Album Artwork

They say 'don't judge a book by it's cover' but we are human, so therefore we always will. One of the most exciting things I find about buying an album is flicking through the booklet as soon as I purchase it. This is because the artwork within an album gives you a taster of what the album will sound like along with the concept. Artists such as Graham Coxon and Peter Doherty are known for painting their own artwork and so it suggests that the same amount of passion and thought has gone into their music.
Therefore I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite album covers.

Graham Coxon - Spinning Top

As mentioned before, this cover was designed by Coxon himself. I love the motion within this. The woman has a dancer's form and she herself seems to be spinning, but the red by her face draws your eye and so suggests that her mind is spinning also.

Suede - Dog Man Star

The photograph, taken by Joanne Leonard in 1971, has always been a favourite of Brett Anderson's and I can see the full reason why. The album fulfills everything this photograph is. The original name of the photograph was 'Sad Dreams on Cold Mornings' and the nakedness of the human lying on the bed makes me relate it to the full, unbridled passion which is Suede, as they have a way of stripping their listeners down to their rawest, human emotions. The way in which the person is lying suggests that they are in some kind of emotional turmoil, but the open window letting in a peak of sunshine offers hope.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

The Gorillaz were a huge part of my childhood and remind me of carefree sunny afternoons and the smell of freshly mowed grass as I would dance along to their fun tracks. This album was released in 2010 and as soon as I saw it, I was excited again. This cover literally takes you to another world of cartoon, manic fun as you're just across the waters from the plastic beach, a crazy new place full of possibilities. The imagination of artist Jamie Hewlett takes everyone to a world of excitement. Sort of the Willy Wonka of the music world.

The Smiths - Meat is Murder

This album cover always makes me sit and wonder awhile upon its meaning. Is it MEANT to be ironic? Pretentious? Satirical? Everybody who knows of Morrissey understands that he's a vegetarian fascist, insisting that nobody can eat a burger within a mile of him and racially abusing the Chinese for their cuisine. So what is album cover saying exactly? The man featured is obviously a soldier, so why is he killing other humans, but condemning people's diets? I would like to hear your thoughts on this!

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Whether it's the title of the album, or the way in which the two gentleman seem to be saying their final goodbyes, or even the story behind the album itself, but this cover always invokes within me a sad, nostalgic longing. I always think of what is going to happen to the man on the right. The suits suggest that he has just secured a business deal, but the man on the left is just acting in his own interests and burns his new business partner in the process.

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

The Manics have always be known for carefully selecting their album artwork by choosing the most powerful images to adorn their covers. This particular painting, a triptych by artist Jenny Saville, shows us various angles of a obese woman in her underwear. The sight may be shocking at first, but then you realize that this woman is inviting us to see everything she is as she gazes down at us and we are challenged into challenging our notions of beauty, health and suffering. There is also added poignancy in the fact that the painting was chosen for the album cover by Richey Edwards, who at the time of the album's release, was hospitalized due to his mental health issues which included anorexia.
Inside the album itself, there are additional paintings which follow the style of soviet realism and one such painting depicts a Chinese factory worker sipping on a coca-cola, which is a strange juxtaposition of communism and capitalism

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs

This post-apocalyptic album cover succeeds in disturbing my mind slightly every time I look at it, but when it comes to art, that is never a bad thing. Released in 1974 it summarizes the overwhelming sense of doom within British society during this decade as the public were told how to protect and survive as the threat of nuclear attack hung over them. Painted by Belgian artist Guy Peelaert, Bowie is mutated into a man/dog creature but still maintains the other-worldliness of his real face. For me, the disturbing part of this cover is the sexualised look of hunger on the bikini-clad female mutants in the background. Bowie both glamourises and embraces the fear of the decade within the Orwellian concept of this album which includes '1984' and 'Big Brother'. The album artwork is another prime example of how Bowie always has his finger on the pulse on the mood of society.

Damon Albarn - Dr Dee

Dr Dee, another opera born out of the imaginative world that is Albarn's mind, is based on the life of Elizabethan astronomer Dr John Dee. Tracks such as 'The Moon Exalted' and 'Saturn' captures the magic that surrounds the age of enlightenment as a new era of science was ushered in. Therefore it is rather strange turn that Albarn took in choosing a photo of himself outside a modern council estate. After thinking about it for a while, it dawned on me that Dr John Dee paved the way for modern science and so this photo is the connection that Dee has to today's world. Also the look on Damon Albarn's face says to me that he is dreaming of another world against the grey bricks of the 21st Century.

Paul Simonon, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen and Simon Tong - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

The anarchic fires tells us just how badass (for want of a better word) the album produced by this super-group is going to be. However the painting itself was created in the mid-nineteenth century and is detail taken from 'The Tower and The Mint' by Thomas Shotter Boys (Sidenote: on the album it is misspelled as 'Sotter' in the sleeve notes) The Tower has always been a British icon but the fires and smoke surrounding add a revolutionary concept, which can be seen as Simonon, Albarn, Allen and Tong revolutionising music and leaving their own mark on history.

Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George

Yes it might just be another monochrome album cover with a photo of the artist, but it is still one of my favourites. Containing the ever so sexual track 'A Girl Like You' , Gorgeous George is a smooth,  seductive album and the look on Collins' face slyly suggests this. As he's not looking directly into the camera, it creates the illusion that he's being caught in his thoughts while he's waiting for the photo to be taken. It may be a very simple concept, but it still grabs my attention whenever I'm browsing my record collection.

The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers

Hillbilly boys will be Hillbilly boys seems to be the idea here. Looking as rough as their sounds, White, Benson, Lawrence and Keeler seem to be captured in a picture perfect 'well, what next?' moment of reflection. Jack White might be known for his anger issues, but at least he's putting it to creative use!