Which bands had the best art on their album covers?

Cafe Society
1

Which bands do you think featured the best album cover art? We’re not talking about a one-off great album cover, but rather, demonstrated a pattern of having good art with some consistency. This means the band in question would need to have released multiple albums to qualify here.

2

Pink Floyd, because they used Hipgnosis, one of the best cover designers of the era.

3

Yes

4

Tony Fitzpatrick has been doing some interesting Steve Earle cover art for the last, oh 15-20 or so years.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=1009&ei=5UyXXam1DYvAsAX8pqeABQ&q=tony+fitzpatrick+steve+earle+art&oq=tony+fitzpatrick+steve+earle+art&gs_l=img.3...3834.14838..15003...0.0..0.100.2030.31j1......0....1..gws-wiz-img.....0..0j0i30j0i24.s3E4pZMa4nk&ved=0ahUKEwjpu9LI3oLlAhULIKwKHXzTCVAQ4dUDCAU&uact=5

5

Yes.

6

I’m partial to the Yes album covers featuring fantastical landscapes.

7

I don’t know about “best” but all of Iron Maiden’s first 8 studio albums (and a couple of live albums) through the 80s and 90s were illustrated by Derek Riggs, giving them all a remarkably consistent look and style.

8

Hmmmm. Gonna have to think on this a bit.

9

**Yes **had the best, **Floyd **was right behind them.
The Dead had some very notable ones.
Sgt. Pepper’s alone puts the **Beatles **in the discussion and Abbey Road sure helps.
Led Zeppelin had some impressive ones.
**ELP **of course had great cover art.
**ELO **for that matter had some notable ones.
**Asia **went with the same style as Yes also often using Roger Dean.

10

I think Uriah Heep used the same artist for “Demons and Wizards” and “The Magician’s Birthday”.

11

Mothers of Invention / Frank Zappa.

12

Yes, they did – and said artist is Roger Dean.

13

I make stuff out of old album covers, so I’ve researched this. And long ago decided that the Venn diagram of “Good Album Art” and “Good Album” has a very small intersection*.

Bands that were good with good art: Beatles, Floyd, Hendrix, Santana, Bowie, Eagles, Zeppelin, Talking Heads… these bands put some real thought into their covers, and back in the day of 12.25x12.25" albums, they really had an impact.

*But think about it. SO many LPs had a huge photo of a guy’s face or a scruffy band just staring blandly at the camera. Even the greats, like Elvis, early Stones and Dylan, it just seems like it was “Ok, somebody point a camera at the artist, click, okay, album cover.”

14

The Moody Blues, of course!

15

I once stayed in a hostel in the Peruvian Andes that was run by a coked up surfer. All the rooms had a wall painting that looked like Yes album covers. It was a really interesting couple of days.

16

Okay. I wanna know what you do with Album covers.
I make things from cassette tapes. I’ve seen Art made from old CDs. I’m not quite ready to get rid of my CDs yet.

17

Chicago’s covers certainly showed consistency!
And instantly recognisable, which might make them ‘great art’ in marketing terms.

18

Genesis used Hipgnosis too and there’s were wonderful also.

19

Just adding the make-up era KISS album covers because they were always like looking at a comic book.

20

Album covers can be divided into two categories: those that picture the artist/band, and those that don’t.

The Beatles are the absolute masters of the first type.