Album Art Man in a Canoe Between Two Mountains
The coolest, best, greatest, almost iconic, most famous album covers of all-fourth dimension. It doesn't really matter what sort of describing word you lot want to put it in forepart of the words "album cover," because lists of this sort of are e'er incredibly subjective. What we can say for sure, though, is that anthology covers are vitally important to how a tape is received by the public. (It's hard to imagine Sgt. Pepper's with the cover to the White Album and vice versa.) Even in today'southward digital age, a cool tape cover can take a huge impact. (Artists as varied as Young Thug and Drinking glass Animals can attest to that.) And then, without further ado, here is our pick of just 100 of the greatest record covers of all-time.
100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (design by Cyril Jordan)
Bandleader Cyril 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'curlicue was supposed to be.
99: The Bee Gees: Odessa
If The Beatles could exercise a double "White Album," the Bee Gees could do a fuzzy reddish 1. The cherry velvet cover, with gilt embossed lettering, served notice that Odessa was going to be unique and beautiful, which information technology was.
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98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (design by Barry Feinstein)
Beggars Feast is a rare example where an album's two famous covers actually complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the U.s.a. replacement, and y'all'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 Dirty Version (design past Alli Truch, photo by Danny Assure)
Whenever hip-hop started to take itself too seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and give the center finger to convention. Forgoing whatever blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang fellow member put a doctored version of his welfare ID bill of fare on the front encompass of his solo debut, as both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize beingness on public aid. As he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Dog Sh_t,": "Got meals but still grill that old good welfare cheese."
96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People (design by Barney Bubbles)
On an album that fabricated a mad dash through the whole of popular history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a bunch of different guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were different pics on the US and UK versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.
95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silver (pattern by Pacific Eye & Ear)
Jefferson Plane'south Long John Silvery hails from the golden age of elaborate anthology covers. Since people were already using LPs to shop and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for information technology, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.
94: Billie Eilish: When We All Autumn Asleep, Where Practise We Go? (pattern by Kenneth Cappello)
Any artist who dares to wait this terrifying on the cover of their first anthology deserves all the platinum success they go. Inspired by the album's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish'southward When We All Fall Asleep, Where Practise We Go? served detect that Eilish was here to mess with your head.
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93: Parliament: Mothership Connectedness (photo by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)
George Clinton's gonzoid take on outer-space run a risk establish its perfect friction match in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party embrace for Parliament'southward Mothership Connexion . The fact that it looked remarkably low budget simply made it funkier.
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92: Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped (design by Cliff Blodget)
Walking a razor-thin line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and nil exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album cover art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the hospital was as unflinching every bit their music.
91: The Cars: Processed-O (design by Alberto Vargas)
Alberto Vargas was already the virtually famous pin-upwardly artist before designing the famous comprehend for The Cars classic 1979 anthology Candy-O, but this painting of a stylish redhead, on a car of course, became his near famous piece. Candy-O is one of the two best uses of pivot-up art on a rock record, forth with…
90: Courtney Love: America's Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)
For her debut solo album, Courtney Dear 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 actress dimension by playing with Love's ain prototype at the time.
89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (pattern by Michael Cooper)
The Rolling Stones probably couldn't beat the Beatles for a psychedelic album in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album comprehend, the first 3D sleeve in stone. Ten points if y'all can observe where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D epitome on Their Satanic Majesties Asking.
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88: Public Epitome Ltd: The Flowers of Romance
PiL's follow-up to their famous Metal Box album cover was even cooler, showing not-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous look in her optics.
87: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (pattern by Andy Warhol)
It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico pare-away banana album encompass became an influence on punk visual mode many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.
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86: The Miracles: Howdy, We're The Miracles (design by Wakefield & Mitchell)
The cool album comprehend for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the old-school showbiz that Motown would presently lead the world away from. But information technology's and so cheerful that you nonetheless have to love information technology.
85: The Go-Gos: Beauty & the Crush (design by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)
The Go-Go's sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . It was their party; you could join if they let you lot.
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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (pattern by Michael Benabib)
This famous anthology comprehend did wonders with its uncomplicated strategy. On his Dr. Dre'due south solo debut The Chronic , the blueprint assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.
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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (pattern past Fanizani Akuda)
Jeff Bridges' got nothing on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly absurd and quixotic album cover character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q e'er had an ear for talent – as his cross-cultural LP proved – but he also had an heart for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an art gallery and took it dwelling for inspiration.)
82: Cocteau Twins: Sky or Las Vegas (pattern by Paul Due west)
The design-axial 4AD characterization did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering paradigm is undeniably cute, yet y'all never know just what it means…just like their music.
81: James Dark-brown: Hell (design by Joe Chugalug)
Arriving one year after his milestone album The Payback , Brown delivered the double-album Hell, which called out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed by creative person Joe Belt, who made his name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on another night chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. Ane of the most famous funk album covers always.
80: Slayer: Reign in Claret (pattern by Larry Carroll)
One of the greatest metal covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-similar painting for Slayer's thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.
79: King Red: In the Court of the Crimson Male monarch (pattern by Barry Godber)
Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting later on In the Court of the Crimson King was completed and knew it perfectly suited the music, with the crazed embrace figure as the 21st century schizoid man. Sadly, the artist passed away only months afterwards.
78: Moby Grape: Wow (design by Bob Cato)
1 of the psych era'south great hallucinations, the famous anthology encompass for Moby Grape's 1968 double LP Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the earth's largest bunch of grapes. Wow indeed.
77: Kayne West: Yeezus (design past Kanye Due west and Virgil Abloh)
One of the most famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist "White Anthology" concept to the CD era. Yous could as well see Yeezus as the last celebration of the concrete CD before information technology disappeared.
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76: Elvis Presley: l,000,000 Elvis Fans Tin can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)
Ultra-absurd Elvis (in his shiny gold Nudie suit) gets multiplied in ane of the most indelible early 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we volition, of course, demand 15 Elvises.
75: Black Flag: My War (design by Raymond Pettibon)
Blackness Flag's trailblazing punk-metallic wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon'south grisly comic images, though in this example, not quite as grisly equally the anthology itself.
74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (pattern by Robert Rauschenberg)
The abstraction of the Talking Heads' cute, moving-parts cover for their 1983 record Speaking in Tongues couldn't have ameliorate represented the music within. Information technology would have been rated higher if the affair wasn't so tough to store.
73: The Mothers of Invention: We're Only In It for the Coin (pattern past Cal Schenkel)
Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie civilization We're But In It for the Money in an equally savage parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album cover to great success.
72: The Pogues: Peace and Dear (design by Simon Ryan)
One of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect image for the Pogues, simply don't miss the subtle bit of play here. (The word "peace" of course has 5 messages.)
71: Rush: Moving Pictures (blueprint by Hugh Syme)
Rush'south greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cognitive sense of humor. In this staged comprehend for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least 3 unlike visual plays on the album'due south championship.
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70: The Beatles: Abbey Road (design by John Kosh)
As information technology turns out, The Beatles were merely as well lazy to get to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original plan – and then they came upwardly with something just as memorable by leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album comprehend. It's since gone done every bit i of the greatest of all fourth dimension.
69: Marvin Gaye: I Desire You (blueprint by Ernie Barnes)
All of Marvin Gaye's cool album covers are works of fine art in a way, but Ernie Barnes's 'Saccharide Shack,' which graces the encompass of I Want You , is the just 1 currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'south sensual figures and jubilant dancers reflected the carnal nature of Gaye's 1976 album.
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68: Joe Jackson: I'm the Man (design by Michael Ross)
In that location'due south enough of punk mental attitude on Joe Jackson'due south album embrace for I'm the Man, where he portrays the hero of the title song – a sleazy character who'll sell yous annihilation – as long every bit y'all don't really need information technology.
67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (design by Robert Whitaker)
Okay, then information technology was a little graphic and provocative, simply equally the unmarried near controversial thing The Beatles ever did (and the most expensive for an original), the embrace of Yesterday and Today surely earns a identify on a list of the greatest album covers.
66: Alice Cooper: School'south Out (design by Craig Braun)
At that place were most as many copies of Alice Cooper's Schoolhouse's Out in 1970s high schools every bit there were actual school desks. X points if y'all got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.
65: Aerosmith: Depict the Line (design by 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'southward members here. As always, his girl Nina's proper noun was hidden a few times in this famous album comprehend.
64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (blueprint by Ron Contarsy)
Between the rappers' Gucci-manner outfits and the piles of coin in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim's sophomore album Paid in Total said information technology all near going bigtime in 1987 and is considered 1 of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.
63: Joy Partition: Unknown Pleasures (design by Peter Saville)
The embrace of Joy Division'southward 1979 debut record is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark blackness-and-white cover became then iconic that it's now worn proudly on T-shirts past teens who've never heard of the ring.
62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, design past 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's screaming visage on the cover captured the swirling anarchy of the 70s and searing funk-stone of Maggot Brain.
61: Family unit: Fearless
Ah, the days when bands had the money to comport out their wildest ideas. The cover for the British prog-rock outfit Family'south 1971 album is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early on figurer graphic, adding the individual ring photos to each other until they get the pretty mistiness at superlative right.
60: The Beatles: See the Beatles! (design by Robert Freeman)
The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the US and UK album version of Meet The Beatles! was just the opposite of the smiling pic that everybody expected to see, and the first of many carry-overs from the Beatles' art-schoolhouse days.
59: Pinkish Floyd: Ummagumma (blueprint by Hipgnosis)
Well-nigh of Pink Floyd's covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest anthology covers, but we wanted to highlight something that wasn't Nighttime Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the aforementioned photograph (except that the band rotates i position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.
58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (design past Stephen Gorman)
Metallica'due south trademark mix of daze value and social commentary had few amend expressions than this image of a modern take on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 anthology embrace to …And Justice For All .
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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Tin can Believe Your Optics and Ears (blueprint by Guy Webster)
With all 4 bandmembers together in a bathtub, the embrace said more about The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to be a no-no in 1966.
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56: Madonna: Madonna (blueprint by Carin Goldberg)
All of Madonna's album covers are striking in their ain way, but there's something special about her 1983 cocky-titled debut. She looks similar she can see everything that's going to happen to her in the next 40 years.
55: 10cc: X Out Of ten (design by Hipgnosis)
The encompass for Ten Out Of 10 remains 1 of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and 1 of their more than overlooked albums. Hither they're on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and but one of the guys seems concerned about information technology.
54: Thelonious Monk: Cloak-and-dagger (photograph by Horn Grinner Studios; art management/design: John Berg and Richard Mantel)
A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz artist, Underground casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records fine art manager John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, only this was likely one of his more expensive: They built an entire set, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk'due south arresting album cover.
53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin 2 (design past David Juniper)
It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Folio's who created this mythic comprehend by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI German fighter airplane pilot the "Cherry-red Baron" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Brawl was doing there only information technology was actually French actress Delphine Seyrig.
52: The Small Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Bit (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Chocolate-brown)
One of the first circular covers, the tobacco-tin design for this psychedelic precious stone stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the anthology's main suite.
51: Dave Mason: Lone Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)
This album embrace was more than of a multimedia assemblage, incorporating the die-cut edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall blueprint and giving an instant visual epitome to the top-hatted Dave Stonemason.
50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'g Only the Piano Histrion (pattern past David Larkham and Michael Ross)
Some of Elton'southward greatest album covers were a fleck splashy, others a lilliputian somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Pianoforte Player was just right, cartoon from his soonhoped-for-legendary love of movies.
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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design by Barney Bubbles)
Ane of many great Stiff Records album covers, this caught Ian Dury'due south personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbles too did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury's.
48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (embrace by Neil Fujita)
Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Time Out is likely the nearly famous use of popular art on a jazz comprehend. In this case, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the anthology's innovative fourth dimension signatures.
47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design past Chika Azuma)
Sporting a photo of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic album Switched-On Bach was dissimilar anything people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. Every bit the get-go classical album to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Enhance your hand if you also idea the cat was a caput of lettuce.
46: Pink Floyd: Animals (design by Hipgnosis)
Not every band would wing a pig over Battersea Ability Station, simply few other bands would make an album that absolutely called for information technology.
45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (pattern by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)
The album cover for Hüsker Dü'southward final studio anthology is i of those cases where a cover is exactly similar the album: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming fashion.
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-up body on the cover of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.
43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (blueprint past Ramey Communications)
The great thing virtually the famous Blondie Parallel Lines anthology cover isn't just the black-and-white composition only the style Debbie Harry (the only one not smiling) exudes power, while all the guys look a bit goofy.
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42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (design by John Wagman)
This Reagan-era concept album makes its visual point by using a photo of Beatles records beingness burned that followed John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remarks. Just in this case, the photograph is a Mobius strip, and the anthology they're burning is the very i they're continuing in.
41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)
On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an quondam Polaroid of herself, but incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious paradigm on 1989 's comprehend was an easy one for her fans to copy, and they did.
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40: Humble Pie: Rock On (design by John Kelly)
Why in the world did Humble Pie go a bunch of policemen to form a human pyramid? Considering they could, of course.
39: The Rascals: One time Upon a Dream (design past Dino Danelli)
One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the band's drummer – represents diverse personal dreams of the band members.
38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Beloved (design past Valerie Phillips)
It may be a more glamorous cover after her first ii, but this photograph of PJ Harvey – in which she could easily exist mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer image comes at a cost.
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37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (pattern by Brian Cannon)
Their debut album pictured Oasis in the world's coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to be living.
36: Grace Jones: Isle Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)
Graphic designer and art managing director Jean-Paul Goude met his match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's 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. "It looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, creative, and alien."
35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo past Terrence A Reese, design past Nick Gamma)
Similar a proto XXL "Freshman Class", the 3 alternate covers of A Tribe Call Quest'due south classic tertiary 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 assist of Nick Gamma, the former art director at Jive Records.
34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (design past Desmond Strobel)
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably fashionable doing whatever it was they were doing on the famous Rumours album cover. It's fair that the cover was a little mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.
33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (design by 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: Corking Pumpkins: Adore (design by Yelena Yemchuk)
Swell Pumpkins' album covers were oft softer and prettier than the music, just this cover (created past Billy Corgan's then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Admire.
31: Ohio Players: Climax (blueprint past Joel Brodsky)
All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early on Westbound ones were considerably more daring than the hitting-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would have bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.
30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (pattern past Ira Louvin)
Modern death metal bands got nothing on land duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked great in white suits while doing information technology.
29: David Bowie: Heroes (blueprint by Masayoshi Sukita)
David Bowie has at to the lowest degree v of the most iconic album covers of all time. From the lightning bolt on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it'southward hard to pick. But the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells you everything you need to know about the creative madness of his Berlin catamenia. The cover was memorably defaced by Bowie himself decades later.
28: Kate Bush: The Kicking Inside (blueprint by Jay Myrdal)
The more commonly known US cover is nice enough but makes it await similar a conventional singer-songwriter album and Kate Bush is annihilation just. We're referring to the original Britain "kite" cover that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush was all about.
27: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Figurer (design by Joe Perez )
The perfect comprehend for a cool, sensual and futuristic concept anthology, this captures Janelle Monáe'south depth and mystery and is a beautiful slice of art in its own right.
26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design by Mati Klarwein)
Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded similar no other previous jazz albums, it couldn't look similar one either. Information technology took a German painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk art and psychedelia.
25: David Bowie: The Side by side Day (design by Jonathan Barnbrook)
Every fan did an firsthand double-accept when they saw Bowie's act of cocky-sabotage here. By defacing the Heroes encompass, Bowie establish the most dramatic way of maxim "that was so, this is now".
24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (design by Roy Eldridge)
Largely written past bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with aid from Chrysalis staffer and former journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper comprehend of Thick as a Brick is full of cross-references and cognitive wit – but like the music – and Anderson said it took simply as much work.
23: Nirvana: Nevermind (design by Robert Fisher)
The image of a baby grasping at a dollar beak became i of grunge's coolest and almost enduring symbols, an album encompass that captured the mental attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photo 25 years later.
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22: The Who: Who'south Next (design past Ethan Russell)
The iconic encompass for Who's Adjacent worked on two levels: first every bit a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and 2d, when you lot noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.
21: Uriah Heep: The Sorcerer's Birthday (blueprint past Roger Dean)
This cover is Roger Dean at his almost vivid. When you lot walked into a record store, you could see this anthology clear across the room.
xx: Foam: Disraeli Gears (embrace by Martin Sharp)
Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the band looking suitably avuncular) made Foam's Disraeli Gears ane of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote one of the anthology'southward most brilliant lyrics on "Tales of Dauntless Ulysses."
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19: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)
Yous don't necessarily go a thing of rare beauty when y'all load a cover with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an xi-inch disc can concord, but Santana certainly did in this case, thank you to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana's performances in Osaka, Japan, the total sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo'south signature pop art fashion.
18: 10cc: How Cartel Yous! (design by Hipgnosis)
The ubiquitous Hipgnosis squad outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not only inspired past one of the songs (the telephone sexual practice-themed "Don't Hang Up") only is total of hidden gags, with the same people turning upwardly in each of the four main photos.
17: XTC: Go 2 (design past Hipgnosis)
Some other Hipgnosis job, the famous anthology cover for XTC's Go two boasts a dense cake of typed copy that taunts and messes with the anthology heir-apparent's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved information technology.
16: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design past Eric Meola)
It's hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when and so many take ascended to iconic status. It could have only as easily been Built-in in the United states, with its Annie Liebovitz photograph and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front of an American flag. We decided to become instead with this kinetic photo that captured the esprit of the band and the sense of rock'north'roll mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the embrace did the same for E Street Ring's sax man Clarence Clemons.
fifteen: Ramones: Ramones (blueprint past Roberta Bayley)
The comprehend of The Ramone'southward 1976 self-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A skillful cover became a slap-up one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to requite the lensman the finger.
14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by Vaughan Oliver)
The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and full of secret meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photograph that was staged for the cover shoot.
13: Yes: Relayer (design by Roger Dean)
Roger Dean'south fantasy paintings became as much a office of prog-rock iconography equally the music. He fittingly put his coolest album cover on Yes' nigh artistic anthology, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album's war-and-peace theme.
12: Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me (design by Jon Jonson)
Each i of Sinatra's Capitol-era album covers was cool and classic in its own way, from the lonely scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come up Fly With Me defenseless both Sinatra's natural charisma and the allure of the jet-set era.
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xi: Patti Smith: Horses (design by Robert Mapplethorpe)
If Horses wasn't enough to make Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe album cover certainly was. Nobody always slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.
10: Talking Heads: Little Creatures (design past Howard Finster)
Howard Finster's uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' dorsum-to-roots album (and for R.E.M.'south Reckoning around the aforementioned time). While some of Finster's work had a darker streak, for this album he accordingly chose sunshine and wonderment.
nine: John Coltrane: Bluish Train (pattern by Reid Miles, photo by Francis Wolff)
Most of the classic Blue Annotation covers were full of vivid graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane'south Blue Train, whose cool anthology cover photo and mood lighting marked it as a piece of work to take seriously.
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viii: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (design past Peter Whorf Graphics)
This iconic album embrace said it all well-nigh coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad way. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-foam clad model was actually wearing a hymeneals apparel.
7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photograph by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free)
Finding album fine art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the job, equally Thou dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious political party on the White Firm backyard, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice organization.
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6: The Rolling Stones: Allow It Bleed (pattern past Robert Brownjohn)
The Rolling Stones always had absurd, attention-grabbing anthology covers. Just while Sticky Fingers has a great story, Permit It Drain was every bit unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the album'due south original championship Automatic Changer, the front end has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. Nosotros assume the mess on the behind happened later someone pressed "showtime."
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v: Large Brother & the Property Company: Cheap Thrills (design by R. Nibble)
Arguably the coolest 60s anthology cover of all, the art for Big Blood brother & the Belongings Visitor's sophomore record was as well almost people's introduction to the style of secret comic art perfected past R. Crumb. This style of art would be associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Crumb was a bit anti-hippie himself.
4: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Ring (design past Peter Blake)
Peter Blake's popular-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper's famous album changed tape covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to identify everybody at the ceremony.
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iii: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (design by Robertson & Fresch)
RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who'd look completely respectable on all futurity albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look similar the crazed hillbilly everyone'southward parents feared he was, captured in mid-vocal at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of grade leads us to…
two: The Clash: London Calling (photo past Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)
A rare case where a parody (of the above Elvis cover) becomes a work of fine art in itself. The effortlessly cool anthology cover image of bassist Paul Simonon cracking his guitar practically screams rock'n'curl, just like the music within.
1: The Beastie Boys: Paul'due south Boutique (design by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)
This cute, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the album cover of Paul's Boutique did everything possible to put you right into the Beastie Boys' world, making it look both funky and inviting. It also made it essential to ain the original, fold-out vinyl.
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Looking for more? Discover the worst album covers of all fourth dimension.
Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/
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