Coin How Will You Know Album Cover
We're usually all about jubilant the fashion records sound, here we celebrate the way they expect. This countdown of groovy album covers – some iconic, others overlooked – has it all: enduring images, perfect portraits, nightmares, and hallucinations. Along with plenty of sex activity and provocation, since much of this list of the greatest album covers revels in rock'n'scroll imagery.
100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (design by Cyril Jordan)
Bandleader Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan'southward terrific comic art has turned up on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were at that place to remind you how much fun rock'n'curl was supposed to exist.
99: The Bee Gees: Odessa
If The Beatles could do a double "White Anthology," the Bee Gees could practice a fuzzy ruddy one. The red velvet embrace, with golden embossed lettering, served detect that Odessa was going to be unique and cute, which it was.
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98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (design by Barry Feinstein)
Beggars Banquet is a rare case where an album'south ii famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom embrace together with the engraved invitation on the United states of america replacement, and you've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the time.
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97: Ol' Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Muddy Version (design past Alli Truch, photo past Danny Clinch)
Whenever hip-hop started to have itself too seriously, ODB was in that location to disrupt, arouse, and give the eye finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID card on the forepart comprehend of his solo debut, equally both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assistance. As he rapped on Wu-Tang'south "Dog Sh_t,": "Got meals just withal grill that old good welfare cheese."
96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Popular for At present People (blueprint past Barney Bubbling)
On an album that made a mad dash through the whole of pop history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a bunch of dissimilar guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were different pics on the United states of america and U.k. versions), all with natural language firmly in cheek.
95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Argent (design by Pacific Eye & Ear)
Jefferson Airplane's Long John Argent hails from the gold age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave y'all a paper-thin box holder for it, along with the pot, or at to the lowest degree a realistic-looking photograph.
94: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Become? (design by Kenneth Cappello)
Whatsoever artist who dares to look this terrifying on the cover of their showtime anthology deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired past the album'south themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish's When We All Autumn Comatose, Where Practise Nosotros Go? served notice that Eilish was hither to mess with your caput.
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93: Parliament: Mothership Connection (photo by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)
George Clinton's gonzoid take on outer-infinite adventure plant its perfect match in the spaceship-party cover for Parliament's Mothership Connection . The fact that it looked remarkably low upkeep only made information technology funkier.
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92: Geto Boys: Nosotros Can't Be Stopped (design by Cliff Blodget)
Walking a razor-thin line betwixt exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and nada exemplified this dynamic more their 1991 LP cover fine art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Nib at the infirmary was every bit unflinching as their music.
91: The Cars: Candy-O (design by Alberto Vargas)
Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pivot-upward artist before designing the cover for The Cars classic 1979 album Candy-O, but this painting of a stylish redhead, on a machine of course, became his most famous piece. Candy-O is one of the two best uses of pivot-upward art on a rock tape, along with…
xc: Courtney Beloved: America'southward Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)
For her debut solo anthology, Courtney Love took the Cars' concept a pace further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-upward artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an extra dimension by playing with Dearest'southward ain image at the time.
89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper)
The Rolling Stones probably couldn't beat the Beatles for a psychedelic anthology in 1967, just they arguably had the better cover, the first 3D sleeve in stone. 10 points if yous can find where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Request.
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88: Public Paradigm Ltd: The Flowers of Romance
PiL's follow-up to their famous Metal Box cover was fifty-fifty more effective, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous look in her eyes.
87: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (design past Andy Warhol)
Information technology was weird, information technology was witty, it was Warhol. The minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico pare-away assistant cover became an influence on punk visual fashion many years later on and remains one of the greatest album covers.
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86: The Miracles: Hullo, We're The Miracles (pattern by Wakefield & Mitchell)
The cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the one-time-school showbiz that Motown would shortly pb the world away from. But it's so cheerful that yous nevertheless accept to love it.
85: The Get-Gos: Dazzler & the Vanquish (pattern by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)
The Go-Become'south sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous encompass photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . Information technology was their political party; you could bring together if they let you.
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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (design past Michael Benabib)
This encompass did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre'southward solo debut The Chronic , the blueprint assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him appropriately.
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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)
Jeff Bridges' got zilch on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly absurd and quixotic character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – as his cross-cultural LP proved – but he also had an eye for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an art gallery and took it home for inspiration.)
82: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (pattern past Paul W)
The blueprint-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work on for the Cocteau Twins. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, still you never know just what it ways…merely similar their music.
81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Chugalug)
Arriving one year after his milestone album The Payback , Brown delivered the double-anthology Hell, which chosen out societal ills both on tape and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed by artist Joe Belt, who made his name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Chugalug trained his aim on another nighttime chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the greatest funk album covers ever.
80: Slayer: Reign in Blood (design past Larry Carroll)
One of the greatest metal covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thou nightmares into this Bosch-similar painting for Slayer'south thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metallic imagery for decades to come.
79: Rex Ruby: In the Court of the Ruby-red King (design past Barry Godber)
Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Courtroom of the Crimson Male monarch was completed and knew it perfectly suited the music, with the crazed cover figure as the 21st century schizoid human being. Sadly, the artist passed away only months afterwards.
78: Moby Grape: Wow (design by Bob Cato)
I of the psych era's great hallucinations, the cover for Moby Grape's 1968 double-album Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the world'southward largest agglomeration of grapes. Wow indeed.
77: Kayne W: Yeezus (pattern by Kanye Due west and Virgil Abloh)
Kanye Due west brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. You could likewise encounter Yeezus every bit the terminal commemoration of the physical CD before it disappeared.
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76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Tin can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)
Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny gold Nudie suit) gets multiplied in one of the most enduring early on 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we will, of form, demand 15 Elvises.
75: Black Flag: My War (design by Raymond Pettibon)
Blackness Flag'south trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon'south grisly comic images, though in this case, non quite as grisly equally the album itself.
74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (design by Robert Rauschenberg)
The abstraction of the Talking Heads' beautiful, moving-parts encompass for their 1983 tape Speaking in Tongues couldn't have meliorate represented the music within. It would have been rated higher if the thing wasn't and so tough to store.
73: The Mothers of Invention: We're Merely In It for the Money (design past Cal Schenkel)
Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie civilisation We're But In It for the Coin in an equally brutal parody of the Sgt. Pepper sleeve to slap-up success.
72: The Pogues: Peace and Love (design by Simon Ryan)
One of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect image for the Pogues, only don't miss the subtle bit of play hither. (The word "peace" of form has five messages.)
71: Rush: Moving Pictures (blueprint past Hugh Syme)
Rush's greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cognitive sense of humor. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three different visual plays on the album's title.
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70: The Beatles: Abbey Route (design by John Kosh)
As information technology turns out, The Beatles were just as well lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yeah, that was the original programme – and then they came up with something simply as memorable by leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the iconic Abbey Road cover. It'due south since gone done equally one of the greatest album covers of all time.
69: Marvin Gaye: I Want Y'all (blueprint by Ernie Barnes)
All of Marvin's covers are works of art in a way, but Ernie Barnes'south 'Sugar Shack,' which graces the cover of I Desire You lot , is the just one currently hanging in a museum. Barnes's sensual figures and jubilant dancers reflected the lecherous nature of Gaye's 1976 anthology.
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68: Joe Jackson: I'k the Man (pattern by Michael Ross)
At that place's plenty of punk mental attitude on Joe Jackson'due south classic second album I'k the Human being, where he portrays the hero of the championship song – a sleazy character who'll sell you anything – as long as you don't actually demand it.
67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (blueprint by Robert Whitaker)
Okay, so it was a niggling graphic and provocative, just equally the single nigh controversial affair The Beatles e'er did (and the most expensive for an original), the embrace of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a list of the greatest anthology covers.
66: Alice Cooper: School's Out (design past Craig Braun)
There were virtually every bit many copies of Alice Cooper'due south School's Out in 1970s loftier schools as there were actual school desks. Ten points if yous got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.
65: Aerosmith: Draw the Line (design past Al Hirshfeld)
Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the piece of work of the line-drawing caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith's members here. As always, his daughter Nina'southward name was hidden a few times in this great anthology comprehend.
64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (design by Ron Contarsy)
Between the rappers' Gucci-mode outfits and the piles of money in the background, the embrace for Eric B. and Rakim's sophomore anthology Paid in Total said it all well-nigh going bigtime in 1987 and is considered 1 of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.
63: Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (blueprint by Peter Saville)
The cover of Joy Division's 1979 debut record is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark black-and-white cover became and then iconic that it's now worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the band.
62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, pattern by The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)
P-funk'south wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and pop art extended beyond music, resulting in some of the most provocative LP covers of the era. Model Barbara Cheeseborough'due south screaming visage on the encompass captured the swirling anarchy of the 70s and searing funk-rock of Maggot Brain.
61: Family: Fearless
Ah, the days when bands had the money to carry out their wildest ideas. The embrace for the British prog-rock outfit Family's 1971 anthology is a multi-foldout caricature and features an early on computer graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty mistiness at top right.
60: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (blueprint by Robert Freeman)
The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the U.s.a. and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland anthology version of Meet The Beatles! was just the opposite of the grinning flick that everybody expected to see, and the first of many carry-overs from the Beatles' art-school days.
59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)
Most of Pink Floyd'due south covers would be in the running for a listing of the greatest album covers, but we wanted to highlight something that wasn't Dark Side of the Moon. This burst of Tempest Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the same photo (except that the ring rotates one position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.
58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (blueprint by Stephen Gorman)
Metallica'southward trademark mix of shock value and social commentary had few better expressions than this epitome of a modern take on Lady Justice for their 1988 album …And Justice For All .
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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You lot Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (design past Guy Webster)
With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the cover said more than nigh The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Tin can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to exist a no-no in 1966.
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56: Madonna: Madonna (design by Carin Goldberg)
All of Madonna'due south album covers are striking in their own way, but in that location's something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks like she can come across everything that's going to happen to her in the next 40 years.
55: 10cc: Ten Out Of 10 (pattern past Hipgnosis)
The cover for Ten Out Of ten remains ane of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more than overlooked albums. Here they're on the 10th floor of a hotel continuing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about it.
54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo by Horn Grinner Studios; art direction/pattern: John Berg and Richard Mantel)
A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz artist, Undercover casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan'south Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen'due south Built-in To Run, but this was likely 1 of his more expensive: They built an unabridged gear up, consummate with costumed extras, to create Monk'south arresting album embrace.
53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin Ii (blueprint past David Juniper)
It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page's who created this mythic cover by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI High german fighter pilot the "Red Businesswoman" and his coiffure. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing in that location but information technology was actually French actress Delphine Seyrig.
52: The Pocket-sized Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Fleck (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)
1 of the beginning round covers, the tobacco-can design for this psychedelic gem stood out in the racks and prepared y'all for the cheerful surrealism of the album's main suite.
51: Dave Mason: Solitary Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)
This album embrace was more of a multimedia assemblage, incorporating the die-cut edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall design and giving an instant visual image to the summit-hatted Dave Stonemason.
50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm Simply the Piano Player (pattern past David Larkham and Michael Ross)
Some of Elton'due south greatest album covers were a bit splashy, others a little somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Pianoforte Player was but right, drawing from his soon-to-be-legendary honey of movies.
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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (pattern by Barney Bubbles)
One of many nifty Stiff Records anthology covers, this caught Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbles also did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury's.
48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (comprehend by Neil Fujita)
Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Time Out is likely the most landmark use of pop art on a jazz cover. In this instance, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album'due south innovative time signatures.
47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (blueprint past Chika Azuma)
Sporting a photograph of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic anthology Switched-On Bach was different annihilation people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. As the starting time classical album to become platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Raise your hand if you likewise thought the cat was a head of lettuce.
46: Pink Floyd: Animals (design by Hipgnosis)
Not every band would fly a pig over Battersea Power Station, only few other bands would make an album that absolutely called for it.
45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (blueprint past Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)
The album encompass for Hüsker Dü'southward final studio album is 1 of those cases where a cover is exactly like the album: brilliant, colorful and jarring in a welcoming style.
44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design by John Crawford)
Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a strong sense of the dramatic. The coiled-upwards torso on the encompass of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.
43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (design by Ramey Communications)
The peachy matter about the Blondie Parallel Lines cover isn't just the black-and-white composition only the style Debbie Harry (the simply one non smiling) exudes power, while all the guys expect a scrap goofy.
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42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (design past John Wagman)
This Reagan-era concept album makes its visual signal by using a photo of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon's "more pop than Jesus" remarks. Merely in this instance, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the anthology they're called-for is the very one they're standing in.
41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Unhurt and Amy Fucci)
On a throwback-themed anthology, Taylor Swift presents an one-time Polaroid of herself, just incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious image on 1989 's embrace was an easy one for her fans to re-create, and they did.
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40: Humble Pie: Stone On (design by John Kelly)
Why in the world did Humble Pie go a agglomeration of policemen to form a human being pyramid? Considering they could, of grade.
39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli)
One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the band's drummer – represents various personal dreams of the band members.
38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love (design past Valerie Phillips)
Information technology may exist a more glamorous encompass later on her start 2, merely this photograph of PJ Harvey – in which she could hands be mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – unsaid that a newer, softer image comes at a cost.
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37: Oasis: Definitely Mayhap (design past Brian Cannon)
Their debut anthology pictured Oasis in the globe's coolest crash pad, showing every ring of the era how it ought to be living.
36: Grace Jones: Isle Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)
Graphic designer and art director Jean-Paul Goude met his match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude'due south visual re-imagining of the androgynous singer led to some of the best album covers in music history, from Nightclubbing to Slave to the Rhythm and the arabesque grandeur of Isle Life. "Information technology looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and conflicting."
35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)
Like a proto XXL "Freshman Class", the iii alternating covers of A Tribe Telephone call Quest's archetype third album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, similar the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric encompass came to fruition with the help of Nick Gamma, the former art manager at Jive Records.
34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (pattern by Desmond Strobel)
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably fashionable doing whatever information technology was they were doing on the Rumours cover. It'due south fair that the cover was a little mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.
33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (blueprint past Raeanne Rubenstein)
Though Steely Dan was long associated with Los Angeles, the cover for Pretzel Logic (really shot at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.
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32: Smashing Pumpkins: Adore (design past Yelena Yemchuk)
Dandy Pumpkins' anthology covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this comprehend (created by Billy Corgan's and so-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Adore.
31: Ohio Players: Climax (design by Joel Brodsky)
All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early Westbound ones were considerably more daring than the striking-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would take bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.
30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (design by Ira Louvin)
Modern death metal bands got nothing on country duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked peachy in white suits while doing it.
29: David Bowie: Heroes (pattern past Masayoshi Sukita)
David Bowie has at least v of the most iconic album covers of all time. From the lightning bolt on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it'due south hard to pick. But the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells yous everything you need to know nearly the artistic madness of his Berlin catamenia. The comprehend was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades later.
28: Kate Bush-league: The Kicking Within (pattern by Jay Myrdal)
The more usually known United states embrace is nice plenty merely makes it look like a conventional singer-songwriter album and Kate Bush is annihilation but. We're referring to the original Great britain "kite" cover that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush-league was all near.
27: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (pattern by Joe Perez )
The perfect comprehend for a sensual and futuristic concept album, this captures Janelle Monáe's depth and mystery and is a beautiful slice of art in its own right.
26: Miles Davis: Bitches Mash (pattern past Mati Klarwein)
Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded like no other previous jazz albums, it couldn't look like 1 either. It took a German painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk art and psychedelia.
25: David Bowie: The Side by side Mean solar day (design by Jonathan Barnbrook)
Every fan did an firsthand double-take when they saw Bowie's deed of self-sabotage here. By defacing the Heroes embrace, Bowie found the nigh dramatic mode of proverb "that was then, this is at present".
24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (design by Roy Eldridge)
Largely written by bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with assist from Chrysalis staffer and former journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper cover of Thick as a Brick is full of cross-references and cerebral wit – just like the music – and Anderson said information technology took just as much work.
23: Nirvana: Nevermind (blueprint by Robert Fisher)
The image of a baby grasping at a dollar bill became one of grunge's most indelible symbols, capturing the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The infant in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photo 25 years subsequently.
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22: The Who: Who's Side by side (design by Ethan Russell)
The iconic cover for Who's Next worked on two levels: kickoff every bit a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and 2nd, when you noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.
21: Uriah Heep: The Magician'south Altogether (design past Roger Dean)
This comprehend is Roger Dean at his most bright. When you walked into a record store, you could meet this anthology clear across the room.
20: Foam: Disraeli Gears (cover by Martin Abrupt)
Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the ring looking suitably avuncular) fabricated Cream'southward Disraeli Gears i of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote 1 of the anthology'due south well-nigh bright lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."
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xix: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)
You lot don't necessarily get a affair of rare beauty when you load a encompass with equally many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings equally an 11-inch disc can hold, but Santana certainly did in this instance, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana's performances in Osaka, Japan, the full sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo's signature pop art way.
18: 10cc: How Dare You! (design past Hipgnosis)
The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is non only inspired by ane of the songs (the telephone sex-themed "Don't Hang Up") just is full of hidden gags, with the same people turning upwards in each of the four main photos.
17: XTC: Become 2 (pattern by Hipgnosis)
Another Hipgnosis job, the cover for XTC's Go two boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the album buyer's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.
sixteen: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design by Eric Meola)
It'southward hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when then many take ascended to iconic status. It could have just as hands been Built-in in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photograph and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blueish jeans in forepart of an American flag. We decided to go instead with this kinetic photo that captured the esprit of the band and the sense of stone'northward'roll mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the embrace did the aforementioned for E Street Band'southward sax man Clarence Clemons.
15: Ramones: Ramones (design by Roberta Bayley)
The cover of The Ramone'south 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk stone in all its black-and-white grittiness. A adept cover became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.
14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by Vaughan Oliver)
The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and total of hush-hush meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photo that was staged for the cover shoot.
13: Yes: Relayer (design by Roger Dean)
Roger Dean's fantasy paintings became as much a office of prog-rock iconography as the music. He fittingly put his nigh beautiful comprehend on Yes' about creative album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album's war-and-peace theme.
12: Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me (design past Jon Jonson)
Each ane of Sinatra's Capitol-era covers was classic in its own way, from the lonely scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Fly With Me caught both Sinatra's natural cool and the attraction of the jet-ready era.
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xi: Patti Smith: Horses (design by Robert Mapplethorpe)
If Horses wasn't enough to brand Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian absurd, the Robert Mapplethorpe photo certainly was. Nobody ever slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.
10: Talking Heads: Trivial Creatures (design past Howard Finster)
Howard Finster'southward uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' dorsum-to-roots album (and for R.Eastward.M.'southward Reckoning around the same time). While some of Finster's work had a darker streak, for this album he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.
nine: John Coltrane: Blue Railroad train (pattern by Reid Miles, photo by Francis Wolff)
Most of the classic Blue Annotation covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of assertion marks!). Non and then with John Coltrane's Blueish Train , whose somber photograph and mood lighting marked information technology as a work to take seriously.
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8: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (pattern by Peter Whorf Graphics)
This iconic album cover said information technology all near coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad style. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-cream clad model was actually wearing a hymeneals wearing apparel.
7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photograph by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free)
Finding anthology art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall society, only Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the job, as 1000 dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious party on the White House backyard, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice organisation.
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6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Drain (design past Robert Brownjohn)
The Rolling Stones always had attention-grabbing covers. But while Sticky Fingers has a bully story, Allow Information technology Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology's original title Automatic Changer, the front has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We assume the mess on the backside happened after someone pressed "outset."
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5: Big Blood brother & the Belongings Company: Cheap Thrills (pattern by R. Crumb)
Arguably the nigh iconic 60s cover of all, the cover for Big Blood brother & the Property Company's sophomore tape was also about people'due south introduction to the style of undercover comic art perfected by R. Crumb. This style of fine art would exist associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Crumb was a scrap anti-hippie himself.
iv: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Social club Band (design by Peter Blake)
Peter Blake's pop-art aggregation on Sgt. Pepper'southward changed album covers forever, and kept many of the states occupied for weeks trying to identify everybody at the ceremony.
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3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (blueprint by Robertson & Fresch)
RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who'd await completely respectable on all futurity albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly everyone's parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Arsenal in Tampa, Florida. Which of class leads u.s. to…
2: The Clash: London Calling (photograph by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)
A rare case where a parody (of the above Elvis encompass) becomes a work of art in itself. The comprehend image of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams rock'north'gyre, just similar the music inside.
1: The Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique (pattern by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)
This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the comprehend of Paul'south Boutique did everything possible to put yous correct into the Beastie Boys' globe, making information technology wait both funky and inviting. It besides made it essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.
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Looking for more? Discover the worst album covers of all time.
Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/
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