Visual Style
The most notable thing about Mos Def’s fourth solo album is that it’s available as a t-shirt. He’s become the first artist to endorse The Original Music Tee™, a concept that’s pretty damn clever. Basically, you buy the t-shirt with the cover art on the front and the tracklist on the back and it comes [...]
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 [...]
This is the fourth in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists Parallel Lines, the third album by Blondie, was released in late 1978. By 1979, when they were finally huge in the States, the band felt the need to start a “Blondie is a Group” button campaign. Even for those discovering [...]
This is the third in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists Much of Joni Mitchell’s best music concerns travel. Her classic record Blue opens with the line “I am on a lonely road and I am travelling”, while in the following tracks Carey and This Flight Tonight she leaves her lover [...]
This is the second in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists A lot of us have wanted to put Bono in his place from time to time. On the weekend I was reading a disturbing feature story on Bono, depicting him walking through Washington’s corridors of power, seemingly without the need [...]
This is the first in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists Carly Simon lead the life of 70′s dreams. The daughter of Richard L. Simon, a cultural mogul and musician, and Andrea Simon, a civil rights activist and singer, she had the perfect lineage to take a leading part in an [...]
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.
True Blue was released in 1986 and to this day remains the best-selling Madonna album. I remember my older sister buying it and listening to it constantly. Shortly afterwards she got into The Smiths and informed me that Madonna “was shit”. True Blue spawned a bundle of top-ten hits and boasted the pop star’s first [...]
