Flash and the Pan. More Hypgnosis with a mysterious picture of people sunning themselves on the beach with a nuclear explosion in the background. Even better is Flash and the Pan’s second album, which is black but, if you look carefully, you can see the cover from the first album underneath.
The original cover for the White Album was quite good, with “The Beatles” embossed white on white. Later versions put it in pale gray, which wasn’t the same thing.
Captain Beefheart’s “Clear Spot” was done in clear vinyl – no cover but the record.
And then there’s the die cut covers – “Rolling Stones Through the Past Darkly (Greatest Hits Vol. II),” which had a hexagonal cover; Traffic’s “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” and “Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory,” which had two opposite corners cut off; The Small Faces “Ogden Nut Gone Flake” (circular); Public Image Limited “Metal Box” (circular, and came in a metal box), the Bonzo Dog Band “Tadpoles” (the faces on the cover changed expression when you removed the inner sleeve), and group whose name I forget that did a big triangular cover. You can’t do that nowadays with CDs, and pictures of the covers now omit these little touches. (Not to mention things like gatefold covers.)
“Who’s Next” is good once you realized what was going on.
All the Pink Floyd covers were great, but I’m partial to “Ummagumma.” If you look carefully, you’ll realize what looks like a receeding mirror image is actually a set of slightly different photos, with the group switching places. The British version showed a copy of the soundtrack from Gigi, but this was airbrushed out in the American version, leaving a blank record album cover in its place.
Serious Clash fans already know this, but for those who aren’t: the “London Calling” album cover that several people have cited as a favorite was a tribute to/parody of the cover of Elvis Presley’s 1956 debut album (entitled, not very creatively, “Elvis Presley”)."
I’m partial to the Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat cover which, funnily enough, looks entirely black, until you tilt it to reveal a black ‘skull’ tattoo.
Iron Maiden’s Somewhere In Time gives hours of enjoyment, of a ‘Where’s Wally’ variety, as you try to spot the references to previous songs, etc.
The Stooges’ Funhouse also looks quite cool - it looks like some sort of lake of fire, or something, but when you turn it on the side, it’s a photo of the members of the band.
All three don’t look anything like as good on 5 inches as on 12 inches.
I’m also partial to the cover for “Tim” by The Replacements.
Does anyone else think that their feelings for the music on the album has an influence on how much they like the album cover art? I mean, would the cover for Sgt. Pepper’s be as famous as it is if the music sucked?
Also, if no one else has done it yet, I’m going to insert the obligatory lament about how itty-bitty CDs have hurt album covers as an art form.
This will probably tell all of you something about me I don’t want you to know, but I’ve always liked the diptych formed by the covers of the first two albums by Boston.
It’s a neato science fiction concept, very evocative when I was just a wee tad.
And oddly enough, they inspired a storyline many years later in the comic book Legion of Super-Heroes.
Rolling Stone did a cover article on this very question several years ago. You may be able to scare one up somewhere. IIRC, the #1 pick was Sgt. Pepper’s, #2 was London Calling, and #3 was Aoxomoxoa.
Led Zep’s In Throught The Out Door was issued with six different covers. The bar scene on the cover is seen from the perspective of the six people in the bar. Very nifty.
Eat A Peach…The Allman brothers…not really the outside…but the inside. I can pick it up and look at it even today and see something I haven’t seen before.
My favorite would have to be Disraeli Gears by Cream from way back around 1967. My fifth grade art teacher had our entire class do our own album cover based on Disraeli Gears. And people wonder why I am like I am.
London Calling by the Clash ([sarcasm] gee, no one’s mentined it yet [/sarcasm]) Loveless by My Bloody Valentine (a simple guitar being played, but, like the music the album contains, it’s covered in engrossing feedback) Faith by the Cure (a foggy picture of a ruined church, very pretty and haunting) Fear of Music by the Talking Heads (black embossed metal by Jerry Harrison) Surfer Rosa by the Pixies (boobies! er… artful boobies!)
Oops. 3 more, all by bands starting with the letter D.
A Broken Frame by Depeche Mode (woman reaping wheat with a slate grey sky in the background) Frankenchrist by the Dead Kennedys (shriners in little cars on parade)
and Beelzebubba by the Dead Milkmen (featuring the narrator of Stuart and his mower - and if you don’t know that song, then you don’t know about what the queers are doing to the soil)
).