Classic Album, FUCKING TERRIBLE Cover Art

The resemblance is probably stronger here.

I've always assumed that the cover of Songs in the Key of Etc was supposed to be an abstract representation of the birth of Stevie Wonder's daughter. As a tie-in with "Isn't She Lovely".

And I don't mean that as a joke, e.g. I have always assumed it was supposed to be a crap, hippy-drippy 1970s attempt at portraying the miracle of birth. What is it supposed to be? The internet has nothing to say about the cover art (the US Rolling Stone magazine thought it was cheap-looking).

I've always seen it as Stevie arriving on Saturn.

Baby coming down the birth canal, first thing it sees is Orville Redebacher

Future Sound of London - Dead Cities

https://i.discogs.com/FQHgALMFgyfvPc6LCSs4nnplRGSqtRwBzuvJOaLp7zY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4MzEz/Mzk5LTE2MjI2MjI2/OTMtMzIyMi5qcGVn.jpeg

What a terrible, dated, cover. Wasn't a fan of it even in the late 90's early 00's when I bought the CD. But it's a stone cold classic record.

Agree with both statements.

lol at first glance i thought the hype sticker at bottom left was yet another dubious 90s graphic design decision

The Stevie covers are great. Superunknown is fine, a bit generic and of its time, but not grievously bad by any means.

That FSOL cover is ghastly.

the lifeforms cover is amazing so i guess they had to immediately counter it

Tbf Stevie couldn’t actually see his cover art so at least he has an excuse.

I’d like to nominate Frank Ocean - Channel Orange, deserves a better cover than orange with some text.

i love that FSOL cover.

I dunno even the shitty art made pre-personal computers was better than a lot of the generic shit that’s popped up since. Feel like there was a period where everybody’s album cover looked like a handbill for a shitty tropical house club or something. Nb: I’m probably full of shit

agree, mark e… see even the early crude digital art was better

it's the intense over saturated colours that i love.
yeah, it is dated, but i care not (see the shamens covers from this period for some seriously dated coverart !).
i just think that the whole cd booklet suited the album brilliantly.

My recollection is that in the late 1990s there was an abrupt leap in the sophistication of CGI / early PhotoShop album art. There was the "we can do CGI" pre-modern era, with grey aliens holding a spliff / robots dancing / bees flying over a fractal landscape etc:
https://i.discogs.com/kCk40WSmGccEVa_znPsW8HonMZVq33q7OXz2lzRKYQ4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:590/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExNzA4/NS0xNTc1NjIyNTUw/LTg1MjIuanBlZw.jpeg

Then there was the modernist Buggy G Riphead stuff, which was better-executed but conceptually still in love with novelty. And then there was the post-modern Tomato / Designer's Republic stuff, which felt a lot more sophisticated:
https://i.discogs.com/thHFxphlLVWsiKEjsFGh-Y6VlCJUZ7ixCu-m49hiEoE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:595/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIzMjE0/LTExNzkzMTMyNjIu/anBlZw.jpeg

I picked those two examples because that compilation series spanned the three eras. FSOL's graphic language circa Dead Cities is odd - the visuals for "We Have Explosive" came from Run Wrake's Jukebox, which was edited into the video for the single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwPys3JQZ74

As a consequence it doesn't look like the rest of the album. In my opinion it has aged better.