One Direction Over Again Album Cover
The 20 best album covers of all time
For generations, anthology art has been an essential part of listening to music. The media may have changed, from vinyl to cassettes to CDs, and then recently back to vinyl again, but the imagery created to correspond our favourite bands' music has connected to be an vital and vibrant chemical element of pop culture. That, and of course, the all important music video.
In this post, nosotros salute the most iconic album art in rock history, some of which has gone on to get more than famous and recognisable than the music it symbolises, and most of which has also adorned poster designs across the globe.
01. Elvis Presley (1956)
Until the arrival of Elvis, entertainers had typically been restrained and on best behaviour while on stage. But the Mississippi singer who became known as The King threw away that rulebook, thrusting his hips in an overtly sexual style and running wild with a raw, cardinal energy.
Ths dramatic shot, taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida by William V. 'Red' Robertson, captures him in a full, convention-defying flow. With its brash and colourful lettering, the design of this iconic cover was later echoed by British punks The Clash for the cover of their 1979 album, London Calling.
02. Sgt Pepper's Solitary Hearts Club Band by The Beatles (1967)
While Liverpudlian popular sensations The Beatles started out as loveable mop-tops, they shortly became influenced by the Sixties counterculture of pot smoking and protest, and their music started going in radical new directions. This culminated in Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is widely credited as being rock's first concept album.
The cover features 2 versions of the Beatles. One is the real group, dressed as the fictional Sgt Pepper's Lone Hearts Club Band; the others are wax sculptures. But the real stars here are the life-sized cardboard cut-outs of famous people, from Karl Marx to Marilyn Monroe.
Designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth and based on an ink drawing past Paul McCartney, this turned out to exist i of the most expensive album covers in history, partly because they had to pay so many people to use their likenesses. Information technology was besides the first to feature printed lyrics.
03. The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
The first and best album by Velvet Clandestine, the psychedelic New York ring fronted by Lou Reed, is known by fans as 'the banana album' due to the eye-communicable illustration on its cover. This fruity drawing was the work of Popular Art icon Andy Warhol, who happened to be the group'due south manager, while the cover was designed by Acy R. Lehman.
Early on versions immune you to skin back the banana skin to recover a flesh-coloured banana underneath (utilise your imagination). Most later reissues failed to include this expensive-to-produce characteristic, and so the original pressings are worth a pocket-sized fortune on the collectors' market.
04. Dark Side of the Moon past Pink Floyd (1973)
Even people who've never heard of British stone band Pink Floyd volition probably recognise the iconic cover to their 1973 album Night Side of the Moon, which shows white light passing through a prism to create a spectrum of colours. It was created past Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, the designers behind some of history'south best-known anthology covers, including Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, Black Sabbath'due south Never Say Die and The Scorpion's Lovedrive.
They came upwards with the concept, which was inspired by an epitome of a prism found in a photography volume, subsequently an all-night brainstorming session. The design raised eyebrows at the time for including neither the band's name nor the album's title.
05. Never Mind The Bollocks past the Sex Pistols (1977)
While the psychedelic era saw anthology covers normally feature intricate, surreal and lavish illustrations, punk stripped everything to its bare essentials. And the debut album of Britain's loudest and angriest punk rockers Sex Pistols, designed by Jamie Reid, was a true statement of intent.
The utilize of obscenity, cast in the kind of cutting-out lettering commonly associated with criminal ransom notes, was shocking to audiences of the fourth dimension. The result was heightened by the sleeve's lurid colour palette, which was based on a serial of stickers distributed by the Situationalist political movement (the originals read: 'This Store Welcomes Shoplifters').
The use of 'bollocks' (a term in British English language that means both 'nonsense' and 'testicles') led to a police raid on a Virgin tape shop that stocked the tape. In the resulting court instance, Virgin was successfully dedicated from obscenity charges by John Mortimer, now best known every bit the author of Rumpole of the Bailey. As he left the courtroom, the group's vocalist, Johnny Rotten, joyfully exclaimed to a reporter: "Great! Bollocks is legal. Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks!"
06. Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division (1979)
When Salford post-punk band Joy Division released its debut album, it didn't exactly set the earth on fire. But today it's considered a archetype, and its entrancing comprehend art, designed past Peter Saville, adorns millions of T-shirts and posters worldwide.
It was the group's lead guitarist, Bernard Sumner, who originally chose the epitome. It'southward a visualisation of the radio waves emitted past a pulsar; a neutron star that is created later a dying sun collapses in on itself.
Originally named CP 1919, the pulsar in question had been discovered in November 1967 by pupil Jocelyn Bell Burnell and her supervisor Antony Hewish at Cambridge University. Sumnar establish the image in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Science; Saville and so reversed information technology from black-on-white to white-on-black and printed it on textured menu.
07. Rio by Duran Duran (1982)
After all the bleak, moody assailment of seventies punk, many in the eighties were ready for the return of fun and glamour... only that didn't mean they wanted one-time-fashioned and cheesy. Duran Duran, a ring from Birmingham, England, were amid the leading lights of the New Romantic move, which cleverly combined an art-school sensibility with the kind of pop-funk stylings a mainstream audience could actually trip the light fantastic to.
The cover design for their second studio album, Rio, pulls off the aforementioned trick. It was designed past Malcolm Garrett and illustrated by Patrick Nagel, who was known for celebrating the female class in a mode that combined the Art Deco tradition with contemporary fashion designs.
Nagel's depiction of the atomic number 82 song's championship character is beautifully minimalist, with an inventive color palette that was instantly centre-communicable and tendency-defining.
08. State of war by U2 (1983)
U2'south singer Bono may nowadays be known for having dinner with Popes and Presidents. But while he's now Mr Mainstream, early U2 was raw, edgy and raucous. And with its controversial songs most war and conflict, like Sunday, Bloody Sunday, their 3rd studio anthology could be considered the apex of their rebellious youth.
Rather than going the obvious route of picturing a battle scene, though, Irish graphic designer Steve Averill took the inspired decision to instead use a child, powerfully carrying the loss of innocence created by war. The boy staring intensely and unsettlingly at the camera is Peter Rowen, the brother of the creative person Guggi, who is a friend of Bono'southward.
Rowen appeared on three U2 albums in full, and is now himself a professional photographer. He's even brought things full circle, past shooting U2 in concert.
09. Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys (1986)
At a time when music was largely divided along genre and racial lines, three Jewish boys brought together rap and heavy rock in one album, without compromising on the raw, angry energy of either.
Designed by Steve Byram and illustrated by World B. Omes, the cover concept for Licensed to Ill was basically a parody of Led Zeppelin's private jet; a symbol of swollen seventies rock excess that couldn't have been further removed from the male child-next-door antics of the Beastie Boys.
And merely in case you needed the irony spelling out, the airplane'due south tail number, 3MTA3, spells "Eat Me" backwards.
10. Fear of a Black Planet past Public Enemy (1990)
Musically and lyrically, Public Enemy's third studio album remains ane of the almost inventive and ambitious rap albums of all time. From the biting social commentary of 911 is a Joke, about the variance in police response times between black and white neighbourhoods, to the revolutionary rage of Fight the Ability, this record inverse the game and has arguably yet to be bettered.
The cover pattern, too, is a classic. Group leader Chuck D, who had himself studied graphic design at New York'due south Adelphi Academy, came up with the concept of two worlds (a 'black' planet and Earth) eclipsing. The group enlisted B.Eastward. Johnson, a NASA illustrator, to create the design, and the apocalyptic result is a fantastical commentary on the racial paranoia of white nationalism.
11. Nevermind past Nirvana (1991)
At the beginning of the 1990s, information technology seemed like rock music was starting to go stale and repeat itself. Then came grunge, which brought everything back to its basics and acted like a large 'reset' button, just every bit punk had washed two decades earlier. Nirvana'due south second album brought grunge into the mainstream, post-obit the success of their number one hitting Smells Like Teen Spirit. And its unusual cover was attention-grabbing to say the least.
Singer Kurt Cobain had come up up with the thought while watching a Goggle box documentary on water births with drummer Dave Grohl. Geffen'due south art director Robert Fisher dug out some stock images of underwater births, but they were likewise graphic to put on an album and would have cost $vii,500 to licence. So instead they deputed photographer Kirk Weddle to shoot some bespoke images in a Pasadena pond pool for just $1,000. (The dollar and fish hook were added later on.)
The child he shot was 4-month-old Spencer Elden, the son of 1 of Weddle'southward friends. He's at present 27 and working as an creative person in LA, while Weddle has continued to be an advertizement photographer specialising in underwater work.
12. Screamadelica by Central Scream (1991)
Throughout the 1980s, the separate between indie music and dance music couldn't have been more marked. Then came acrid business firm, ecstasy, rave... and all suddenly fans of moody stone music became much more open to the thought of repetitive beats. A major landmark in the resulting crossover was Primal Scream's third album, which brought together rock, psychedelia, dub, firm and gospel in one glorious concoction.
Its encompass was the piece of work of Paul Cannell, a London artist known for combining a punk artful with exuberant colours, using unusual media such equally household undercoat paint and car trunk filler. The band's singer Bobby Gillespie took a detail from 1 of Cannell's paintings, altered the background colour to a hot ruby, and the classic 'sun' image was the result.
Tragically Cannell took his own life in 2005. But this classic embrace, along with his work for bands like Manic Street Preachers, The Telescopes, Flowered Upwards and Shonen Knife, will surely alive for an eternity. It was even recreated as an official postage postage stamp in 2010, equally part of the Royal Mail's Classic Album covers collection.
13. Parklife by Blur (1994)
As the 1990s progressed, British youngsters started to tire of ecstasy-fuelled raves, and a vacuum opened up in youth culture. This was speedily filled by a return to the quondam-fashioned pursuits of boozing and listening to rock bands... merely with subtle dashes of post-modernistic irony to go on things interesting.
Best at managing this contradiction were Blur; middle-class educatee types who nonetheless appealed to the masses with their mockney accents, Kinks-influenced tunes and clever appropriation of working grade culture. Parklife, their third studio anthology, saw them at the superlative of their powers, from Girls and Boys, which poked fun at Society 18-xxx holidays, to the title track, which guest-starred Quadrophenia actor Phil Daniels to brilliant comic effect.
All this post-modern authenticity was topped off by a brilliant cover based on the unlikely topic of greyhound racing. (Other images Mistiness considered were a fruit and veg market stall, a betting shop window... y'all get the idea.)
The image used, shot by photographer Bob Thomas, was taken from a stock image library and was not, contrary to popular conventionalities, shot in Walthamstow. The defoliation comes because a separate shoot for the inside cover was carried out at the famous Due east London rail, which has since been converted into flats.
fourteen. Original Pirate Material by The Streets (2002)
When Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, made a rough and ready United kingdom garage album in his bedroom, he was aiming it at typical fans of Uk garage. Instead, his funny and poetic lyrics led him to be instantly adopted by middle-class intellectuals, a fact that baffles him to this day.
Skinner's embrace by the intelligensia may also take been subconsciously been inspired by the highbrow nature of his cover art. His debut album features an image titled Towering Inferno, shot in 1995 past German artist and photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg. Part of a serial called London: A Modern Projection that focuses on the capital at night, the shot fits nicely into the "sex, drugs and on the dole" narrative spun by Skinner throughout his debut.
15. Fallen by Evanescence (2003)
One of the best-selling albums of the 2000s and the winner of two Grammys, Fallen was the debut of Evanescence, a genre-defying Christian ring that combined elements of nu metallic, alternative metallic and goth. But its influence went way beyond 'just' music. Countless youngsters since its release have testified to the manner its lyrics, which deal with subjects of alienation, depression, suicide and death, have helped them deal with the malaise of 'feeling different' from their peers.
Seen in that light, the anthology's cover art, featuring frontwoman Amy Lee in defiant alt-girl pose, was perfectly called. The singer is staring right at the viewer, provoking a feeling of empathy and shared experience, just at the same time the blurry nature of the epitome and the cold, harsh colour palette speak to feelings of helplessness and isolation. Information technology's non necessarily the happiest of scenes, only for many fans, it's been an essential and life-enhancing one.
sixteen. American Idiot by Dark-green Twenty-four hour period (2004)
A punk rock opera might sound like a contradiction in terms, merely Green Mean solar day went ahead and did it anyway. This concept album follows the story of Jesus of Suburbia, a teenage anti-hero, and it spawned v hit singles, including the incendiary championship runway; a stinging critique of right-wing American media that has arguably never been bettered.
A game-irresolute album demands attention-grabbing artwork, and this cover blueprint, featuring a heart-shaped hand grenade held in a blood-soaked fist, delivers it in spades. It was created by Chris Bilheimer, an art director who studied at the University of Georgia with R.E.Grand. singer Michael Stipe.
The design takes in a number of influences, and is said to be inspired by Chinese communist propaganda art, a lyric from the song She'due south a Insubordinate ('he's holding on my heart similar a mitt grenade"), and Saul Bass's poster for the 1955 film The Man with the Golden Arm.
17. Demon Days past Gorillaz (2005)
As the earth strode confidently from the 20th to the 21st century, all of a sudden everything was going from analogue to digital. And Blur singer Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the comic artist behind Tank Daughter, decided to get ahead of the curve past forming Gorillaz, the earth's start virtual band.
Combining hip-hop and electronica, the musical output of the band was groundbreaking enough, but they further excited audiences and the media by presenting themselves in the form of cartoon characters, from mag covers to music videos to websites. At a time when most people were just learning what an avatar was, it was a clever idea, and one that effortlessly translated to the encompass of this, their second and seminal album.
18. Born to Die by Lana del Rey (2012)
One of only three albums released by a female creative person to have spent more than 300 weeks on the Billboard 200, Born to Dice combines elements of indie pop and trip-hop with New York vocalizer Lana del Rey's haunting vocals in a manner that's far greater than the sum of its parts. And the encompass, fine art-directed by David Bowden, was suitably and beautifully epic.
The impactful design combines an arrestingly mournful image of the singer, photographed past Nicole Nodland, with large and bold typography based on a bespoke font, adding a truly cinematic feel to the design.
19. 1989 by Taylor Swift (2014)
1 of the biggest stars of the decade, country-turned-pop singer Taylor Swift has won fans past existence open and personal about herself, and the cover of her get-go 'pure' pop album, 1989, fits perfectly into that narrative.
Light years away from the pouting, airbrushed glamour shots of her rivals, it features only a simple Polaroid of the singer, cut off at the eyes, with T.Southward. 1989 (the year of her birth) scrawled underneath. Nothing complicated, nothing overblown... and all the better to make fans experience connected to 'pop's everywoman'.
20. Lemonade past Beyonce (2016)
Allow's be frank; in the modernistic era, with streaming taking over from downloads and social sharing replacing record-store browsing, album artwork has declined in importance. Merely if an artist is big enough, it notwithstanding makes an touch, and few artists have been bigger in the 2010s than Beyonce.
In a sign of changing times, the singer's sixth album, Lemonade, was first fabricated available through Beyoncé's co-owned streaming service Tidal, a solar day before being released for digital and concrete purchase. The cover shows the singer standing next to a auto, wearing a fur coat and cornrow braids, hiding her face behind her arm.
It's a still from the shooting of the Don't Injure Yourself video, directed by Beyonce and Kahlil Joseph. But there'due south no official explanation well-nigh why this item shot was chosen, leaving fans to speculate on the meaning of the cornrows (symbolising black culture?), fur glaze (symbolising fame and riches?) and hidden face (symbolising inner turmoil?).
In a social media age in which being talked about seems to be the principal aim of all celebrities, from pop stars to Presidents, this may be the perfect album cover for our times.
Related articles:
- The 20 best album covers from the '70s
- seven must-read books for design students
- 27 inspiring examples of vintage poster design
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join at present for unlimited admission
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first calendar month for merely £1 / $1 / €1
Related manufactures
Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/the-20-best-album-covers-of-all-time
0 Response to "One Direction Over Again Album Cover"
Post a Comment