Mind Numbingly Awesome Album Covers

http://i.imgur.com/DSfsW.jpg

What's mind-numbingly awesome about this one? Looks like a standard 80s band photo to me...

all of the following: http://tisue.net/jandek/discog.html

^^ otm

Eh? Most of those are just badly framed, blurry photos, not mind-numbing at all:

http://tisue.net/jandek/images/covers/0744.jpg

I guess I just have a very different definition of "awesome album cover" than some others...

Not sure how a thread like this gets to 121 posts without

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/K/king_crim_courtf.jpg

I mean, it's not that I'm against that sort of aesthetic, but in order for it to impress me, the photo has to be evocative in some way, not just a random pic of some guy or an apartment. The album covers of 310, for example, do this pretty well:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cAK47Uf-L.jpg http://www.vinylsearcher.com/largeImages/1130688.jpg

(x-post)

http://www.mp3crank.com/cover-album/Foetus-Hole-300x300.jpg

http://d21uwzfkfy2yiv.cloudfront.net/inner_life_inner_life_ii-RAMSH5043-1179594854.jpeg

This album came out the same year as Tron, so I assume they borrowed the aesthetic from there. It's still awesome though.

i love the jandek covers but they are pretty much a case of "sum greater than its parts"

What's mind-numbingly awesome about this one? Looks like a standard 80s band photo to me...

― Tuomas, Monday, February 21, 2011 8:31 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah I guess it's maybe not objectively too extraordinary. While it is a common approach to coverart - "a standard 80s band photo" - it comes off as iconically so to me. I don't really know. Maybe I just like the record and conflate the cover with the music...

the painting on the Surf's Up cover is the kind of awful, unfun kitsch that I would rightfully sneer at if I saw it at a flea market (its natural habitat) or on the living room wall of some crusty, humorless old coot who thinks dogs playing poker are crass and undignified & therefore decorates his home with images of depressed minorities and solemn owls.

wow, you do know that painting is based on a really famous statue, right?

I don't have a problem with the statue. I just don't think it retains a lot of its dignity when it's reproduced ad nauseum as a (almost celebratory?) cultural icon.

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/V/Various/VA_guitarsf.jpg

I always mistake that cover for this one (time to dig up the cover connections thread again...)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2903192999_9ed920465e.jpg

Also love Baroness covers:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rlvad54FRTw/TF46SNOgpGI/AAAAAAAAANA/W-cr_aEB04c/s1600/baroness-the-red-album-cover.jpg
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/baroness_blue_record-thumb.jpg

Deluxe edition of blue had some great presentation and packaging as well:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4952634660_fa55f01a4c.jpg

Ossman and flamin groovies remind me of inside sleeve of James Blood 'Tales of Captain Black':

http://www.hardformat.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/inner.jpg

Also entire Skull Disco catalogue to thread:

http://www.hardformat.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/skull-disco.jpg

http://static.boomkat.com/images/176536/333.jpghttp://static.boomkat.com/images/62212/333.jpghttp://static.boomkat.com/images/158689/333.jpghttp://funkyimg.com/u2/415/037/skull008.jpg

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/music/50-coolest-album-covers

One I have been loving lately:

http://storage.canalblog.com/46/73/500408/29436286.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fKrhOTmmm0I/TqjO5gYZUpI/AAAAAAAAD2g/zab1KxKNjMw/s1600/NationOfUlyssesPlaysPretty.jpg

Actually never much liked the strip of photos on the bottom right, but the main cover photo is fucking brilliant.

http://www.dvdedice.cz/data/29/ma-ji-motorovou1288806229_big.jpg

^^^
Winner.

i know the gal c is above, but let's look at all 4 sides of the relevant releases...

http://weirdorecords.com/zen/images/1_9616.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P1pcRilYUjE/TSiufaAp0GI/AAAAAAAAAn8/wViOCGfTbSo/s1600/j.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HDkP1biDsg4/SZhOAVAxuJI/AAAAAAAAExk/M_rnToAdJyE/s1600/Gal%2BCosta%2B-%2BIndia%2B%281973%29-image009.jpg
and a jpeg, but click to view: http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-1222672-1339083900-6249.jpeg

Loses something in reduction from LP size, but still

http://img12.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/7/6/9/0/4/7690433d7154b2847859d91438461dfc.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FrYnE0kAuho/SKCXDwE4j5I/AAAAAAAAAZc/URgD7mL7Zxk/s320/THUNDER_PERFECT_MIND.jpg

hard to lose with Louis Wain but it's still striking

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/554612_10151629663827137_1088074742_n.jpg

i just got this record the other day from my next door neighbor. epic 1973 sci-fi synth musique concrete audio play about the end of the world and mutant children. kinda can't stop staring at the cover.

http://www.vinylrevival.com/likewow/vol2/thetower.jpg

Is the music as amazing as the cover?

it's pretty crazy! lots of proto-vocoder recitations and people screaming and arp synth mayhem.

Lots of gooduns on the Takoma One-Offs thread, this is still my fave

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb391/ElliotGKnapp/Album%20Art/thethingatthenurseryroomwindow.jpg

Close to his heart

an all-time favorite:

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u57/FlacMonkey/My%20Scans/TheloniousM%20Underground/Front700.png

Yeah, that one is fantastic and one of those that is significantly diminshed seeing it CD-sized or smaller.

great cover and sort of a cover connection to another classic cover:

http://www.jmeshel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/basementTapes.jpg

underground has great liner notes too - it's like a Fahey sleeve

Never realized Basement Tapes reminds me of this:

http://www.audiophileusa.com/covers400water/40066.jpg

Must be time to play cover connections again.

really like this

http://radiobombast.podbean.com/mf/web/vy4bx2/mutabarukacheckit.jpeg