appreciate album covers and picture bags on singles I do think it may have been better if everything just came in a white sleeve or company sleeve because then we would be less swayed by packaging and the artist's 'image' and more concentrated upon the music. Obviously that would be a very worrying situation for some of today's pop stars especially!
Even if everything did come in plain white packaging people would still be swayed by what they heard on the radio. However no matter what the packaging, people still buy a record, CD, MP3, or whatever, because of the music. |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 154
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Kelly Clarksons My December was a pretty decent album cover
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#15 |
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 30,148
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I love Rihanna's Rated r album cover
I actually don't like Katy perry's teenage dream photo. It's essentially an album cover for teenage boys to satsify their sexual needs to, not a photo to sell the album. The fact her ass is just about covered by a pink fluffy cloud is tasteless, rather than sexy. She is a lot better than that. Plus the repacked album cover version of Teenage dream makes her look like she has just had dental treatment and she can't move her mouth due to the numbness. The teenage dream single cover should of been the album cover. |
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#16 |
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,879
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Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi is the greatest "diva" album cover ever.
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#17 |
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: West London
Posts: 24,302
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Great web site devoted to album covers: http://lpcoverlover.com/category/drugs/
I've given the URL for the "drugs" category because some of those are hilarious but check out some of the others... |
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#18 |
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Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,642
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Quote:
But then music has always been intertwined with image, it always will and it is impossible to extracate one from the other.
Quote:
Even if everything did come in plain white packaging people would still be swayed by what they heard on the radio.
Quote:
However no matter what the packaging, people still buy a record, CD, MP3, or whatever, because of the music.
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#19 |
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 17,093
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Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_P...lbum_Cover.jpg |
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#20 |
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Quote:
Not when the the artist has never been photographed, which can be the case. Believe it or not, many decades ago people did not necessarily see who they were listening to.
Even today that is true for many bands. Brian johnson of AC/DC said that the best thing about his job was that not only does he do something he loves with one of the biggest bands in the world, but at the end of the tour he can hang up the cap and waistcoat he wears on stage, put on a jacket and no one recognises him. Quote:
Yes. That's exactly the point I'm making.
I believe some people buy into an image they identify with and that the music is secondary. You own the music because it comes with the territory. Think of some artists who rely very much on imagery and imagine how there sales could be different if everything we bought was simply a response to a blind listening test.
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 27
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Quote:
The covers of albums can help the sales quite considerably, if they are eye-catching.
An obvious example is Roxy Music's 4th album "Country Life." But some are more subtle. I've a few Chris Rea albums, but not this one. But I like the cover. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ch...ox%3B500%3B500 It's an homage to Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks Anyway back to cool covers, always liked Love's forever changes, the album is so iconic and seemingly the multicoloured design was to disguise the fact the band had black members. Good to see something beautiful coming out of something so shocking. Also spiritualized's ladies and gentleman we are floating in space. Was a neat concept. The original cd release had the cover like a medical tablet box. Inside was the tracklisting etc on what looked like a prescription and the cd looked like a tablet. All of the funkadelic/Parliament covers done by pedro bell are like works of art |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,838
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Quote:
Great web site devoted to album covers: http://lpcoverlover.com/category/drugs/
I've given the URL for the "drugs" category because some of those are hilarious but check out some of the others... A really interesting site. |
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,679
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I used to be impressed by Roger Dean's album covers for a short time, but then realised that they're actually pretty amateurish. One of the most enigmatic covers of all time has to be In The Court Of The Crimson King.
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#24 |
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: East Tennessee
Posts: 824
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I love the front pictures for Days Of Our Lives, Sunset Man, and Shake What God Gave Ya! from my most favorite singer James Otto.
![]() God bless you and him always!!! ![]() Holly |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,838
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There's a companion to this, "Nice Photographs of Women Who Collect Vinyl."
Which I've posted before. It's only fair. http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thread...-vinyl.336486/ It's "Nice Photographs of Men Who Collect Vinyl." But it only only runs to ten pages. Some well known faces amongst the content, a lot of Elvis. http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thread...-vinyl.339069/ |
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