Concept

Album: Mooi Besoedeling
Artist: Zinkplaat
Design Studio: Fanakalo

Is it just me or is all the innovative cover art being done for the least likely bands. Does being popular dictate that you must be safe? Beck would be the only mainstream artists who are doing anything innovative. Moldover, Menomena, ALB, Bright Eyes, Beck and Pine Bender all have innovative covers and yet they [...]

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: Cover Artist: Storm Thorgerson

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 [...]

Album: MCD
Artist: Adlib

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 [...]

Album: The Stone Roses
Artist: The Stone Roses
Cover Artist: John Squire

Seminal British band The Stone Roses released their self titled debut album in 1989. The cover features artwork by band member John Squire, who was largely responsible for the band’s visual identity. Squire is an accomplished visual artist who at the time was heavily influenced by Jackson Pollock. The painting featured on the cover of [...]

Album: Breakfast in America
Artist: Supertramp
Cover Artist: Mike Doud, Mike Haggerty, Aaron Rapoport

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, reads the inscription on a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty. Dedicated in 1886, it welcomed immigrants as they arrived by ship and fast became a potent symbol for the ‘land of opportunity’. Visitors arrived by air in 1979 and it’s [...]

This record cover from 1981 is a homage to Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (“The Lunch on the Grass”). The large scale oil on canvas painting by Edouard Manet was finished in 1863 and caused instant controversy, due to the scandalous combination of a naked women next to two fully dressed men. Their casual, relaxed [...]

Album: Goodnight, Bull Creek!
Artist: Bob Evans
Cover Artist: Kareena Zerefos
Design Studio: Kudos Studio

For Bob Evans’ (aka Kevin Mitchell) third album, he took a decidedly different approach to the artwork. Goodnight, Bull Creek! alludes to his native suburb outside of Perth and his departure for new terrain. The artwork is a departure as well from his first two albums: Suburban Kid and Suburban Songbook.

Album: It's Blitz!
Artist: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This striking piece of action photography heralds the third studio release from New York based post-punk act Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The new album It’s Blitz is a departure from their previous work, with more polish and dark hints of disco. Lead singer Karen O’s distinctive vocals are still the band’s signature and this cover art [...]

Album: The Return of The Durutti Column
Artist: The Durutti Column
Design Studio: Factory Records

I was told about this album from someone I had just met via email. I dropped into the conversation that I ran Sleevage and he mentioned this was his favourite album sleeve. I should add Sleevage to my email footer as crowd sourcing sleeves to post about is much easier than real research.