Noteworthy album covers of 2011

that eagle has, like, man-arms/chest

Tony Banks solo records! I had one, The Fugitive iirc, it was kinda glum.

This thread reminds me that I was thinking about George Hardie and how it's odd that ime he doesn't ever seem to get any props, he was Hipgonsis' Barney Bubbles and quite brilliant, I see artwork that reminds me of his style all the time, yet you never really hear much about him, which is a shame.

is that real Boris or fake "Boris"

That Unjoy cover is like an Unsane cover. Weird

What's double weird is the name has a similar vibe.

fair damsel's expression makes that cover.
she looks kinda peeved to be abducted by stoned eagleman. plus, she has to hold the pose while BORIS sets his easel up, her sandals are too tight, and the bus service back from the castle fortress sucks...

alex moulton > justice of the unicorns

Yeah, that one doesn't beat the Alex Moulton cover by Boris Vallejo, even though it's okay.

One particular thing that makes this "Justice of the Unicorns" cover inferior is that the eagleman has a weird lower body! Based on the upper body you'd expect him to have human legs too, but then they should be shown in the picture, and they aren't. Of course he could have eagle legs instead, but even those should be visible in the pic! Unless Vallejo got some kind of an unexpected biological insight, and realized that even a mutant eagleman should be a tetrapod, and therefore the "legs" are actually his hands (while the wings are his "true" hands). But that would be kinda weird too! It looks more like he just didn't bother to figure out the lower body, so he just decided to cover it with an "artistic" blur.

offtopic: What's always bothered me about centaurs is that they're hexapods.

had never thought about that; now it's bugging me too
thanks for ruining centaurs for me gawd

They're actually human centaurpedes

I shouldn't post this
http://www.reviler.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/jerusalem-and-the-starbaskets-dost-review.jpg
but I'm curious what people here think

really beautiful imo.

you trying to draw new jersey?

not as good as the heater cover but really nice xxp

Cool, thanks for the feedback.
Same dude did the Heater cover.

stuff i really like:

toro y moi - just stunning, one of the year's best
tim hecker - good design, great photo
iron & wine - excellent, but his shit always looks great
terror defence - yes yes, a thousand times yes
demdike stare - brilliant, as always
panda bear - low key, but quite nice
dirtbombs - not immediately striking, but perfect for the album
zombi - wow, a favorite
juan atkins - "that is BADASS" (OTM)
munch munch - an old trick deployed well, still works
asa masa - has stealth properties, love the face
woods - love the woodsist house style
gang gang dance - holy fuck, ftw, best i've seen this year
earth - always have beautiful cover art, wish the music measured up
laurel halo - nothing special about the design, but love the photo
the weekend - holy wow, yes
moon duo - not a best best, but still p great
the gift - goddam, that's amazing
psychedelic horseshit - another winner, on a roll
battles - awesome, love it to death, fuck haters
umberto - GENIUS
tyler, the creator - brilliant, full stop (wish the "goblin" text weren't just a sticker tho)
gigamesh - wow, love the imposing prog-style lettering as architecture thing
terra tenebrossa - an overly familiar design, but pulled off well
het droste effect - damn, son!
pretty lights - sucker for that early 80s hard sci-fi shit, so great
lil b - other albums are w/e, but i LOVE black ken
skeletons - wonderful, in competition w ggd for top honors
spaceghostpurp - lol, good bad
22 piste pirkko - simple and smart, step up, everybody else
soft metals - gorgeous, love everything about it, and i don't usually go for this style
justice of the unicorns - of course, boris forever

that Het Droste Effect demo is amazingly good.

as well as a great cover.

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

contenderizer are you serious bro

idk why i'm lashing out sorry

lol

curren$y cover is predictably O_O

contenderizer are you serious bro

i fell on my head when i was small

fomh

gonna put a veto on the weeknd cover. it's like being in an alternate reality where tumblr actually has influence upon the world.

it's like being in an alternate reality where tumblr actually has influence upon the world.

I hate to tell you but

gonna put a veto on kelpolaris posting to any threads ever

rofl

THE BAD:

wye oak - garbage
shit & shine - great band, never had anything close to a decent album cover, still don't
asobi seksu - so embarrassing, dude hasn't done anything worthwhile in ages
seefeel - cheap shit, utterly generic
gang of four - igi, still sucks, one of the year's worst
1900s - wtf digital ribbon candy?
primordial undermind - disgusting
trail of dead - the worst album cover of the year, no contest
marianne faithful - egad, for shame
raveonettes - outrageous filth
the memory band - fuck fuck FUCK your beachy memory shit (great photo tho!)
dimlite - hideous
exene - horrid (and disappointing, as i'd like to root for her)
toploader - barf
bearsuit - barf
friendly fires - unforgivable
little dragon - "little dragon is awwwwwful" (OTM)
the lonely island - JESUS FUCK! go die
katy b - lazy b, utter shite
mountains - heroically boring, an achievement of sorts
stevie nicks - thoughtless crap, she deserves so much better
the aston shuffle - some of you have no fucking taste at all
foo fighters - almost impossibly bad, like there's an athleticism involved
jason forrest - fuck no, one of the year's worst
explosions in the sky - overdesigned bullshit
washed out - infuriating, if you like this, you are dead to me
bilal - aaaargh, my eyes! (ok, it does have a certain wtf appeal)
d'eon/grimes - i would like to never see this "let's play indian" crap ever again
unjoy - are you serious? so played out and awful, despise everything about it

You left out Lady Gaga because its badness is a given, yes?

JESUS FUCK! go die.

People go nuts about album art, dang.

jf: well yeah

I like the new Thee Oh Sees 'Castlemania' cover a lot...back cover was fun too but can't find a jpg online.

http://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/covers/castlemania.jpg

feel incredibly jerky about that "THE BAD" post. was a bit drunk, but that excuses nothing. apologies to all.

Castlemania is great

the "THE BAD" post was entertaining!

SebastiAn Total
http://www.pigradio.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Sebastian-Total-768x768.jpg

he's kissing himself right?

Magiska

Debut LP from this French electro producer; features appearances by M.I.A., Justice’s Gaspard Augé, and Mayer Hawthorne. Yes, that album cover above is indeed an image of SebastiAn kissing himself.

dude, we get it... you're still on magiska.

i was just providing a reference for the quote. have mentioned Magiska like two other times on ilm...

it's alright we usually don't check sources around here

Sour grapes, I guess. Those assholes kicked a lot of good people undeservedly, so fuck 'em.

give yourself a little tongue jeez

I dunno if this is old art that's been repurposed or not since it's freebie release on a cassette label or something, but...

Co La - Rest in Paradise

http://i.imgur.com/WLe1D.jpg

Vintagey

http://i.imgur.com/CUTN7.jpg

reminds me of feist's let it die

Yeah, I see that, but it's the circle on black that does it. The image in the vignette is nothing like the Feist cover.