the importance of the album cover

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fuzzbender

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just looking at a certain album cover, as you do, and thinking, wow, just wow

what are your thoughts on album covers?
 

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Dismalhead

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I used to love them, an essential piece of artwork that went with the music and made as much of a statement as a song. At one point I even wallpapered my room (in my teens) with them. However, with the dominance of first cassettes and then CDs, I don't think people focus on them like they did when they were the size of a record. Sadly, cover art has lost it's relevance.
 

simonsp

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Once upon a time they were an integral part of the listening experience, these days, not so much if at all. Shame really, the youthful hours that were whiled away decoding the lyrics printed on the inner sleeve or just used for rolling ********fs. Happy daze.
 

simonsp

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One of my favourites, the Strawbs, Grave New World album with double gatefold.

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Jack S

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They are coming back. Some smaller labels are reissuing records, and there are new records being made. Bloodshot Records has vinyl out for all its artists.

My daughter's band released a vinyl album that was selected as the Vinyl of the Month for April in Performer Magazine.
 

fuzzbender

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They are coming back. Some smaller labels are reissuing records, and there are new records being made. Bloodshot Records has vinyl out for all its artists.

My daughter's band released a vinyl album that was selected as the Vinyl of the Month for April in Performer Magazine.

sure, maybe only me, but that is Right

Kudos
 

simonsp

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Vinyl's slight return is good in some ways, but I can't ever see it really taking off again. Plus there's the materials used in their manufacture. Electronic delivery does seem sensible in so many ways. Just need to develop a new 'album cover art' concept to go with electronic download. Or do we? Perhaps the music should be strong enough to stand on its own merits without any excess floss or frippery.

And lest i be seen as a killjoy, here's the Pink Fairies

61q-mg8okmL._SY300_.jpg
 

Fearnot

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I thought the Roger Dean stuff got old real fast, especially when everyone (and their customized van) felt they needed wild, fantasy landscapes to be taken oh-so-seriously. Hipgnosis designed a lots of cool covers in the 70's (all that Pink Floyd, etc.) and that became the look you had to have... but again, when everyone has it, it really isn't special anymore.

When I was watching 20 Feet From Stardom, there was a point when all the great backup voices started getting recording deals and putting out albums of their own. The documentary wondered why these great voices couldn't break through, but as they flashed the absolutely generic album covers they all had onscreen, it was easy to see at least part of the problem. One awful cover after another.
 

fuzzbender

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I thought the Roger Dean stuff got old real fast, especially when everyone (and their customized van) felt they needed wild, fantasy landscapes to be taken oh-so-seriously. Hipgnosis designed a lots of cool covers in the 70's (all that Pink Floyd, etc.) and that became the look you had to have... but again, when everyone has it, it really isn't special anymore.

When I was watching 20 Feet From Stardom, there was a point when all the great backup voices started getting recording deals and putting out albums of their own. The documentary wondered why these great voices couldn't break through, but as they flashed the absolutely generic album covers they all had onscreen, it was easy to see at least part of the problem. One awful cover after another.

yes, yet surely there was some overall value?

backing singers, backing art, you know what i mean?

a total approach, you dig?
 

Fearnot

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People pored over every detail of this cover for months, and this crosswalk is still a tourist attraction 40-some-odd years later. That's a cover.

beatles-abbeyroad.jpg
 
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