Awesome classical album cover art

http://fj.pt80.net/data/attachment/forum/201208/06/0841542q10dr0w4r2zq44p.jpg

i am shocked at how hideous most of these are.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Duf-aEloL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://www.bruceduffie.com/starker3.jpg

Sorry, having trouble finding one with better res http://i43.tower.com/images/mm106948373/weill-aufstieg-und-fall-der-stadt-mahagonny-lenya-bruckner-ruggeberg-cd-cover-art.jpg

Always dug this one:
http://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/14/13115/full-1024x1024/526dc2b6/rca_lsc-1934.jpeg

big fan of the "Living Stereo" logo too

Another nice Starker:

http://www.lotusrecords.at/fileadmin/lotus/pics/SR90392LP.jpg

Starker was pretty photogenic in an Intense Artist kind of way.

The Reiner Bartok is all-time. I also love the cover for his Das Lied Von der Erde.

That era of DG Karajan covers (70s to early 80s) were unremittingly awful but inescapably lol.

Two favorites:

http://www.popsike.eu/pix/20100221/170449354036.jpg

http://www.ambergreen-classical.co.uk/ekmps/shops/padmagupta/images/stockhausen.-sternklang-.dg-2707-123-2470-p.jpg

http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7064/6815640468_0c2cb69bbf.jpg

Nonesuch covers from the 60s/70s had a great style, all groovy watercolors and gaudy cartoon drawings.

http://classicvinyl.com/files/IMG_0771.jpg
http://www.schoenberg.at/diskographie/images-n/nones192.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ro4LYVLHo8w/Tv8dPuexKnI/AAAAAAAAAug/vR2tfZ-OGGU/s1600/LP17796.jpg
http://www.vinylvendors.com/Pictures/a/n/angelicum453564.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D_M3EBDZmPI/UUiOaCi8tfI/AAAAAAAABUE/jBkEYUzUnZ0/s1600/untitled.bmp

http://store.acousticsounds.com/images/large/XXXX__80164__01272012111603-674.jpg

this is extra extra nerdy but that font looks more like a Decca font than one EMI would use

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PB8QyPWJL.jpg

Wow!

I have a soft spot for the very 1960s designs of the World Record Club. UK/Aus mailorder operation with regional in-house designs for licenced recordings. They're some of the most common sights in charity store bins here and are sometimes more striking than expected.

eg. some of the first few I found online just now

https://images2.imgbox.com/d7/4b/9Y5zlLKz_o.jpg

Haha. Meant to embed it but that will do.

the v. williams symph. 9 art reminds me of:

https://img.discogs.com/Ba1Ok9uYQM07aOreWfsmfopUT3Q=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-322191-1487004156-9867.jpeg.jpg

I bought this box of Shostakovich symphonies purely based on the cover art (and the price at the time). Good thing it rules.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/617556aGV7L.jpg

It's not the most idiomatic set by any means but it's my favourite Western take on Shosty's symphonies, by far. Even the 14th, with its (imo) ill-advised move away from Russian, is incredible thanks to Julia Varady and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's contributions. And if you like the 14th, it's also worth hearing the Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti, which is sometimes called Shostakovich's 16th symphony.

Not entirely sure of the chronology but I guess it's possible that World Record Club and Sonic Youth were BOTH ripping off this series:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/144a4414d773b2673ee9c0f3855d2246/tumblr_p4b9etckY21qk5u0to9_500.jpg

I still quite like Kairos's CD covers. Variations on a very limited number of themes, I guess, but my eyes often linger...

https://www.kairos-music.com/sites/default/files/cds/0015025KAI_andreyev_webcover.jpg
https://www.kairos-music.com/sites/default/files/cds/0015086KAI_nono_frontcover.jpg
https://images2.imgbox.com/b5/e2/wn6G1quz_o.png