Visual Style

Album: Fever Ray
Artist: Fever Ray
Cover Artist: Martin Ander

A paranormally gifted woman stands in front of a barren, twisted and wintry landscape, her face expressionless and intentions unclear. The mysterious cover of Fever Ray’s self-titled debut album invokes a pitch-black, pagan sensibility.

I spent all of my teenage years listening and obsessing over metal. Then with the arrival of ‘Grunge’, I shamefully denounced the hair spray genre, swapping my denim jacket & cowboy boots for flannel shorts and Doc Martins. Then a few years later retired my flannel shirts for the indie/alternative music scene.

Album: The Blueprint 3
Artist: Jay-Z
Cover Artist: Dan Tobin Smith, Greg Burke, Nicola Yeoman

Now updated.
This striking cover from hip-hop maestro Jay-Z immediately caught our eye and we featured it yesterday. However our readers were quick to point out that we’d only scratched the surface in our review. So thanks to our learned, intrepid and (let’s face it) sexy readers, here’s an updated feature.

Album: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Artist: Animal Collective

Yes, it’s a jpeg successfully masquerading as a gif.

Album: Infidel
Artist: At War
Cover Artist: Claudio Bergamin

For die-hard fans of thrash, the release of Infidels is a major event. At War were an important part of the underground thrash scenes in the 80’s and were well known for the pro-military themes that run through their work.

Album: Phrazes for the Young
Artist: Julian Casablancas

The lead singer of The Strokes will release his debut album sometime shortly, however the cover art has already emerged. It pays tribute to the iconic dog and gramophone image, best known today as the logo for various music companies, including Casablancas’ label RCA.

Album: This Is Hardcore
Artist: Pulp
Cover Artist: Peter Saville, John Currin, Horst Diekgerdes, Howard Wakefield, Paul Hetherington

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 the [...]

Album: Matador Singles '08
Artist: Jay Reatard

I was at a play the other week about an alcoholic 28-year old creative director who has it all but throws it away because of his addiction. The sick thing is that instead of feeling for his plight as his life spiraled further out of control, I found myself resenting how much he had to [...]

Album: Awesome Edition with working Theremin
Artist: Moldover

I was thinking today about how it’s better to be #2. The #2 person tries harder and has a goal beat the #1 person, where as #1 can get complacent. And I think the same thing happens with independents musicians. They just have to try harder. That’s what I thought when I saw this post [...]

Album: Daydream Nation
Artist: Sonic Youth
Cover Artist: Gerhard Richter

“One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting.”
Gerhard Richter 1973