Album Art Challenge

[Dendy Jarrett]

Are there certain albums where the art really stuck to your mind when you first saw it?

Of course now that vinyl is making a come back, album art may become relevant again, but for a long time, I have missed it.

As a kid we used to study this album art and get lost in it. Same holds true for liner notes and such.

As a kid the first album art that stuck in my mind was Elton John's Captain Fantastic album. Something about the colors and imagery. I'm certain there was probably some hidden meaning, but I never really considered that.





What was your first impressionable album art?

[Pastor of Muppets]

My soon-to-be brother-in-law lent me this album in the late 70s and I was mesmerised by it. I'd never heard of nor seen a photo of Sabbath up to that point. Tony Iommi looks like the coolest guy in the world on this album cover, in my opinion.

And when I played the album, that was it. I was smitten. Been a fan ever since.

[Dendy Jarrett]

Here's another one that stuck out in my mind -

Doobie Brother's Takin' it to the Streets

[Phil O'Keefe]

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first one that really fascinated me as a kid...

[Phil O'Keefe]

As a kid the first album art that stuck in my mind was Elton John's Captain Fantastic album. Something about the colors and imagery. I'm certain there was probably some hidden meaning, but I never really considered that.

Captain Fantastic is semi-autobiographical and it's about Elton and Bernie's struggles to break through in London in the late 1960s.

I started to lose interest in Elton's work right about the time of this album, or shortly afterwards in the Rock of the Westies era. While the cover is certainly interesting, I didn't think it was nearly as good musically as Yellow Brick Road was, which also has really good artwork and packaging IMHO.

[nat whilk II]

A few favorites:
Orbus Terrarum - The Orb
Blues Dream - Bill Frisell
Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty et al
Yellow House - Grizzly Bear
Substrata/Man With A Camera - Biosphere

[Hush]

First Album bought with my own money




Bought purely on the cover art

[UstadKhanAli]

Oh yeah, and not always in a good way.

[Phil O'Keefe]

How about this one? I think it's pretty iconic...




Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd

[Phil O'Keefe]

Being from Southern California I always thought that No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom cover art was really good too.

[Dendy Jarrett]

And a great album as well.

[thatsbunk]

I can't imagine a lot of these exist in vinyl though...

[Hush]

This was one of my favorites

[sailorman]

Can't seem to find a downloadable image, but the cover of 'In The Court of the Crimson King' stands out. I very clearly remember the first time I heard it at a party, being handed the cover, and going out to buy it the next day.

Funny thing; I have roughly 400 albums in a pair of cabinets, stacked tightly, with the edge of the cover showing. I can identify just about every one of them by that little bit of visible edge. I've challenged my wife several times to point to an album and have me identify it; I rarely fail. Can't do the same with a CD jewel case, though I can do some that look similar to their original vinyl album art.

Wish I could remember something useful :-/



Admin added art:

[philboking]

The inside art is very cool also. A point of synchronicity: my 'fun' band, Free Radicals, (we meet to play once a week, but almost never do gigs) has just learned 2 tracks from this record.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Here's another famous and iconic cover:






Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell

[Phil O'Keefe]

And another one that really grabbed my attention (both visually and audibly) when I was a kid - Cream's Disraeli Gears.

[Ed A.]