Favorite Album artwork and packaging

popetony

hey guys!
im doing my thesis on imagery in music and album artwork design and i just thought it would be interesting to get some peoples view on their favorite album artwork, and the packaging that the album comes wrapped in. so whats your favorite album artwork ever? what do you think was a very clever packaging idea for a certain album!!! feel free to leave your opinion on anything like this! thanks alot!

popetony

i really like the Ten thousand days album cover by tool.... It has a periscope style magnifying glass on the front which you use to look at the artwork in the booklet more carefully....very clever idea....

Rigsby

Miles Davis' - "Bitches Brew"

popetony

that is a cool album cover....its very surreall....

Bubs101

Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors and Casadaga. By a mile

indiewindy

shellac 100 hurts comes in a pretty fancy box,
godspeed you black emperor always put loads of effeort into their releases too expecially slow riot for new zero kanada and F#A#∞

http://www.cstrecords.com/cst003.html

Mental Mickey

"Appetite For Destruction" by Guns N'Roses. The original cover art was banned and replaced by the cross with the five skulls on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Appetitefordestruction.jpg

There's the original cover art.

DublinWriter

The original Gerald Scarfe design of the gatefold sleeve for Pink Floyd's The Wall is one of my favourites.

callaway92

"Favourite Worst Nightmare"- Arctic Monkeys...Now thats good
And Also..."All we know is Falling" - Paramore...There the best

bullpost

The original PIL metal box packaging was pretty cool.
The Smiths record covers iconography probably deserves a thesis all of its own!

noby

The Smiths and The Stone Roses are two stand-outs for me.

For more novelty value, Spiritualized's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' came in a medicine box, like an Asprin box, and the cd inside was in a blister pack, with dosage instructions included.

Citizen_Erased

Mental Mickey wrote: »

"Appetite For Destruction" by Guns N'Roses. The original cover art was banned and replaced by the cross with the five skulls on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Appetitefordestruction.jpg

There's the original cover art.

You can also find that image across two pages in the booklet with the album.

I always liked the artwork on the re:animation album by linkin park , nothing particularly ground breaking , I just likes it

lordgoat

As bubs said you should really check out bright eyes covers. Try and see them on vinyl if possible, they're jsut lovely.

For me the nicest cover is Figure 8 by Elliott but that could be that i just miss him alot and love that record.

kev_s88

System of A Down's Toxicity

Jimmy Apollo

Has to be Sgt. Peppers. The orginal gatefold. It turned album covers into genuine art. I love Pet Sounds cover too.

blastman

Alice Cooper - School's Out. The original vinyl edition had legs that folded out and a hinged lid so it could be made to look like a school desk. The record itself was wrapped in a pair of panties. The Stones did something similar for Sticky Fingers, which had a real zip on the cover and a pair of panties inside.

Jay P

Pulse from Pimnnk Floys. The CDs come in a kind of book, then the book-thingy goes in a box. Class. Then there are loads of pictures from the gig in the book as well.

Kold

All of Stanley Donwood's work for Radiohead: OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows. But most of all... Most of all The Eraser. Class.

JerryHandbag

1 - a special edition of Badly Drawn Boys last CD "Born in the UK"....i ordered it off CDWow and they sent me the special one by mistake.....score!!! Its basically a passport booklet with his photo on inside....and oh yeah a CD and DVD too...it actually does look like a passport when you go to pick it up....i thought it was a great idea considering the personal nature of the album

2 - a CD by Icelandic band Sigur Ros (actually all their CD art is cool)....its their 3rd album and its name is "()"....untitled, just a set of brackets...it comes in a plastic slipcase with the () cut out, and a booklet inside with absolutley no text, just tracing paper style pages and forest images, left blank to the listener is meant to write down their own interpretation of the music on the pages....mad!

3 - New Orders CD "Low-Life" is pretty cool because the sleeve is basically a see-through cover that comes with a square photo of each member of the band, so you can change the cover to whatever band member you want..think I'll change it now actually!

Yes I am a CD cover nerd

Scubadevils

I love CD artwork and I really love when they are digipak rather than jewel... digipack shows off the artwork so much better but they do need more care to keep in good condition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digipak (actually the cover they show here is an excellent album and I really like the artwork)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_packaging#Jewel_case

Most of the artwork from Susumu Yokota is really good and tends to be digipak with the odd exception.

http://www.discogs.com/release/71571

GrahamThomas

For me, it has to be the artwork for "London Calling" by The Clash....

http://havercamp.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/london-calling.jpg

IMHO it perfectly sums up the energetic, defiant spirit of punk.

Malice

Two album covers that I really like:

Sepultura - Arise


Sepultura - Chaos A.D.


I find them both very well drawn and there is enough going on in each one to require a good long look to take the whole scene in.

John

The Hafler Trio make more than just an album, the entire sleeve is meant to be part of the album experience (usually essays or objects related to the audio content). One release came in a wooden box with different things to excite each of the five senses (I don't have it so can't be more specific). Then there's the Dreamachine which includes a cylinder and light to be put on a record turntable that causes the light to flicker as it spins in an alpha rhythm (one of the brain rhythms involved in sleep).

Coil put out a bonus CD with one of their albums that came in an edition of around 300. Each copy came with a completely different, hand-painted sleeve. Then there's the art edition of their last album, The Ape of Naples, more hand painted shenanigans and handmade wooden box.

Nurse With Wound make cool packaging too, like the leather bag box set of their early albums.


The doom metal band Moss put out a cassette release that came in metal sculptures:


Then the guys from Tindersticks made a compilation of children's stories and old children's TV tunes that came in one of those thick card children's books:

mc nuggets

The Prize Fighter Inferno - My Brothers Blood Machine



It comes in a kinda worn almost pseudo-leather casing and the lyrics are written on the back of tarot cards

HalloweenJack

Anything by Funkadelic, especially the Pedro Bell drawings, "Funkadelic" and "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow".

Stompbox

Yeah its gotta be Sgt. Peppers. Abbey Road was incredible as well, hell as was Let It Be. Look at their cultural impact!

More recent efforts were the likes of Flock by Bell X1,Is This It by The Strokes and I couldn't resist the font on Teenager by Thrills even though it was ****!

Dudess

JerryHandbag wrote: »

New Orders CD "Low-Life" is pretty cool because the sleeve is basically a see-through cover that comes with a square photo of each member of the band, so you can change the cover to whatever band member you want..think I'll change it now actually!

Yeah, I keep Gillian on the front in a show of female solidarity . I used to have the LP too and it didn't have that feature. Really cool.

Yes I am a CD cover nerd

Nothing wrong with that...

I would recommend so many covers by Vaughan Oliver, 4AD Records' resident designer:








Not that it was all "sweetness and light" (heh heh). He was quite happy to venture over to the dark side too:

Scubadevils

That last cover is disgusting :eek:

Scubadevils

Another great cover and one of the best DJ mixes ever is the original Renaissance mixed by John Digweed & Sasha...

I lost my copy a long time ago











http://www.discogs.com/release/100874

Kold

Lol... That's just Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel..

Beanstalk

Cool topic for a thesis, if your not focusing specifically on cd's then check out the old vinyl cover for Led Zeppeln III. It has a wheel inside that moves and changes the album cover slightly each time, it's a fantastic and very original idea! If you don't have the old vinyl handy, i think that the re-released CD versions from about three years ago were copies of the oringinal cardboard vinyl covers....

Notorious

I've always thought Rage Against the Machine's first album, which is just called after the bands name, has a pretty striking cover. Its the famous photo of the Buddhist monk burning himself alive while sitting on the ground cross-legged.



Steve Vai's "Passion and Warfare", has a pretty cool cover. You've really got to look at it properly just to take it all in.

DublinWriter

Beanstalk wrote: »

Cool topic for a thesis, if your not focusing specifically on cd's then check out the old vinyl cover for Led Zeppeln III. It has a wheel inside that moves and changes the album cover slightly each time, it's a fantastic and very original idea!

Yes, if you were on acid somewhere circa 1972.

I hate all those Hipgnosis/Roger Dean designed LP covers.

stovelid

Dudess

Wow stovelid, that's HUGE!! I've never seen one that size before...!
Edit: Oh it's gone, thus rendering my "hilarious" double entendre useless...

stovelid

Dudess wrote: »

Wow stovelid, that's HUGE!! I've never seen one that size before...!
Edit: Oh it's gone, thus rendering my "hilarious" double entendre useless...

grumpytrousers

noby wrote: »

For more novelty value, Spiritualized's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' came in a medicine box, like an Asprin box, and the cd inside was in a blister pack, with dosage instructions included.

Actually that came in two versions - the one you describe which was a single CD in a blister pack, but there was also one that came as a bigger box 2 3x2 blister packs and similar dosage instructions.

Hermy

Some covers I like:

King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King ©1969


Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch ©1964


Frank Zappa - Grand Wazoo ©1972

IanCurtis

For artwork, I love this one - The Beastie Boys, Licensed to ill:



For packaging, Oasis singles was quite clever, if a little childish :

Exit

Dudess wrote: »

Wow stovelid, that's HUGE!! I've never seen one that size before...!
Edit: Oh it's gone, thus rendering my "hilarious" double entendre useless...

It looks like you're talking about the banana!

I loved that Oasis box set. Great idea.

I really, really like the packaging for Damien Rice's O. It's made to look like a book with a fabric type cover. It's probably my favourite packaging ever.

Never Mind The Bollocks... is great too, as was the cover of the God Save The Queen single.

Kaiser_Sma

'Slow riot for new zero kanada' and 'Yanqui U.X.O.' by Godspeed you black emperor. Alot of their other albums (silver mount zion's too) had nice inventive album work, definently adds a bit of a visual que to the music.

I can't find a picture of all the sides anymore.

popetony

thanks for all the comments guys.....just to clarify...im writing my thesis now and this thread has really helped me out greatly...keep all your opinions coming.....some of the artwork shown is wonderful so far...thanks alot people!!!:)

'Ol Jack Chance

A few of mine: Bringing It All Back Home



Small Change, sums up the mood of the album perfectly



Exile on Main Street



Rum Sodomy and the Lash



Neon Bible, the whole packaging of this album is really cool

AdMMM

Predator - Easy Prey

Nailz

Nothing as cool as the Great Southern Trendkill....



Whoracle, very detailed...


Another kickass Eddie with Caught Somewhere In Time...


And I'll finish this batch off with Christ Illusion by Slayer, which so happens to be banned in Ireland. (I may aswell show you the crappy Irish version too)

Malice

Nailz wrote: »

Christ Illusion by Slayer, which so happens to be banned in Ireland.

Apologies for going off-topic but I'm curious as to why it's banned here. Any ideas?

Nailz

malice_ wrote: »

Apologies for going off-topic but I'm curious as to why it's banned here. Any ideas?

Because the people who ban them are a bunch of oversencitive morons who'd get offened if a man wore a hat to mass!! I'm Catholic (not a good one), but ffs some people should cop on and stop having the idea that everything should be made out of flowers and puppies!! In the time and age that we live in now people should let go of their staunch way of going on and fùcking loosin' their belt, it isn't 1980's Ireland anymore ladies and gentlemen! Why should they seriously give a fùck if a popular metal band decide to have Jesus (and a few other things ) on their album cover!?!

It could be worse... they could have had L. Ron Hubbard on it!

sparkzter

Hi there,

This album has some very interesting artwork- and is definetly worth a look the next time you are in HMV or Virgin. I think that if you really look into the story and concept behind the album it could very well be what you are looking for! Here is what Wiki has to say about it to start....

The booklet artwork loosely tells the album's story through a series of plates featuring medieval-style paintings and text presented in a printing press font created by Vasily Kafanov. The heavily symbolic artwork references the subjects of alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. "I of the Mourning" is the only release from the album that did not include cover art by Vasily Kafanov. The album was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Recording Package. On page 20 of the booklet in the pictograph labelled: "Plate XII-IN ALL THINGS THE SYMBOLS REIGN SUPREME", there is a small circled number '5' with a '2' and '3' on either side, which correspondes to the date (May 23rd) of the annocement by Billy Corgan of the bands break up. This is significant because the album had already been released for months prior to the annoncement which may be a sign that the date had already been chosen for that specific purpose and may have been a clue to more observant fans.

Also, here is a link to a website that has the pictures from the album sleeve and some very detailed info! Let me know if this is the kind of thing that you are looking for if there is anything else I can help you with!

http://www.nachtkabarett.com/SmashingPumpkins/Machina

Good luck with your thesis!