90s
The image of a fist is a universal sign of aggression, power and defiance yet there was a significant lack of albums featuring fists. I thought we’d be trawling through hundreds but it seems we have just the few seen below. It’s no mistake that most of the bands are metal and only one has [...]
Bob Hund (“Bob Dog” in Swedish) are a Scandinavian indie band that were formed in 1991. Along the way, they’ve gathered a loyal following, picked up some Swedish Grammys and spawned an English-language side project called Bergman Rock. They’ve also commissioned some pretty cool cover art, which is notable for the fact that it comes [...]
Since forming in 1981, Metallica has become one of the world’s biggest selling bands, with over 50 million albums sold in the US alone. They’ve won 9 Grammy Awards and – from the battle over their first release through to the celebrated packaging for Death Magnetic – have created significant cover art as well.
In a classic Saturday Night Live Sketch in 2000, the show satirised the game show Celebrity Jeopardy – skewering both Robin Williams and Catherine Zeta Jones. But the breakout star of the sketch was comedian Darrel Hammond’s Sean Connery, who introduced the term “anal bum cover” in this memorable exchange:
In 1997 designer Peter Saville received a call from Jarvis Cocker. “They needed to reposition Pulp” he recalls, “They wanted to present Pulp more as a rock band. The music was a lot deeper, darker and moodier and they called it This Is Hardcore.” The result was one of the most controversial album covers of [...]
It’s always good to see the designers behind classic album covers getting critical and commercial recognition. And few designers could boast of a career as celebrated and prolific as Storm Thorgerson. Taken By Storm: The Album Art of Storm Thorgerson was published by Vision On in 2007. It’s a selection of some of his best [...]
In no particular order, we’re taking a look at the select few albums that are not only referred to as “landmarks” but have actually created new landmarks. For the passionate fans that love these albums, the places depicted on these sleeves have become sites of pilgrimage.
This is one of only two albums I have bought without first listening to them and both were just for the CD cover. I got this in 1999 or 2000 and have listened to it once. I’ve since lost the CD but have the case and from memory it was a dull journey into an [...]
The cover for hip hop classic Illmatic was originally going to have a picture of Nas holding Jesus Christ in a headlock. I’m not sure why that didn’t go ahead (although you would think the label might have had some concerns) but the ultimate cover is a far more reflective and subtle effort.
The first time I saw this t-shirt it was being worn by one of the cool guys in school. I didn’t know anything about Sonic Youth but I did really want the shirt. Unfortunately there was an unwritten rule that if someone from school wore a band shirt first, that was it – it just [...]
