First off I’d like to apologise to Studio Parris Wakefield for taking my sweet time to get this post together. But at least I’ve timed this post with the day of it’s release.

If you have a Joy Division fan in your life then this release has been perfectly timed with Xmas gift time. Oh and the 20th Anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death.

The Deluxe edition (limited to 500 copies) is SOLD OUT but you can still order the standard edition which is limited to 5,000 copies.

There is some insight into the design process from SPW on their blog. Used here with permission.

We have been working on the design of the new Joy Division box set ‘+-’. Now we are able to share
with you the story behind the imagery.

In Peter Saville’s book ‘Estate 1-27′ Michael Bracewell describes Saville’s work with Factory Records and in particular Joy Division as the ‘…muniments of a crematorium in deep space.’ Thus inspiring Saville to look towards the infinite qualities of the universe to capture the essence of a collection of Joy Division singles.

Tasked with the brief of ‘deep space and nebulae’, Howard Wakefield researched through the collection of Nasa imagery at SpaceImages. While tempted with a nebula called Factory, its name was too good to be true, for it didn’t compare with the more expansive deep blue nebula of Hubble NGC 346 SMC. Peter Saville was keen to see how it could be transformed from being purely documentary, so suggested an inverted, monochrome version.

The Factory Nebula. This image was not used.

The actual NASA space image used aptly named Hubble NGC 346 SMC. Check out the official NASA press release of this image from 2005.

In addition to the compilations cover SPW were also tasked with recreating the covers of the 10 singles. But this was not as simple as it seems.

Of the 10 Joy Division singles, only 3 were ever released on 7 inch vinyl. There were 3 EPS, a flexi disc, a booklet, a 12 inch and even an LP. Compounding this, the artworks didn’t exist in a state that could be used anymore, so the only option was to scan the sleeves.

However, scanning was not possible as each sleeve would need to be cropped to allow for printer’s ‘bleed’, so Saville suggested a border. At which point Wakefield saw the potential of portraying the singles as, not only important musically, but important in the history of music design. The design was as influential as the music and they should be both represented as such. The design concept was agreed – they should be portrayed as pieces in a gallery.

The sleeves were photographed and presented as moments in music and design history, backed with caption-style text on the reverse, allowing the music and the original sleeves to be the stars…

Here are the 10 covers. I think the photography presentation of them actually makes them look better.

SPW also blogged about the origin of the + – (or Plus Minus if you are trying to Google it) which in itself reveals an interesting story about Teenbeat and their lawsuit/PR stunt against the record label.

Where did the title + – come from? What was the influence? In 1988, Factory Records released the Joy Division single ‘Atmosphere’ from the compilation ‘Substance’ – the inner sleeve showed a detail of ‘Plus en Min’ by Jan van Munster.

Naturally, in 2010, during the discussions over titling the forthcoming Joy Division compilation, we were drawn to the 1988 release as inspiration. Calling it ‘Substance’ was too close a title to the original release, however, titling it ‘+ -’ was an acknowledgement to the 1988 release as the newly remastered track list was the same.

As part of the Deluxe box set, Peter Saville was asked to create a piece for inclusion. Originally there was a notion that a new ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ metal plate be created, but the cost was too prohibitive. However a perspex interpretation of the + – was more appropriate as the glow edge referenced the + – image from 1988.

To replicate the orange glow, a choice of two colours were available – Lava Orange or Mars Red. For cost and timing issues, Mars Red was selected.

Regarding the recent Pitchfork story about Teenbeat (the label) and +- (the band) who are suing for trademark infringement and plagiarism. We find this very strange, as the band admit to being influenced by Joy Division. Yet they are comparing their artwork (2002 album +-) which clearly appears to be influenced by the 1988 Joy Division imagery. Is this a stunt? Enough said.

Sadly this is the + – cover is only available when you buy the deluxe edition.

And this is the cover from + – from Teen Beat records.

So Lava Orange is more expensive than Mars Red? Budget is something I think Jan van Munster has never had to worry about. His work is amazing while his website sucks. The + – motive is spread across a lot of his work. I really like the “Brainwave” series with the wobbly neon lights. This could have almost been a cover itself.

And lastly SPW also designed a poster for an event at Rough Trade this week. More info here.

Here is a promo video from Rhino on the compilation.

The entire package itself is an impressive piece although the standard of compilation packs/limited edition runs these days is very high. I’m reminded of the Pet Shop Boys “Yes” packaging. At least this one is only $100 and not $450!

Take a look at SPW’s other musical design work and take in just how influential they have been. It also doesn’t hurt that Peter Saville is so closely connected to them also.

While putting together the Fist album collection I noticed this cover from Alice Cooper and was surprised by such a progressive cover for an artist like himself. Even more surprised it was released in the 1980s. Where are the crazy colours, geometric shapes and big loud type?

The cover immediately reminded me of the XTC cover. Sans any inside humour. What you get here is just the lyrics from the album presented in block paragraph form on the cover. There is also the very subtle ALICE COOPER across the top of the album via a light red hue shift. I’m not sure it was meant to be an opical illusion like the Soulwax covers I think the modern scanning and bad compression has reduced it’s readability.

I believe Explosions In The Sky copied Alice Cooper in their 2003 album “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place”. The red Band Name in the lower right just sits too closely.

You can imagine all the Alice Cooper fans at the time (sorry to generalise) thinking “WTF is this!?”

The back cover features Alice Cooper in a suit shirt and tie. I wonder if this was originally proposed as the cover?

It’s a dead ringer for Christian Bale in American Psycho.

This is one of the few Alice Cooper covers that doesn’t feature the man himself. It’s also one of two albums he doesn’t even remember recording! “Zipper Catches Skin and the following album, DaDa, are two albums which Alice reportedly has no recollection of recording, due to excessive alcohol abuse. There was no tour to promote either album and none of the songs have yet been played live.” Source

Like all covers which do not feature the same of the album retailers and labels need to put stickers on them to make it easier to spot in record shops. Here’s a couple from Brazil and Europe for the collectors out there. Source

You can also read about the 2010 reissue and a more in-depth review of the album here.

If I redid the cover for 2010 I would have made it look even closer to the XTC cover like below. I feel this also looks more like an Alice Cooper cover just by going black!

Alice even shot a TV ad for the album which by 1980′s standards is passable (barely).

I don’t remember seeing that many TV ads for albums. But this might be as I’m too young to remember. Compare the “conceptual” Alice Cooper ad above to the more retail & music focussed ads from Kiss. Kiss sure knew how to sell well. The Zipper ad looks like a bad SNL skit.

And one last piece of Zipper Catches Skin media is this very quick review of the album by this couple of Alice Cooper fans. Rock brings people together.

I was lucky enough to catch this tweet by Rob Sheridan.
An interesting fact about Rob is that he was hired after Trent liked his fan site! Source

“I had the honor of reimagining the artwork of @nineinchnails’ classic “Pretty Hate Machine” for its upcoming re-issue: http://bit.ly/bzO9H7“

I was less interested in the cover itself and the story behind the “reimagining”.

The original cover was designed by GARY TALPAS who is now a theme park designer! An interesting resume indeed.

The official press release for the album is as follows;

Fans can now revisit the conception of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor’s Null Corporation has teamed with UMe/The Bicycle Music Company to release “Pretty Hate Machine: 2010 Remaster” on November 22, 2010. After completing the score for David Fincher’s The Social Network, Reznor oversaw the digital remastering of Pretty Hate Machine from the newly unearthed original tapes with engineer Tom Baker (whose NIN credits include “The Downward Spiral,” “Broken,” “The Fragile,” “With Teeth” and “Ghosts”).

This remastered version includes an eleventh track, a cover of Queen’s “Get Down Make Love,” originally the B-side to the “Sin” single and produced by Al Jourgensen. Rob Sheridan, NIN’s longtime art director, has also re-imagined the packaging of “Pretty Hate Machine” under Reznor’s supervision. As a young musician in Cleveland, Ohio, Reznor took a job at a local recording studio and employed unused studio time to develop his own material. The nascent album was later recorded with his favorite producers including Flood/Mark Ellis (U2, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey), John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil), Adrian Sherwood (Ministry, Cabaret Voltaire) and Keith LeBlanc (Tackhead). The result was the first Nine Inch Nails album, 1989′s “Pretty Hate Machine.” All songs were written, arranged, programmed and performed by Reznor. The album featured the breakthrough singles “Sin,” “Down In It” and “Head Like A Hole,” and ultimately sold over 3 million copies, reaching Triple Platinum sales status.

In the wake of the album’s initial underground success, NIN soon developed a reputation as one of the best live acts in rock and joined the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991. NIN have since sold more than 18 million albums, collected Grammy® Awards and headlined arenas, amphitheaters and festivals worldwide. The Bicycle Music Company acquired the rights to “Pretty Hate Machine” from a division of Prudential Securities in the spring of 2010.

It was Bicycle’s intention from the onset to enable Reznor to regain some control of this lost piece of NIN’s legacy, resulting in this artist approved 2010 reissue of one of music’s most groundbreaking and influential albums. Note: The previous CD version was reissued in 2005 but was not overseen by Reznor and is now out of print.

And Trent posted on the forum with another small insight into what it was like working on the album after 21 years.

I’m happy to finally announce the re-issue of the first Nine Inch Nails record “Pretty Hate Machine”, releasing worldwide 11/22. UMe and Bicycle Music Group managed to locate the original mixes, so I went in the studio with Tom Baker and remastered it for a greatly improved sonic experience. In addition, Rob reinterpreted Gary Talpas’ original cover to make for a fresh new package.

It’s been an interesting trip watching the fate of this record float from one set of hands to another (a long and depressing story) but it’s finally wound up in friendly territory, allowing us to polish it up a bit and present it to you now. We had fun revisiting this old friend, hope you enjoy.

TR

So a new track, remastered audio and new artwork. NIN fans are excited. Or as this one fan on the forums said “BEST NEWS I’VE HAD SINCE THE DOCTOR CONFIRMED MY PENIS IS MADE OF CHOCOLATE” Um yes…..

I asked Rob about the cover job and if there was pressure to bring something new to the cover, why no more pink, if it was a small job or a big epic project. He was kind enough to give me one of the most detailed responses we have ever received. Thanks Rob.

Update: As some commentators have pointed out Rob’s writing is much more detailed, throughout and insightful than the text surrounding his words. I apologise for soiling your eyes with my dirty words :)

Rob S: When we began the Pretty Hate Machine remaster project, Trent discussed with me the idea of tweaking the original artwork a bit to reflect that this was a different version of the album, updated from its original release. We talked about maybe just changing the color scheme a bit – Trent was keen on losing the distinctly 80′s hot pink color, for one. It seemed like a fairly straightforward project, as I certainly didn’t want to try and radically alter an album cover I’d been looking at since I was a teenager, and that some fans had known very well for more than two decades.

The first bump in the road was that no one had the original artwork. We left no stone unturned – we even reached out to the original designer, Gary Talpas, but he had given all his materials to Nothing Records long ago. Our best guess is that those materials were lost somewhere in Trent’s split with his old management. I tried scanning the old vinyl cover, but it was poorly printed and looked like an absolute mess when scanned. Even after cleaning it up a bit, attempting to separate the colors was fairly disastrous, and the resolution was terrible.

In 2004 I redesigned NIN’s “The Downward Spiral” for its 10th anniversary Deluxe Edition. In that case, Trent still had all of Russell Mills’ original art pieces that were used in the album, so I was able to re-photograph them and present the artwork in a new and interesting way. With this album, I didn’t have that luxury. It became clear to me that I was going to have to start from scratch.

I tried a number of different approaches – I even got some various mechanical parts from hardware stores and arranged them in a way that resembled the shape of the cover image (I’d remembered reading long ago that the original image was taken of some sort of factory machine, with spokes that looked like ribs), and photographed it in different ways, then attempted to push the contrast of the photos and pull shapes out of them. Nothing was working out very well though. It either looked too far away from the original cover, or like a weird, sad imitation of it.

Finally, I decided to painstakingly recreate the original cover as closely as possible. Using my scan of the original as a template, I digitally painted the image in extremely high resolution, the same way I’d approach an illustration. I used a meticulous set of masks to recreate the “interlaced” horizontal line effect of the original cover. After a lot of trial-and-error, I eventually finished with a new version of the original artwork, created in a very different way, but retaining the same spirit.

At this point I was free to play with the color scheme. I tried a wide variety of colors, ranging from darker, more muted versions of the original color scheme, to ones that looked nothing like the original. The favorite – both of Trent and myself – was the dark blue/blue/off-white combo used in the final image. It was a bit similar to a PHM t-shirt that’s been around for a while, so there was a sense of familiarity in the colors.

I then carefully recreated the title font from the original cover, and the black frames it sat in. The font, a stretched-out version of Helvetica, looked dated to me, but I wanted to be respectful of the original design and not mess with it too much. When Trent saw what I’d done though, he wanted to try a new approach to the title text, as he felt the font was just too dated and could use a more modern look for this remaster. So I went back to the original album and looked at the font that had been used for the credits and lyrics, which turned out to be a slight variation of a font Gary Talpas later used in The Downward Spiral. Putting the PHM title in that font was way too similar to The Downward Spiral, but when I put it in caps it created an odd mix of vintage NIN and modern NIN – perfect for a 2010 remaster of a 1989 album. Trent liked this approach much better, and we settled on the way we wanted the title set on the album cover. The image sitting behind it – my recreated artwork – still felt a bit flat, though.

To push the art a bit further, I got the idea of printing the image out at a very high DPI and photographing it with a narrow depth of field, allowing parts of it to fall out of focus. This gave a new depth to the previously flat artwork, and it turned out to be exactly what the image was missing. After quite a few experiments, I ended up with the image that is now the cover, and immediately felt I’d finally gotten this thing to where I’d wanted it to be. I sent it to Trent without any of the type or anything on it, and while he’d been somewhat lukewarm on the previous material, he was immediately excited about this one. “That looks fucking great,” he told me, “we’ve got it.” I put the black frame and our new type treatment over the new cover image, and everything clicked. The new cover, with the unmistakable shape of the “ribs” and the interlacing effect, remained respectful to the original and still recognizable, while adding a more modern feel and a “fresh coat of paint” on the colors. This is not meant to replace the original cover. This is the cover for this 2010 remastered edition of the album.

The original CD cover was oriented sideways, which had never felt right to me, as the vinyl cover had a distinct vertical orientation of the full image (something I preserved in the new vinyl edition). I’d always wondered if it was a byproduct of the way the insert needed to sit in the jewel case. Either way, I wanted to bring the vertical orientation over to the CD this time around, but I also wanted to preserve the way the whole image folded out from the cover in the original CD insert. We certainly didn’t want to put this in a jewel case, so to accomplish the vertical fold-out, I came up with a unique L-shaped digipak package, where a panel folds down from the cover to reveal a vertical extension of the artwork. I also decided to put the black frame and the title text on a transparent O-card that slides over the digipak (very similar to what we did on The Downward Spiral Deluxe Edition) – so when you slide the O-card off, the image underneath is bare. It turns the black “frame” around the image into an actual frame, adding a new layer of depth to the art.

For the remainder of the package, I was cautious not to add much extra artwork and overdo it. The original sleeve was extremely minimal, only using type on black amidst a few variations of the cover image here and there for the internal art, so I wanted to preserve that. Some might say it’s boring to have plain black pages with text on them for the lyrics, but I’d rather stay true to what had been done previously than add a bunch of art and risk having it feel like an altogether different album. The only other piece of art in the original insert was a photograph of Trent. Revisiting that, Trent wasn’t incredibly excited about including it in this version, and we didn’t have the original photograph anyway, so we left it out.

Throughout this process, I was very concerned with being respectful to the original artwork. This is not my album, and as a fan for many years, I have the same attachment to the original art that many other fans do. So my tendency was to play it safe, but it was Trent who felt a bit less precious about the original art, and he pushed me to do something that was visually further away from what I had originally intended. I think in the end we found a great middle ground, and we’re both really pleased with how it turned out. Recreating the art – somewhat by necessity – was a huge honor, and so far it seems fans are generally pretty pleased with what we’ve done…even if there’s no pink in it.

Sleevage: Is there any rejected artwork or experiments?
Rob S: The only rejected ideas were my own ideas that I rejected before I showed them to anybody – mostly in the department of trying to recreate the artwork photographically. That was the only time I was tempted to do something dramatically different from the original art – for the most part my instinct was to not drift very far from the original, as it just didn’t feel right to me. Redesigning an album you listened to over and over again as a teenager is a pretty strange task, so I was understandably cautious.

Sleevage: Can we see the failed experiments?
Rob S: Ha, I think I’ll keep those failed experiments in the vault for now – they failed for good reason!

Sleevage: Has Gary seen the new artwork?
Rob S: I don’t know what Gary thinks of the new design, but he was very friendly when we reached out with him and said he really liked all the stuff we’ve been doing with NIN’s design in recent years. I hope he appreciates what we did with the new cover.

Sleevage: Was this planned to be a simple job. Just pump it out quickly or a labour of love?
Rob S: I thought it was going to be a simple job, but the fact that we didn’t have the source art made it actually quite a project. Between my various failed experiments at recreating the art photographically, the meticulous way I ended up doing it by hand, and the amount of finessing it took to find the right presentation, it was actually quite a bit of work, and we had a pretty abrupt deadline for it. All things considered I’m pleased with the way it turned out.

My favourite part of the cover is not knowing what it was on the cover! (This was before the internet can solve that with one search) I had always imagined it was an old microphone like below.

The vinyl cover is below which doesn’t feature the NIN name this time.

Interesting to note that the album is #1 on Amazon for Industrial.

What other classic albums could use a remaster for both audio and design?

Beck’s Deluxe edition of Odelay took the original and went to town on it. Are there any other good examples of remastered/deluxe covers?

The image of a fist is a universal sign of aggression, power and defiance yet there was a significant lack of albums featuring fists. I thought we’d be trawling through hundreds but it seems we have just the few seen below.

It’s no mistake that most of the bands are metal and only one has any sense of humour. For a band or album with fist in the name it must be hard for the designer to resist such a powerful image.

A big shout out to GuitarNoize for helping chase down the albums via Twitter.

So I present to you all the fist albums we could find. Which is the perfect compliment to our album covers with butts cover compilation.

I’ll start with one of the worst covers and the one that comes up the most on Google Image search for fist album. (Side Note: Make sure to turn ON safe searching whenever searching for “fist” on Google images. Argh I can’t unsee some of that stuff!)

MSTRKRFT: Fist of God
Designer: Unknown (Lucky bastard as this is an uninspired turd!)

A better cover would have been this promo image of them with masks on.

The masks hide the fact they look like douchebags without them (learn from Daft Punk guys). Well the guy on the right looks like Chick Liddell.

Moderat: Moderat
This was the only album to have some sense of humour (and a female) with the fist imagery. Moderat’s self titled album is one I’m going to track down next week for a proper listen.

It reminded me of a SFW version of Coop’s art. But upon research (source) it looks to be inspired by a R. Crumb piece from 1990 from his Bring Me Your Love illustrations booklet. Buy it here on Amazon or check this Flickr set. Which makes sense as R. Crumb had a sick sense of humour.

The first single off the album Rusty Nail also features a fist and this time on solid red. This is quiet nice also.

The actual song is oddly familiar and a great track.

Interesting when you take the women out of the picture and my mind turns to this war poster, rather than an image of a women hitting herself in the face.

Alice Cooper: Raise your Fist and Yell
Jim Warren the artist on this piece seems to have moved on from the horror work for more dolphins & horses meet Dali inspired work.

Rage Against The Machine: Battle of Los Angeles

According to Wikipedia “The album cover art was an original artwork by the LA Street Phantom aka Joey Krebs aka Joel Jaramillo, a well-known Los Angeles artist who has exhibited at numerous galleries in Los Angeles, New York City and throughout the United States. Despite claims to the contrary, the image was not inspired by images from the 1992 street riots of LA or from images of Munich, but by the band’s own music and words, and represents one in a series of images of the artist’s work, which can also be seen on various street murals in Los Angeles”

You can see his work on this classic film clip also

After reading The Street Phantom’s artistic statement you have to feel for the guy who didn’t market himself as well as Banksy. I mean he didn’t even get mentioned in Exit Through the Gift Store and doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page on himself. That doesn’t stop him from throwing down a challenge to Shepard Fairey though. Boom! Street Cred = True. Mo Money = False :(

Wait did I say Street Cred? I’d like to retract that statement after seeing the photo below :) Sorry Joey

Metallica: St Anger

Now this is what you call a fist! Pushead did the art who is normally recognised by his skull work. he doesn’t seem to have an official site but you can say hi on his Facebook page. I still love the scene in Some Kind of Monster when Lars is trying to push the name of the album as Frantic and the other guys had to convince him of St. Anger.

The back cover is more of the usual Pushead style.

The cover was originally planned to have 3 alternative color variations but due to cost this was scrapped. Their website has the post from 2003! Congrats for keeping the site live for 7+ years! The other color variations look weak to me but some collectors out there have the limited edition lithograph prints of them. And some even crazier collector has all the foreign variations of the covers! Insane

Mr Flash: Disco Dynamite

This is one of my fav Fist albums with the artwork by the eclectic So Me French design group who look after all of Ed Banger’s artwork. Mr Flash was the first artist signed to Ed Banger Records which is something I’ll be sure to drop into conversation just to sound like I know WTF is going on in the world of music.

here’s Mr Flash posing for the cover

And I know I’ve said it before but the French are seriously punching above their weight (no pun intended) when it comes to new music. They are seriously pushing it.

Warning: If you only watch one Mr Flash film clip then please do yourself a NSFW favour and check this one out below! And if you think that is in poor taste do not watch this one by the same director Cédric BLAISBOIS.

Motorhead: Iron Fist

The first photo cover so far with what looks to be an actual fist prop. The photographer of the cover Allan Ballard photographed a lot of Motorhead’s stuff but this is the ony URL I can find of an Alan Ballard. I hope it’s not the same person. I found this alternative cover which shows where the prop was used. Very Spinal Tap! I wonder if that fist is in a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere?

Anthrax: Fistful of Metal

“Fuck yeah! that is exactly what I had in my head” is what was spoken when Anthrax saw the artwork for their debut album. Kent Joshpe not only did the artwork but the bands logo too which is still in use. What is Josh doing now? He’s the CD of an advertising agency! I doubt he has done any other logos recently that will last over 20 years and be tattooed on thousands of people.

Pantera: Vulgar Display Of Power

We covered this album long ago. Still one of my favs for both the music and the statement is makes as a cover. Has anyone got this issue of Revolver where they explain the story behind the photo?

it also gives me another opportunity to post this video…

Rainbow: Rising

Wait it’s a hard metal band called Rainbow? C’mon. Artwork by Ken Kelly who did the epic Love Gun for Kiss.

Chemical Bros: Push the Button

We covered this album and all it’s singles in great detail previously.

KATASTROFIST: Katastrofist

This cover actually came about after the band/designers posted options up on their site and asked for freed back. The end result is better than the options but still very cheesy. I would have preferred just the photo they used as reference below. Now that is a fist!

Here’s a few others I didn’t find anything worth posting about but wanted to include them in the “Fist Album” collection.

Super 400: Sweet Fist:

Snowgoons: A Fist in the Thought

Lime Spiders: Beethovens Fist

Update:
A big thanks to Ira and Holger for suggesting a bunch more that we missed.Including ones already covered on this site. Doh!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!

Already featured here.

Fist: Back with a Vengeance

This just needs a Kapow! sound FX bubble. Cover art by Sid King.

Black Flag: Damaged

Ed Colver pre-smashed the mirror with a hammer before putting fake blood. You bunch of pussies!

Rancid: Let’s Go

Riverboat Gamblers: To the Confusion of our Enemies

Fist: Thunder in Rock

Does anyone have a 500px or wider version of this cover? Also why didn’t they just change their name. Redoing each cover to say MYO FIST for Europe is just dumb.

Fist: Hot Spikes

Now we’re talking. Like the cover of a Fighting Fantasy cover for the new book “Metal Fists of Fury” with artwork by Istvan Resz. I love that it has finger nails!

Take It Back!: Rumors Of Revolt

Rise Against: This Is Noise

Anti-Nowhere League: Streets of London

This is a single but we’ll include it. Also it’s just the bands logo on a wall but it’s a pretty bad ass logo. Again while corporate brands refresh their brands all the time bands seem to stick with the same one forever.

Have we missed an important fist album? Comment below and we’ll add it to the list.

I find it so hard to believe that these covers are 50+ years old. Some of them look downright modern. The following six covers were chosen by David Day who own Jive Time Records in Seattle, WA. He also runs an amazing blog called Project Thirty-Three which is worth a bookmark. If you ever get onto Who Wants to be A Millionaire and a music related question comes up make sure you have David Days number handy!

My fav is this complex mess of shapes for Symphony No. 4 (Columbia Masterworks from 1965) seen above. It reminds me of all the Flash Actionscript experiments I did in 1999.

You’d expect all the covers to look like this…

Bland, uninspired and fitting right in with the hundreds of others out there. An archive page like this shows you just how rare a design like this is. These covers would have stood out by a mile. I wonder if this was a good thing?

Here is the opening paragraph from David’s site;

The seemingly infinite number of vintage record jackets that convey their message with simple shapes like circles and dots never cease to amaze and amuse me. Project Thirty-Three is my personal collection and shrine to these expressive shapes along with their slightly less jovial but equally effective cousins; squares, rectangles and triangles, and the designers that make them come to life on album covers. Other categories include arrows, abstract shapes and typography-only.

David’s picks:

Two Pianos & Twenty Voices (Command, 1960)

Designed by Charles C. Murphy the artistic director of Command Records.

Provocative Percussion, Volume 3 (Command, 1961)

Designed by Charles C. Murphy

Sizzling Strings (Directional Sound)

Designed by Sam Suliman. Read some posts on him here.

Dynamic Twin Pianos (Ultra Audio)

Designed by Emmet McBain which if I am connecting the dots correctly via this post went on to have a very successful career in advertising even founding his own agency. He was a Mad Man! That’s a guess buy going from a designer to a ad guy isn’t that far of a stretch.

Persuasive Percussion Vol. 2 (Command, 1959)

Designer: Barbara Jean Brown. Who I’m guessing is the fabric designer Barbara Brown? See a post on her work here. Or a Google image search reveals more.

You have to wonder if the limited budgets of that time dictated the designs or if it was “just the style baby”?

I researched these covers a little but found very little information on the designers, which makes sense as they would not have had blogs or social pages back in the 60s. If anyone has any more info on the designers or this genre of cover please comment below.

There is very little written about these covers online. And I’m confused why they haven’t been subject of a book or study in the design field.

Further Reading
Check out his other sites all of which lead me to believe David is a robot! Where does he find the time?!

SteroStack:
Vintage LP stereo banners stacked! So awesome! I want this was wrapping paper!
Groove is in the Art:
Illustrated covers. Yes I will be stealing from here regularly.
Symphonie Fantastique:
Another amazing gallery of covers for classical music.

Check out Aqua Velvet who has some more fantastic examples of mid century album covers that still stand up today. Check out these other posts to get your 1950′s sleeve fix.

We’re a little late with posting this one but Ty Lettau) has created a series of minimalist album covers. Why? No reason it’s just what designers do. The set has been pretty successful for Ty on Flickr. You might think Ty is an unemployed designer with nothing better to do? But he’s actually the designer manager at Adobe! So obviously he’s a designer that never sleeps!

What I think appeals about these series is the fact they become a puzzle. Without looking at the title you try and guess the cover. With album covers being some of the most iconic design of our time it’s not wonder designers are fascinated by them. No other piece of design lasts this long or is as instantly recognisable as an album cover. Movie posters come close but only few films can say they have iconic posters.

Below are all the covers Ty produced. I didn’t upload the Coldplay ones as they were basically the same as the originals.

View the post on the original The Black Crowes Amorica cover here.

View the post on the original Metallica The Black Album cover here.

View the post on the original Nirvana Nevermind cover here.

This set is very different from the previous set (the Modernist series) we posted back in 2009. There you can see the video game covers, movie poster and much more. Olly Moss has a lot to answer for as there is no shortage of these “minimal” or “retro” design series and they show no signs of slowing down.

Note: I’ll also post up the sushi and lego cover remakes after I collect all the images out there. Does anyone know any other “album cover remakes” I should cover?

Israeli-born illustrator Emek is one of the talents keeping poster art alive. Described by Henry Rollins as the “thinking man’s poster artist”, Emek continues many of the traditions of 1960′s psychedelia. His work is always hand drawn and heavily layered, mashing the political and personal; the organic and technical.

Yet despite his prolific collaborations with some of music’s biggest names, there’s one artist he was born to work with. “Working with Erykah,” he says “always brings out the best in me… I’ve worked with hundreds of bands, and I have to say that she is pretty unique. What kind of musician would fly an artist halfway across the country just to discuss the ideas of the album cover in person? And then cook them a wonderful vegan meal and play charades with her kids? Erykah, thats who.”

Emek first worked with Badu on 2008′s critically acclaimed New Amerykah Part One (4^th World War). Note: read the Sleevage post for that album here. On that cover, Emek focused on the “politics and social conditions in the world today, things that were weighing on her mind.” It was a dark but dynamic image, with Badu sporting knuckle dusters, her trademark afro entangled with the corrupted baubles of contemporary urban life.

When Emek listened to New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), he discovered a new groove-based sound that was “more personal”. The resulting cover art retains the political symbolism – keen eyes will notice new references to foreclosed homes and the Tea Party  movement – but this time they’ve receded to the background. We get the feeling that a confident and all-conquering Badu has transcended them.

“You built a wall 20 feet tall / But if I get off my knees / I might recall I’m 20 feet tall”, she sings. Emek states that this lyric “was an inspiration to draw her to be a large face. She is 20 feet tall”. Her armour represents the way she is protected from the “harsh realities of life”, while the “color purple of the tree and the sky represent the 7th chakra”.

In many ways, both Badu and Emek are throwbacks. Badu made her name as a pioneer of neo-soul, and her early output triggered countless Billie Holiday comparisons. While never allowing her sound to stagnate, she’s consistently skated the fine line between batshit-crazy and inspired. Witness the video clip for her 2010 single Window Seat, which sees her stripping naked at the site where President Kennedy was assassinated, before pretending to be shot.

An artist as brave as Badu no doubt needs the armour Emek has painted her. Just as he needs musicians of her calibre to inspire his work. “Both Erykah and I were raised without a TV in our house, we grew up on record cover art”, he says. Let’s hope there are kids out there today being inspired by Badu and Emek.

Pip Brown, the New Zealand-born multi-instrumentalist better known as Ladyhawke, has overcome a fair bit of misfortune in her young life. At the age of ten she was diagnosed with a disease called erysipeloid, which is common in seagulls but hadn’t been seen in humans in 20 years. If that’s not bad enough, she’s allergic to all forms of antibiotics and penicillin, which complicated her treatment so much that she ended up in a coma.

After coming close to death, she recovered only to discover in the coming years that she had Asberger’s syndrome, a form of autism that makes social interaction difficult. So how did a sickly, socially awkward New Zealand teen go onto become on of the most exciting musical artists we have today? Well a formidable talent, drive and sense of adventure have come in handy.

Brown was only a teenager in New Zealand when she formed the band Two Lane Blacktop with some friends. They went on to play at legendary New York club CBCG. Then on an impulse, Brown moved to Melbourne where she formed the band Teenager with Nick Littlemore (Empire of the Sun).

But it was her decision to leave Teenager and focus on her solo project, Ladyhawke, that shot her to prominence. Ladyhawke is named after the 1985 cult film, in which a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer played the cursed title character.

Bird references seem fitting, given that Brown was nearly killed by a seagull’s disease and that her whole life since represents a phoenix-like resurrection. She says the name represents the way she sees herself – as “a pop superwoman creating radio-friendly songs with a single bound”. Either which way, it’s a killer name.

Rightly or wrongly, Ladyhawke’s 1980’s influenced dance music has seen her grouped with other contemporary singers such as La Roux, Little Gaga, Sia and Little Boots. All have distinctive looks, visual style and more than a taste of androgyny.

Which brings us to Ladyhawke’s cover art. The illustrated watercolour and ink drawings that feature on her records and in her music videos have helped define her brand.  They’re by 31-year old Melbourne artist Sarah Larnach, who is not only Brown’s collaborator but also her best friend.

Larnach first saw Brown at a Melbourne party in 2004, where she immediately noticed her “mopey posture, unlike anything I’d seen on a girl.” Speaking to The Independent in an article about their friendship, Larnach recalled: “She seemed really cool and I immediately wanted her to be my friend, but I didn’t want to freak her out, so I didn’t even talk to her.”

They lived close together and soon became friends. “I had a large of group of friends, but never a best friend, so it was great meeting Sarah,” says Brown. “Straight off the bat I found her hilarious. Sense of humour is key for me – if I find someone completely unwitty, I can’t even bluff getting along with them. She is sharp and intelligent and I enjoy every second of conversations with her.”

Larnach was a slack student at art school and lacked confidence in her work. Brown observes: “She is the biggest procrastinator in the world, but I always thought she was an incredible artist – she has a brilliant imagination. When she first plucked up the courage to show me some of her art I was so impressed. I ended up posing for her for heaps of paintings, so I became a bit like a muse, though I wouldn’t quite call myself that.”

It’s a fair description however, as the collaboration between the two has created a career for Larnach. “As soon as I met Pip I knew she was going to be really significant, not just in my life, but in general, and I knew I’d do anything to help her. Maybe I’ve helped her a bit, but she has helped me a great deal.”

If popular culture has taught us anything, it’s that we should never trust suburban bliss. Whether it’s in classic films like American Beauty and Blue Velvet or small screen hits like Desperate Housewives, manicured lawns and picket fences are invariably a front for dysfunctions, neurosis and murder.

And so it is with the Grammy Award-winning artwork for Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the 2008 collaboration between Brian Eno and David Byrne. While it initially resembles a screen shot from The Sims, upon closer inspection the picture gets much darker.

The packaging was designed by Stefan Sagmeister design house Sagmeister Inc,. “I loved the music right away” recalls Sagmeister “it was new; it was different from anything they had done before.” After a few listens, the designers noted the contrast between the “exuberant” music and the “dark edge” of the lyrics.

The inspiration for the cover was Home, one of the record’s key tracks, where Byrne sings:

Home – such a funny feeling
Home – no one ever speaking
Home – with our bodies touching
Home – and the cameras watching

While the track sounds sunny and uplifting, it’s clear that “not everything is all hunky dory”, as Sagmeister puts it. So after creating the pixilated perfection on the record’s cover, the designers then fill the booklet with “clues that allow the viewer to put his or her own story together”.

We make out a shady figure clutching binoculars in one of the windows. Band-aids sit on the back porch, while a condom wrapper can be spotted in the roof’s gutter. And that’s before we discover the ominously armoured door, which presumably leads down to a cellar.

But why the pixilated aesthetic? The answer may lie in the music. Brian Eno describes the collaboration as combining “something very human and fallible and personal, with something very electronic and mathematical sometimes.” He says that he and Byrne tried to “make that picture of the human still trying to survive in an increasingly complicated digital world.”

The incredible deluxe packaging comes in a tin (described by Sagmeister as a “jewel box”) that models the suburban environment in 3D.  Upon opening, a microchip plays the sound of footsteps walking down a corridor and slamming a creaky door. The experience is so rich that by the time you reach the great record by Eno and Byrne, it simply feels like a welcome bonus.

We may not be able to trust suburban bliss, but with designers like Sagmeister around, perhaps we can still rely on the simple pleasures of kick-ass cover art – even in our increasingly digital world.

This article originally appeared in Monster Children Magazine

Things have been pretty quiet around here, we know. But we’re back baby and if you’ve missed your fix of fresh sleeves, the good news is we’re on the job.

“Females”, says British artist Jenny Saville, “are used to being looked at.” As one of the most successful painters of the last two decades, Saville has kept her gaze firmly on the female form.

She made her name with large-scale paintings of almost grotesquely fleshy women. The obsession started during her studies at the University of Cincinnati, where she encountered: “Lots of big women. Big white flesh in shorts and T-shirts.”

The Manic Street Preachers are long-time fans of Saville’s work, having used her painting Strategy on the cover of their third album, 1994’s The Holy Bible.

At that time Richey Edwards was still the band’s lyricist, while Saville was one of the bright stars of the “Young British Artist” movement. Edwards disappeared mysteriously in 1995 and was only declared “presumed deceased” in November 2008.

Journal for Plague Lovers, Manic Street Preachers’ ninth album, is comprised entirely of lyrics that he left behind. Explaining the tribute on their official website, the band said that all “13 songs on the new record feature lyrics left to us by Richey. The brilliance and intelligence of the lyrics dictated that we had to finally use them.”

The band also felt compelled to use Saville’s 2005 painting Stare for the cover. Frontman Jame Dean Bradfield told BBC “We just thought it was a beautiful painting. We were all in total agreement. We just saw a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes.”

Inspired by a newspaper cutting, the painting depicts an androgynous girl with a large birthmark on her face. But when presented with the image on a CD cover, Britain’s main supermarket chains saw something else entirely. Thinking that the image depicted a young buy with a bloodied face, they deemed the cover “inappropriate” and refused to carry the album unless it was shipped in a plain slipcover.

Nicola Williamson, Sainsbury’s music buyer, said: “We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf.”

Having unwittingly contributed a new entry into the pantheon of banned album covers, Bradfield described the situation as “utterly bizarre”. “You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out,” he said.

“A large female body has a power, it occupies a physical space, yet there’s an anxiety about it.” Saville once said of her art, “It has to be hidden.” Many are distressed that the same seems to be the case for a disfigured tomboy.

Journal for Plague Lovers may have been the most controversial cover of 2009, having accidentally sparked a dialogue about art, the body and censorship. You’d like to think that Richey Edwards, known for his highly political songwriting, is smiling somewhere.

This article was first featured in Monster Children Magazine

Agnes Montgomery is a Philadelphia-based artist that works in collage. Her work has been been getting heaps of attention since she was tapped by Animal Collective member Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) to create the cover art for his highly-acclaimed solo release Person Pitch (2007).

“Noah is a good friend of mine”, Montgomery told us, “I showed him my collages back in 2003 and he liked them a lot.”

It’s easy to see what appealed to him. Montgomery creates her collages on a miniscule scale, using small scissors, found paper and a magnifying lamp. She then enlarges them and prints them on large canvases. The result is a striking and warm juxtaposition of images that is at once nostalgic and contemporary. Children make regular appearances, reinforcing the feeling of whimsy and innocent wonder.

Lennox recognised its potential as cover art: “Noah asked me if I’d like to make some collages for his next solo record and we talked and thought about it for a long time before it really started to happen.” While there may have been a lengthy germinating process, Lennox prefers to work very quickly. In contrast to Montgomery’s process, he likes to “spit it out real fast”.

“I get impatient writing songs, I can’t spend more than a couple of hours before I get frustrated” he is quoted as saying. “My favorite songs are the ones where I worked really really fast on, when it comes all out in like two hours or something.”

You would expect the end result to be shallow or sloppy, however the output belies Lennox’s professed impatience. His songs, as chief-supporter Pitchfork describe them, “consist of intricately constructed, heavily layered and highly repetitive loops on top of which Lennox sings oddly familiar and touching melodies.”

The music “sounds like what it is: one guy alone in his bedroom trolling though music history, picking and choosing bits to make something deeply personal and all his own”.

The parallels with Montgomery’s process was not lost on Lennox. “He liked the idea of collage cut paper for the album art since he was also working in a style of collage musically, cutting up samples” she says.

“The songs of Person Pitch inspired the collages. I listened to the songs over and over again during the course of a year to fully immerse myself into them and to try my best to make a visual match.”

“We corresponded mostly by email since he was living abroad in Portugal at the time. Noah didn’t give too much input as to what he was hoping for. He gave me a lot of freedom and space to just see what could happen. He already had a pretty good sense of my style and he thought it could work well with the songs.”

“Noah sent me one song at a time and I made a collage to match its song so they could be released as singles first.”

For the Person Pitch cover, Montgomery worked with both Lennox and designer Rob Carmicheal. “Visually the packaging being symmetrical was important to Noah. He had the idea of the layout and how he wanted the thank you’s and inspiration to be centered with 2 collages on either side of the flip fold out insert.”

“The album is kind of symmetrical in terms of how long the songs are, and I wanted the album art to reflect that” says Lennox. “I knew I wanted to do a lot of personal thank yous and I knew I wanted to have the artwork from all the singles on there in a symmetrical fashion. So I needed another text panel, and I also thought that since I was sampling so many different people I thought it was appropriate to give thanks to other musicians.”

This eclectic and much-discussed list of musicians included Cat Stevens, Daft Punk, Black Dice, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, Vashti Bunyan, Ariel Pink, Aphex Twins, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, Talk Talk, Kylie Minogue, Ennio Morricone, Metallica, Wu-Tang Clan, Nina Simone, The Strokes, Dr Dre, Notorious B.I.G., Nirvana, Echo & the Bunnymen, Enya, George Michael, Gratefull Dead, Maria Callas, Phil Collins and New Order. Whew!

On the cover of Person Pitch, a children’s pool party has been crashed by the inhabitants of a petting zoo. The result is squishy, psychedelic and oddly comforting, much like the music within. You could argue that these disparate party goers are an analogy for the album’s varied influences. Whatever the meaning, it’s a memorable image that acts as the perfect visual foil for Panda Bear’s beautiful music.

Is it just me or is all the innovative cover art being done for the least likely bands. Does being popular dictate that you must be safe? Beck would be the only mainstream artists who are doing anything innovative. Moldover, Menomena, ALB, Bright Eyes, Beck and Pine Bender all have innovative covers and yet they would be the bands you’d think would have little budget to do anything but a standard 4 colour jewel case.

Zinplaat’s 4th album Mooi Besoedeling is another innovative album cover. The cover and back are printed with scratch off ink. Like an instant scratchy. The cover appears to be a very simple design and yet hides a very different cover under the ink.

The designers at Fanakalo gave me this brief overview of the covers design.

Zinkplaat is an Afrikaans pop-rock-blues-fusion band from South Africa. The name Zinkplaat is the Afrikaans word for corrugated metal. This, their fourth album comes shrink-wrapped with a scratch-off ink layer on the front and back, as well as a guitar pick to scratch the ink off with. The album’s name ‘Mooi Besoedeling’ translates to ‘Beautiful Pollution’. Their brief was to create a universal artwork that didn’t form one central image, plastered on the front, which serves as a metaphor for the album title.

We responded by creating a colourful collage that represents the band’s various diverse influences coming together to create something new. The silver scratch-off ink resembles corrugated metal and we also designed the actual disc to have the unpressed silver form part of the design. We believe this is a very good functional solution to the fact that a simplistic clean cd cover design stands out most from all the clutter on a store shelf, yet is very boring once bought. We leave the concept open to interpretation, as it can be read as the silver layer being pollution or the fact that by scratching off the ink you ‘damage’ your packaging. However one wants to read the album as a concept, at least it’s very interactive seeing as people seem to love the scratch-off ink…

I have a copy of the album with me (I requested it ASAP after seeing the video below) but now I’m too precious to scratch it off. Luckily there’s already a good set of photos. I prefer the half scratched off look personally. The random montage of images works best when revealed through frantic scratching. I bet anyone seeing this half scratched cover on my desk at work could not resist having a scratch.

I’d love to get a poster made of this scratch off ink.

The back cover also got the same ink treatment.

I asked Rohan at Fanakalo if the printing was expensive, which for a small band not doing hundreds of thousand copies might be a major issue. Also was it was tough to convince the band to go forward with it?

The band signed off on it immediately because they briefed us wanting something ‘never done before’. We printed through an agent (hybrid media solutions) who outsourced the printing to Asia, so the cost wasn’t ridiculously expensive.

I guess it’s the band are willing to spend the extra money on the final product. When not looking solely at profit, you have the vision to think about the package as a whole (experience and the music) rather than just the $$$.

I also asked what the response has been in South Africa and record shops.

South Africa’s music industry is very small and monopolised (there’s only 2 big stores/franchises) – and the other thing is that Zinkplaat is an Afrikaans band, which makes it even harder for them to get shelf space because they compete directly with international albums. But after printing and selling the first batch the record store ordered an extra batch about 3 weeks after the album was launched, which is quite a feat in SA. Normally the record store doesn’t request music from local artists.

I asked about the language, as this is the first Afrikaans band I have been exposed to. Why not sign in English or is it like Rammstein?

In a country where we know Afrikaans and English we love having music that is only Afrikaans and only we can understand. Afrikaans is also a very beautiful language which is often much more descriptive and poetic than English.

Some bands from south africa worth checking out:
dear reader
aking
new holland
thieve
die heuwels fantasties

All credit to the band for putting the album together but you have to give credit to the designers for creating something which gives the band a point of difference.

I also like the inside band photo by Mark Reitz. I can’t help but think of The Hangover when I see this.

We were also sent some work in progress artwork for what the cover could have been. Rohan said;

the two montages was the direction we went first and realised it was too ‘picture’ – so we went more abstract and got to the final design. the montages sort of ended up being mood boards

And the designers also made a wine label (for the launch party and merch) and T-Shirt design from the cover.

Seeing the wine label gave me an idea, only to find that it had already been done with Wines That Rock. To make it worse the company only launched in October this year. Damn! I should ask for a freebie for pimping it here :)

You can check out more on Zinkplaat on their Facebook page or Myspace page.

It’s the interactivity of the cover that I like. Like all the covers I mentioned at the top of the post, they all give you something to do with the packaging once you hold it in your hands. It’s not just an elaborate packaging job whose sole purpose is to not fit in your CD holder (do people still have CD holders?) This is something you can’t experience just by looking at it. Even the best piece of typography can be experienced by looking at a jpeg however these need to be held, opened and played with.

Bob Hund (“Bob Dog” in Swedish) are a Scandinavian indie band that were formed in 1991. Along the way, they’ve gathered a loyal following, picked up some Swedish Grammys and spawned an English-language side project called Bergman Rock. They’ve also commissioned some pretty cool cover art, which is notable for the fact that it comes from the one designer. Martin Kann has worked with the band for over 15 years and his output has been extremely varied.

It’s a fruitful relationship, so we thought we’d get in touch with the talented Swede to find out a little more.

Bob Hund: CD cover (1993)

Bob Hund: CD cover (1994)

How did you start working with the band?

Thomas Öberg (the singer), Jonas Jonasson (the keyboard player) and I know each other since way back. When the band was formed, Öberg called me and asked if I could design their logo – which lead to doing their covers, back drops, merchandise and all that.

Your relationship has been very long-term. Why do you think that is?

Apart from being longtime friends, I spend a lot of time time with the band on a social level. It gives me so many insights, which are a unique source for the design. Throughout the years the band and I have grown together so closely that neither of us can get rid of each other.

Instant Life (1994)

Bob Hund: CD cover (1994)

Bob Hund: LP cover (1996)

The covers you create for them are very varied. How do you approach each one? What kind of brief do they give you?

I usually get into the process when the band is in the studio and a working title is set. My approach is always idea driven, which means that the idea dictates the design. That way my design is often content based. I never decorate and I never consider if something is beautiful or ugly. Those are subjective words irrelevant to the idea.

Regarding a brief there never is one.

Bergman Rock: I’m a crab (1998)

Bob Hund: My Soul Is For Sale! Everything Must Go! (1998)

Bob Hund: Bob Hund Never Sleeps (1999)

How involved are the band in in the process?

Bob Hund and Bergman Rock are a very unique client when it comes to involvement. They more or less give me total freedom to decide what I want. One time they didn’t want to see the cover until it was printed.

Bob Hund: Let the stone age begin (2001)

Bob Hund: 10 Years Backwards and 100 Years Forward (2002)

Bob Hund: CD cover (2002)

Bob Hund: LP cover (2002)

Bob Hund: The New That Was Supposed To Be So Good (2002)

Bergman Rock: Jim (2004)

What is your favourite cover you’ve done for them?

Hard to say.

I put a lot of emotions into all my covers when I’m in the process, so they are all special to me. But if I’m forced to pick one it would probably be “Fantastiskt” from 2009.

It is a vinyl 12″ single made in an edition of 1. The record is glued to a real turntable acting as package with the lyrics etched on the lid. It sold on e-Bay for 3,650 USD and became the most expensive record ever sold in Sweden.

Since forming in 1981, Metallica has become one of the world’s biggest selling bands, with over 50 million albums sold in the US alone. They’ve won 9 Grammy Awards and – from the battle over their first release through to the celebrated packaging for Death Magnetic – have created significant cover art as well.

Kill ‘Em All (1983)

This release was to be called Metal Up Your Ass and the cover was supposed to feature a toilet bowl with a hand clutching a dagger emerging from it. After significant pressure to reconsider, the band settled on Kill ‘Em All as an angry response and used the artwork for tour t-shirts instead.

Ride the Lightning (1984)

Master of Puppets (1986)

One of the most acclaimed metal albums of all time. Many prints of the 1986 release featured a parody of the PMRC “explicit lyrics” warning labels.

And Justice for All (1988)

The cover was made by Stephen Gorman based on a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.

Metallica (1991)

Also popularly known as the Black Album, this is the second best selling album of the Soundscan era. Read a previous Sleevage entry about it here.

Load (1996)

The original artwork on the cover is entitled “Semen and Blood III” and is one of three photos by Andres Serrano, who mixed his own semen with bovine blood between two pieces of Plexiglass. The cover also features a new Metallica logo.   

ReLoad (1997)

Garage Inc (1998)

St Anger (2003)

Brian Schroeder designed the album cover and artwork for St. Anger.  Originally there was meant to be four different limited color variations  but the plans were eventually canceled.

Death Magnetic (2008)

A special edition of this release was packages in a coffin box. Death Magnetic won Best Recording Package at the 51st Grammy Awards.

There’s so much mystery about this cover that perhaps it’s better to start with what we do know. The image was taken by London-based Jake Walters, a commercial photographer with an impressive portfolio across fashion, celebrity and editorial portraiture.

The adorable baby, with its cheeky little expression so at odds with Morrissey’s stern gaze, is the son of Charlie Brown, Morrissey’s assistant tour manager.

Design practice No Allegiances is responsible for the design and packaging. Having noticed the subtle Mexican sounds in the music, they took their cue from Mexican folk art and vintage California. The typography was inspired by the work of legendary illustrator and printmaker José Guadalupe Posada.

The packaging also features a still life, Bodegon Con Jarra de Vino (1914), by A. Fuentes.

Noting the chiaroscuro of both the cover photography and painting, No Allegiances ran the LP and special CD version on fabric-textured stock to “makes the record feel like an oil painting hanging in the Louvre that you shouldn’t have just touched.”

But what does it all mean? The arresting image on the cover of Morrissey’s ninth studio album caused an instant deluge of speculation when it was first surfaced late last year.

Widely reported as celibate, the image of an awkwardly paternal Morrissey seemed unlikely. It also followed two other popular covers where the indie icon held a gun and a violin.

The consensus opinion seemed to be that the title referred to his years of refusing sex and that the baby on the cover symbolically represented an absence born of this choice.

Complicating matters further are the symbols – one of which appears on the baby’s forehead and the other on his arm. When the image first appeared online the file size was too small to fully make these out. Was that a W on the baby’s forehead? Did it represent the outgoing president of the Unites States?

Um, no – the baby has a butterfly on his forehead, while Morrissey’s arm seems to feature a caterpillar. For me, this awkward symbolism is the cover’s one misstep and adds little to what appears to be an instantly iconic image.

If it’s meaning is opaque, it’s no accident. This is after all this is Morrissey – a cultural figure that has always defied easy categorisation. An artist that has referred to himself as being “a fourth sex”; that famously campaign for animal rights and vegetarianism. A man who has flirted with the nationalistic far right and in the nineties developed what Encyclopedia Brittanica described as “a growing homoerotic obsession with criminals, skinheads, and boxers”.

Anticipating speculation about his latest cover, he had already drafted a response on the sleeve notes to The Years of Refusal:

“If you ask why the new album has the title it has (‘Years of Refusal’) and why on the cover he is holding the baby, after holding on previous covers the violin and the gun, because after all people will want to know, or more rumours will spill into the world and its voracious, agitated internet shadow, the sigh will almost crack into real annoyance. If you sail close to the gale force wind and bring up the sticky situations he finds himself in when he talks of his mythical old England, its disappearance and/or cultural and commercial conversion, and heretically flirts with the flag, and faces expulsion from the entertainment scene, then the sigh and the awkwardness will know no bounds.”