Halfnelson are Sparks—brothers Ron and Russel Mael’s long-running cult art pop band. This is their Todd Rundgren-produced debut in all but band name… and this sleeve—a cheeky, elegantly off-kilter study in contrast. From the off the shelf red bordered sticky label inscribed with Shelley Script, to the band’s disinterested mugs surrounding the ebullient Grace Kelly-esque ingenue, it’s like an M&Co. cover eight years before there was such a thing. (I rarely go in for sleeves with band photos. Done as delightfully as this, I’m quite happy to make an exception.)

See also: Sparks, Kimono My House; Sparks, Propaganda; Sparks, No. 1 in Heaven.

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The Pop Group
Y (1979)

The sleeves of Malcolm Garrett were my design primer. More specifically, his designs for Duran Duran—inventive typography, dynamic geometric shapes, vivid neon-inspired palettes… none of which can be found on Y, his cover for The Pop Group’s first record. Co-credited with artist Rich Beale, it’s impishly arch and caustic with a DIY crudeness that belies sophistication; and so inextricably linked to the music that you might wonder whether it’s the chicken or the egg.

See also: Buzzcocks, Orgasm Addict; Magazine, The Correct Use of Soap; Duran Duran, Rio; Simple Minds, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84).

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Human Sexual Response
Fig. 14 (1980)

Possibly the smartest, funniest, most spot-on conceptual encapsulation of a band’s name and album title ever. Full-stop. Designed by Peter Mason and photographed by Storm Thorgerson, it’s also one of Hipgnosis’ lesser known designs. A massively under-appreciated sleeve for a massively under-appreciated band. Do yourself a favor!

See also: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon; 10cc, The Original Soundtrack; Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (2); Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy.

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Yellow Magic Orchestra
Service (1983)

YMO were more important than the Beatles. (Change my mind!) Their influence on the development and proliferation of multiple electronic music subgenres is virtually impossible to overestimate. They may even have invented hip-hop! Service, their seventh and penultimate record, isn’t my favorite YMO record; but, boy oh boy, that cover! What is it about this Tsuguya Inoue-designed sleeve that I find so endlessly captivating? Is it the meaty red-hued silhouette with its pituitary-adjacent spot of cyan? The giant O? The wonky O? Am I alone?!?! (One or two Radiohead sleeves tell me I’m not.) Not the only amazing YMO sleeve, but, evidently, my favorite.

See also: YMO, After Service; Ryuichi Sakamoto, Coda; Ryuichi Sakamoto, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence; Seigen Ono Ensemble, Montreux 93/94; YMO, Box

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Duet Emmo
Or So It Seems (1983)

Duet Emmo was a side project of Mute founder Daniel Miller along with BC Gilbert and Graham Lewis of Dome and Wire (Duet Emmo being an anagram of Dome and Mute.) Designed by the Brothers Quay—identical twin makers of lyrical and haunting stop-motion animated films—the cover for Or So It Seems is a wondrous blend of the whimsical and the uncanny. And that type! My favorite among the handful of Quay-designed sleeves (Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Tinderbox is a close second), with it they’re able to achieve in one frame what they typically do with tens of thousands.

See also: Siouxsie And The Banshees, Tinderbox; AC Marias, Just Talk; Modern Eon, Fiction Tales, The Lover Speaks, The Lover Speaks.

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Section 25
From the Hip (1984)

For Section 25’s From The Hip, Peter Saville once again (and for the last time) employs the cryptic color-coded titling he’d famously developed for New Order’s Blue Monday and Power, Corruption and Lies sleeves. Working with frequent collaborator, photographer Trevor Key (and perhaps channeling artist Zander Olsen along with a bit of Hipgnosis), Saville imposes this graphic language directly onto the environment via a series of colored poles on a mountainside in Wales—systematically arranged to spell out the album’s title.

See also: New Order, Blue Monday; New Order, Power Corruption and Lies; Roxy Music, Flesh + Blood; Ultravox, Lament.

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Scritti Politti
Cupid and Psyche ’85 (1985)

Keith Breeden’s sleeve for Scritti Politti’s Cupid and Psyche ’85 is, in a word, masterful. Equally impressive, its hasty assembly after an eleventh hour rejection of Breeden’s initial design. It’s a stunning, collaged interplay of tactile, unrefined materials—masking tape, torn paper, rubber stamped forms—and elegant, romantic letterforms rendered in embossed block foil. Wonderfully meticulous, rich, and tactile, it’s a love letter to romance that feels every inch like the record it embraces.

See also: Scritti Politti, Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin); Scritti Politti with Ranking Ann, The Word Girl (Flesh & Blood); Scritti Politti, Provision; Duran Duran, Seven and the Ragged Tiger; Talk Talk, It’s My Life; Fine Young Cannibals, Fine Young Cannibals.

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Felt
Ignite the Seven Cannons (1985)

Chris Bigg is a singular talent. Probably best known as Vaughan Oliver’s former creative partner, Bigg’s own formidable body of work—with its elegant, arcane typography and bold, expressive calligraphy shapes and letterforms—is as recognizable as it is revered. This sleeve was the first of his to catch my eye and hold it… and still hold it. With two colors, a sparse arrangement of typography, and a tightly cropped image of brocade, he conjures sensory illusions with an almost alchemical ability. A sleeve felt just by looking at it.

See also: Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook, Sleeps With the Fishes; Luxuria, Public Highway; Jóhann Jóhannsson, IBM 1401, A User’s Manual; His Name Is Alive, Livonia; The Breeders, All Nerve; David Sylvian, Samadhisound 2003-2014 Do You Know Me Now?

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Various Artists
Lonely Is An Eyesore (1987)

Vaughan Oliver made me want to be a graphic designer. In fact, this list could’ve very well been nothing but Vaughan Oliver sleeves. But not easily. Just 10? Impossible. This record fully changed my life. The 4AD label’s compilation album to end all compilation albums is all killer and no filler, containing career-best tracks from each of the bands. The cover, a photograph of the studio state camera’s art-weathered copyboard is, as they say, a choice. But, rendered almost otherworldly, it’s a testament to Oliver’s gift for transforming the mundane into the magnificent. Besides, if this was meant as a snapshot of a small indie label hitting its stride, what better cover star than the literal physical platform that launched the artwork of a thousand releases, and with them, 4AD’s legendary visual aesthetic. If I had to give all of my records away, save for one, this is the one.

See also: This Mortal Coil, Filigree & Shadow; Colourbox, Colourbox; The Wolfgang Press, Standing Up Straight; Dif Juz, Out Of The Trees, Throwing Muses; Chains Changed, Cocteau Twins; Love’s Easy Tears, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares Vol. 1 and Vol. 2; Pixies, Doolittle.

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Scott Walker
Tilt (1995)

When godlike genius Scott Walker tapped Stylorouge to create the cover for Tilt, I wonder if Rob O’Connor and co. knew what they were in for. If its subsequent reception is anything to go by, no one else did, that’s for sure. To say Tilt’s an uneasy listen is the understatement to end all understatements. It’s downright harrowing, yes. But in a most gorgeous way. Drawing on The Cockfighter for inspiration, David Scheinmann’s linchpin image is Walker’s own hand surrounded by a maelstrom of feathers, claws, and cock eyes, layered and manipulated into abstraction. It’s oblique and arresting and, like so much of the record, has probably induced more than its fair share of nightmares.

See also: Siouxsie And The Banshees, Juju; The Creatures, Wild Life; The Passions, I’m In Love With A German Film Star; Squeeze, Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti; Blur, Parklife; Trainspotting Poster Campaign.

This was my first ever music. At 7 years old, I didn’t fully understand what it was that drew me to this music or this cover. But I was very drawn to it. I was always a bit of a loner, and I think the confident loneliness in the picture on the cover resonated with me. I still listen to this album, and the recording is so sparse and honest. Yet there seems to be a secret. The cover feels like that as well. I like that about it, a lot. What’s hiding in the dark?

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Kiss
Destroyer (1976)

Upon moving to the United States in 1977, my folks got me a small stereo. My first couple of weeks of sixth grade in small town Texas were interesting for sure. A classmate tuned me onto Kiss, and this was the first album I ever owned. Man, I couldn’t wrap my head around these dudes, but I loved them and I loved this cover. I was a huge Kiss fanatic.

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AC/DC
Highway to Hell (1979)

This is a killer album. I love the energy of this album, and I think the cover fits perfectly with the music.

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Sex Pistols
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)

This would be the next standout for me. I was sent to a small boarding school, and I hated it with a passion. I got very angry. This album helped me through. I love the cover, as it conveys all the emotion trapped in that vinyl. It’s such a stylistic slap together. But the color combo is perfection.

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Ramones
Ramones (1976)

Not a lot needs to be said here. This is just classic. Authentic and badass. A plus was that I could actually play most of these songs on my guitar. I knew those three chords. I loved the black and white.

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The Clash
London Calling (1979)

I loved this cover the minute I saw it. It reached out and slapped me in the face. I never knew it liberally borrowed from an Elvis album cover. That made it even cooler. I have this poster hanging in our studio.

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U2
War (1983)

I absolutely love this cover; the striking image, the emotion that kind of changes according to the mood you’re in when you look at it. The way the photo is underdeveloped is just killer. Black, white and red was my favorite color combo.

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Blondie
Parallel Lines (1978)

When I first got this, I was really getting into art and composition in school. I wasn’t a good artist by any means, but I loved it. This cover is so classy and full of style and attitude. And, well… look at the girl. Sheesh!!

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U2
Joshua Tree (1987)

I loved this layout. The picture is awesome but the layout is so clean and crisp. It was around this time, while living in NYC, I started pining for the Southwest a bit.

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Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run (1975)

This is such a great album cover. The movement in the cover photo and the way it wraps around the back is just awesome. I love the joyfulness in the photo. Such incredible energy jumps off the cover. Timeless.

When the cover art for Kendrick Lamar’s second LP was revealed on Instagram in March of 2015, I was stunned by the audacity and absolute unapologeticness of the cover. Executed in a way that is reminiscent of archival imagery, the visual showcases an assembly of Black men flaunting cash, liquor, and gang signs in front of a revered staple of American society. For added emphasis, we see a judge lying on the ground, knocked unconscious in the foreground. The entire composition feels like a metaphorical (and literal) middle finger to a country that so often villainizes and ignores Black men. The narrative of the album pairs perfectly with the content of the cover and showcases Kendrick’s ability to curate such a nuanced and richly layered image. 

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Mos Def
Black On Both Sides (1999)

The rawness and vulnerability expressed in this portrait of Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) was something I had never seen before of Black men. Quite similar to the indiscernible expression of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, it’s not quite clear what the subject of the cover is feeling. We see a glimmer in his eyes—is it sadness? Hope? Both? The intense closeness of the portrait forces the viewer to not ignore the man in front of them. The image conveys a sense of silence, but the unignorable close proximity simultaneously makes it feel like it’s shouting —demanding to be seen for who he is.

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Danny Brown
Atrocity Exhibition (2016)

Before this album, I wouldn’t have called myself a Danny Brown fan or a casual listener. But as soon as I saw the artwork for this project, I had to know what the music sounded like. The first song off of Atrocity Exhibition is called “Downward Spiral,” a fitting introduction to an album that details the artist’s tormented psyche and internal conflictions. The cover is psychedelically abrasive, as the glitching and fracturing unravel the artist. Vulnerability isn’t always delicate or quiet, sometimes it’s ugly and savage.

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Kid Cudi
Man On The Moon: The End of Day (2009)

I hold this album in such high regard that the cover has implicitly become canon for my own personal and artistic aesthetic. The clash of orange and purple hues creates a juxtaposition of melancholy and optimism, alluding to the conflicting dualities Kid Cudi examines about himself throughout the project. This artwork simply captures genuine emotions we all feel at times. Whether it’s that of an outcast who can’t quite seem to fit in or the mindstate of a vivid dreamer with their sights set beyond the stars, it’s a poignant image that has established itself as a fixture in culture.

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The Temper Trap
Conditions (2009)

The music from the Melbourne band’s debut album can be simply described as ethereal and softly anthemic. The visual of the little girl shrouded in darkness, with just a few of her facial features peeking out, has always felt like the perfect expression of how the music sounds. A bit somber without coming off as dreary or depressing, with a touch of innocence and honesty revealing itself amidst the cloudy production. Her expression is difficult to gauge—possibly uneasy, but not panicked. It’s always felt like a metaphor for stumbling through the unknown and unilluminated parts of life—we’re never sure where we’re headed, but we keep moving, trying our best to keep our composure and find the light.

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Rihanna
ANTI (2015)

Some images are drenched in symbolism, layered with such multiplicity that they beg to be studied. I believe Rihanna’s magnum opus, ANTI, is one such image. A mesmerizing piece of art to match the music it accompanies. Commissioned by the artist Roy Nachum and part of a series called “Blind,” the images come across as quite enigmatic, conveyed by the dizzying double visual of the figure, the crown that obscures her eyes, and the lone balloon in her hand. The vibrant red against the otherwise monochrome image pierces through almost violently, but paired with the crown it comes across as regal. In addition, the braille messaging relays a poem by Chloë Mitchell, adding even more depth to the artwork. There are just so many different facets to spark conversation around the idea, contributing to making this one of the best albums to come out of the 2010s.

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Big KRIT
4eva N a Day (2012)

Some of my favorite works of art explore the moral complexity of characters and situations. This illustrated piece shows a character straddled between a church on his left—symbolizing righteousness—and a strip club on his right, representing one’s vices. A bible and bottle of alcohol are on either side of the character. I think this image is a perfect analogy of the dual forces constantly at work in one’s life, and the decisions we are faced to make. KRIT’s masterfully introspective lyrics provide catharsis as he is figuring out his path as a man presented with the same choices.

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The Roots
Undun (2011)

It wasn’t until years after this album came out that I learned about the photographer of this image, Jamel Shabazz. He was a street photographer in New York during the 80s, who was known for taking everyday photos of Black youth. This image feels so nostalgic and harkens back to a time we can all relate to. The moment in which Shabazz captured the young boy in the air, as if he was levitating above the mattress, reminds me of how invincible adolescence felt at one point. So much seemed possible, not yet tainted by the cynicalness of adulthood. Our innocence was still intact. This moment, frozen in time, is like an homage to those summer days spent with friends, using our unbridled imagination to turn the most boring of things into an adventure.

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Rhye
Woman (2013)

The debut project from the duo Rhye is a deeply emotive and intimate alt-R&B album that blends atmospheric production with ethereal vocals, creating a dreamlike aesthetic. The expertly composed photo makes the best use of cropping to create a quiet mysteriousness and sensual elegance of a recognizable form that somehow simultaneously feels abstract. It’s something that could stand alone as a single image and still be appreciated.

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Amy Winehouse
Back to Black (2006)

It wasn’t until after Amy Winehouse had passed that I started digging into her discography. Listening to her albums with the knowledge of her personal hardships made me receive the music differently. The portrait of Amy sitting forlornly with her hands in her lap staring into the camera looking dejected pulls at the heart. For all of the reasons why this album cover can be viewed as downhearted, I think it’s a beautiful portrayal of a human confronting her flaws, choosing to be vulnerable for the sake of her art.

Cover art is certainly not a guarantee of whether or not a piece of music might appeal to you. I’ve been smitten by the most psychedelic of album covers, only to be greeted with the vocal stylings of a faux Paul Anka once the needle touched the record. That is certainly not the case here. This is a U.K. issue of an obscure Italian Music Library (used as stock for radio, movies and TV) and art director Alan Lester certainly did a good job of capturing the spirit of the music on this LP: extremely weird. An all-seeing eye projecting a beam onto a scene which includes a baby, dinosaurs, elements of Stonehenge, a lone rogue dagger and a mushroom cloud in the background. It’s likely that this cover was actually art directed by whatever substance Lester ingested prior to the deadline. There’s a real counter-cultural charm in hand-drawn covers because they stand out in the sea of mass produced, professionally shot and designed covers that tend to occupy space in most record stores. Plus, it’s a real departure from stock library protocol of the era, usually designed with a standardized layout and color across multiple LPs.

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Roy Ayers
Coffy (1972)

Soundtracks can also be a canvas for great cover art. I love when 70s B-Movie / Blaxploitation films adapted their poster concepts for LPs as opposed to creating something from scratch. This was often done out of necessity, with these smaller film budgets unable to support a custom design approach for different pieces of media. In many ways, these illustrated posters left more to the imagination than using photography or trying to lift still images from the often low budget quality of the films themselves. Coffy was a revenge film, about a Black female vigilante (played by the legendary Pam Grier) seeking retribution from a drug dealer who got her sister addicted to heroin. The vintage illustrative style that Japanese-American artist George Akimoto uses here feels very era-specific but there’s something about the detail and character of these images that feels timeless. Incidentally, Vibraphonist Roy Ayers’ soundtrack is equally as badass as the lead character herself.

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The Joey Jefferson Band
The Joey Jefferson Band (1975)

Beautiful retro type work art directed by Dick Thomas for the Bay Area-based jazz funk outfit The Joey Jefferson Band. I’m a total sucker for cool type-driven covers. And nothing stands out more on a record store wall, especially with photography (and largely, band photos) being the standard for most albums of this era. There hasn’t been a single instance where this record was featured on a record store wall and my eyes weren’t drawn instantly to it.

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Funkadelic
Cosmic Slop (1973)

If “overstimulation” was a genre of album covers, Funkadelic would be the forefathers. Artist and illustrator Pedro Bell began as a fan of Funkadelic, sending drawings to band manager Rod Scribner, who eventually commissioned him to begin creating promotional materials for the band. But Bell didn’t just create artwork. He created entire universes, with every album cover acting as a portal to alternate reality complete with its own bespoke heroes, villains and mythology. Key to Bell’s work was the use of the gatefold LP, a cover that opens like a book and allows the story being told on the front to continue on the inside, seamlessly integrating the credits and liner notes. He used every ounce of real estate on his cover work for Funkadelic and George Clinton from 1973 to 1986. And while the Clinton-helmed outfit’s music was already firmly entrenched in left field, Bell’s work gave generations of teenagers the visual tools to tune in, turn up and get lost in an entirely new world.

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The Dramatics
Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get (1971)

Everything from the type to the palette here feels distinctly ’70s in the best way, but the most “dramatic” thing about this cover has to be illustrator Neil Deckert’s eye graphic, which gives this cover borderline surrealist vibes. Imagine this album sitting on the floor of a young Snoop Dogg’s home in ’70s Long Beach, California, the sounds of the Dramatics emanating from his household. Both Snoop and this album were birthed in 1971, and the vocal stylings of Ron Banks and company left a strong enough impression on him to include them on the single “Doggy Dogg World” from his 1993 debut Doggystyle.

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Harlem River Drive
Harlem River Drive (1971)

An album that sounds just like the cover looks. Top notch Puerto Rican soul/funk from the NYC neighborhood parkway it’s named for. If you’re still reading this and have doubts about how nerdy I am, I keep this record filed in a section in my collection dedicated strictly to black and white covers. Art direction on this one is courtesy of Ruby Mazer’s art department, whose chief output was creating the seminal standardized look used by jazz label Mainstream in the ’70s.

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Can
Ege Bamyasi (1972)

Fun fact: In 1970s Turkey, there was an Okra brand named Can, which according to Google, translates to “Bell.” And it’s the actual can featured on the cover of the fourth offering from this German Krautrock band. Ege Bamyasi actually translates to “Aegean Okra.” Don’t think there’s any deep seeded okra symbolism here, just the happy accident of a band member finding a can that says “Can.”

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Akira Miyazawa
Karazishibotan (1969)

This is an instance where the artwork itself prompted me to make a purchase. I was on vacation in San Francisco and popped into the massive Amoeba Music down the street from where I was staying and after an intensive sweep of the store, I found this curious album sitting in the International section for $5. The image gracing the cover was a man holding what looked like a weapon, but I later realized was a flute (likely composer Akira Miyazawa’s instrument of choice). The artwork immediately spoke to me, so I took a gamble, as one often does when presented with interesting looking LPs at an affordable price. The album was well worth the price of admission, with the music feeling like an incredibly funky Japanese take on a Spaghetti Western score, something befitting of a Tarantino flick.

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The Unfolding
How To Blow Your Mind and Have a Freak-Out Party (1967)

A late ’60s novelty record and a clear attempt to cash in on what the record company viewed as a psychedelic trend of the period. The Unfolding is not a real group, but a studio ensemble assembled solely for the purpose of creating a one off-release, a common practice in the time period. But where the album falls short of being a noteworthy piece of psychedelic music, it succeeds at being a decent piece of psychedelic marketing. In part, because the aesthetic eschews the minimalist approach synonymous with the era for a collage-heavy approach designed to keep the listener “stimulated” while listening.

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Asiko
Take a trip with Asiko (1977)

More than anything else, I’m curious how ’70s Afro-Jazz-Funk outfit Asiko delivered the final artwork file for this LP. Using a combination of good old fashioned cut-n-paste techniques and colored markers, the art resembles doodles on a high school binder more than it does the design of a product intended to be sold publicly. Therein lies its charm and its brilliance. I challenge any professionally photographed LP of the time to compete for attention on the shelf with this one. I’m a sucker for retro DIY design, and any aesthetic that challenges the very principles we’ve become accustomed to championing.

John Pasche was studying design at the Royal College of Art in London when he was commissioned by Mick Jagger to create a tour poster for the Rolling Stones.

Jagger and the band loved his work and gave the graphic designer another assignment—one that would launch his career. They asked him to design a logo.

Yes, we’re talking about that logo.

In 1970, Pasche created the Stones’ world-famous tongue-and-lips logo illustration that became synonymous with one of classic rock’s greatest groups. Over the years, the bold artwork has been emblazoned everything from merch (like t-shirts, lighters and underwear) to concert stages.

It’s among the most iconic marks in pop-culture history. Simply put: that oh-so-red mouth screams THE STONES!

The designer would go on to create more tour posters for the band as well as art for Paul McCartney, The Stranglers, The Vapors, The Art of Noise and other musicians.

Here, Pasche, who is currently at work painting sketches of the Stones logo that will be sold in galleries across the U.K., talks about the thinking behind a piece of art that has endured for more than 50 years.

Can you tell me how the Rolling Stone’s logo came to be and what your design represented?

I had a meeting with Mick at his house, and he asked me to design an image which would stand alone like the Shell image which was visible at petrol stations. He wanted it to stand for the band without the band name.

He showed me an image of Kali, the Indian goddess, which featured her small pointed tongue protruding from her mouth. This was the creative spark for the concept of the logo.

I returned a couple of weeks later with a few rough drawings of the logo taken from slightly different perspectives, and we settled on one. I completed the final artwork, which was then approved by the whole band, and the logo was born.

For me, it represented the anti-establishment, rebellious nature of the Stones at that time.

Show that logo to people today, and they know what it is. Why do you think it has had such staying power?

I think the logo has had such staying power due to the continuing success of the band and the way it has featured in various formats during the life of the Stones.

Its simplicity makes it perfect for merchandising. And although initially it may have symbolized rebelliousness, it also has a celebratory interpretation.

It’s so incredible that we are talking about a logo you designed decades ago and that the Rolling Stones are currently on tour in support of a new album.

I have always considered myself very lucky to have been associated with the Stones so early in my career and have enjoyed every minute of my time as a graphic designer and creative director.

You worked in advertising after college. What was that experience like?

When I left college, I worked as a junior art director at the ad agency Benton & Bowles in London. I was broke after nine years at art college and needed to be on a reasonable salary. During that time, I was working weekends and evenings on record sleeve commissions.

I soon realized that ad agency work wasn’t for me and set up as a freelance graphic designer. I later worked as creative director at Chrysalis Records for 10 years and as creative director at the Southbank Centre for 11 years.

At Muse by Clio, we have a feature that celebrates the Art of the Album. We invite people in the ad industry and beyond to share their favorite album covers. If you had to choose one album cover that you did not design but admire, what would your choice be?

As favorite album sleeves go, I would choose [Pink Floyd’s] Dark Side Of The Moon because of its simplicity and individuality.