Favourite Album Covers

Hey, gang... today I'd like to talk a bit about album cover artwork, most specifically - my favourites. Of course, there are the universally accepted "best album covers", or most famous, out there. But I may not like all of those, or at least not so much that I'd call them favourites. Like the Dark Side of the Moon album cover.... sure, it's a sort of striking, if simple, image... and naturally, it's famous as hell because of the timeless music on the record itself. But it doesn't grab me in a big way. Same goes for that highly-regarded Velvet Underground one bearing the big yellow banana by Andy Warhol. Really? It's nothing special to me. If I were a musician, I sure wouldn't want a banana on my album cover. Maybe a pineapple or the more exotic starfruit or dragonfruit.

And as much as I like many Beatles album covers, they are over-hyped in my opinion. Sgt Pepper... yep, pretty cool, but not my favourite. Same with Abbey Road. I do like the simplicity of Rubber Soul, and its slightly squished-looking band photo, sort of tying in with the "rubber" aspect of the title. Plus that's the era of the band I like best... a cool shot of them in their early experimental days.

Anyway, on to the album art that I do really like. I'll begin with the ones that are right there off the top of my head:

Destroyer, by Kiss... duh, I love the album, and that cover - whoa! Not only a top Kiss cover, but terrific all-around rock album art. The colourful image of power and fantasy, rock and roll and everything that comes with it. This was painted by noted fantasy artist Ken Kelly. 

Kiss, their self-titled debut... one of the very first records I ever owned, it was the cover art that drew me to it and made me buy it. The high contrast band photo showing their far-out painted faces, some glittery, some scary... the four personas of the musicians. A unique early shock image in music.

Dressed to Kill, by Kiss... okay, you're getting sick of Kiss albums here, aren't you? Last one, I promise. First, that familiar cool and freaky facepaint... but the guys are standing on a NYC street corner dressed in business suits and all manner of strange footwear, including women's shoes! Odd and funny - what a sense of humour.

Heaven and Hell, by Black Sabbath... I guess it's no accident that my favourite album of all time has great artwork. Those massive crunching guitar chords are complemented by the very cool and amusing album cover image of three winged angels smoking and playing cards. It's not highly realistic art, but instead is a sort of flat graphic-looking painting. Artist Lynn Curlee based her painting on a 1928 photo of women dressed as angels smoking backstage at a college pageant. As it turns out, it ties in perfectly with the album title and musical themes, and its play on the light and dark idea is amusing. 

Cultosaurus Erectus, by Blue Oyster Cult... This was the first BOC album I ever owned, and it was that cover art that caught my eye. That painting of a bizarre dinosaur-like monster with multiple eyes against - alien? - snowy peaks raises so many questions. Could this be something on Earth back in prehistoric times? Probably not, so is it of another world? What is that thing, and why does it look so frikkin' amazing? It was painted by British artist Richard Clifton-Dey. Great artwork of one of the strangest beings to grace an album cover. 

Crime of the Century, by Supertramp... a weird and sort of disturbing image of a barred window, a pair of hands gripping the bars, floating against an outer space star-field. And I must confess that I only just now (after owning this album for over forty years) figured out that the band's name on the cover is done like star-points connected by lines the way it is done to show the night sky constellations as vector drawings. Duh! Anyone else get this?

Sad Wings of Destiny, by Judas Priest... first off, it's an amazing fantasy painting of an angel succumbing to the heat and flames of Hell. Then you notice that the angel is wearing a pendant of the Judas Priest logo (the "devil's tuning fork"). The angel's huge feathered wings are twisted and curled in the heat, no longer able to support him. This image was created by illustrator Patrick Woodroffe. Very early Priest. Very metal.

Then there's the 1984 album cover, by Van Halen. It's an image of a little winged cherub (a cupid) sneaking a peek over his shoulder as he holds a cigarette out of plain sight. Margo Nahas was the artist, though this was not commissioned by the band; instead, they chose this existing art from Nahas' portfolio. I think it's a fun cover, naughty in a cheeky Van Halen rock'n'roll sort of way. I even had this framed on my wall for a while.

I could probably go on and on about album covers, but I'll wrap this up here. Maybe I'll revisit the idea in a second instalment. What are your favourite album covers? Post them in the Comments section below. Cheers!