The importance of album covers

[Mind Movie]

How important do you consider album covers to be? Can they grab or repel your interest towards an album? And does the album cover need to reflect the music that can be found on the album, or should the cover just be nice to look at?

Oh, and bonus question: which album covers are your favorites? I've been looking a lot on the artworks in my collection lately, in order to find my favorites. The following three are my current favorites:

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[albummaster]

it's not directly answering the question, but I must admit to buying the odd album/12" solely based on how I liked the artwork. The one I particularly remember, because it was a successful purchase was The Beloved's The Sun Rising.

I think the artwork can help to get the vibe of an album and contributes to the overall album 'package', but I think the artwork matters less now in the age of digital music. Funnily enough is also probably partly the reason behind the recent increase in vinyl sales, as people are seeking something more from their music purchases than just the music.

[Romanelli]

For myself, I cthink the album cover is vital. I'm crazy enough to not allow an album into my collection without the complete packaging.

However, I think that for a long time, for a large number of people, cover art is meaningless. When music started to become more portable, the artwork started getting smaller. CD's redeemed that some, but not enough. Cassettes were the worst offenders: the album art was so small on those little cases it was barely even worth looking at. Anyway, I think that as music became more portable, people started caring about the artwork less. There are still plenty of people for whom it matters, but look at your family and friends. How many of them have notebooks filled with CD's with no artwork? Burned CD's without even tracklists? Loose music everywhere with nothing to identify them but the printing on the disc...or the title written in Sharpie.

And with digital, the artwork is optional, so many people don't bother with it. Sad. I do agree with albummaster: I think that a part of the vinyl revival is that the artwork on the LP packaging was the peak, and people are rediscovering it. At least, I hope so.

[Guest]

I think the purpose of cover art is simply to reflect the tone/mood/"color"/feel of the album's music. So then when you look or think back to that album, you not only think of what you see but how you felt. That, and another important thing is to have a unique cover that is separate from other album covers to create distinction in people's minds.

To me an example of a good album cover is Arctic Monkey's WPSIATWIN. I know it's just some guy smoking a cigarette. It's not pretty looking, artsy, or anything like that, but it has distinction and reflects the tone of the album. It's a cover that does it's job.

[HigherThanTheSun]

[BlueNote]

Sometimes great albums and great album covers go together:

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Sometimes they don't:

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[VADERBREWING]

I'm incline not to listen to hidious looking album covers. There's an amlbum in the top 100 with a big cartoon repulsive pink / red face (is it beefheart?)...anyway I pass every time. there is another one with jam or blood. Or that one with the person and the bloody nose. Pass. I don't like blood on the cover.

I am incline to try good looking albums in combination with good reviews or if its from an artist that I like.

I would also suspect album covers are designed to be recognized and enjoyed in an itunes sized image. I don't think that could be overlooked by record companies.

I would also add that I don't know the names of many songs and often even the album but still associate the song with the album through the image.

I use Itunes. If I don't like the art I replace it with a good concert poster.
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New fav's: The Weepies, Art Brut, 311. Old Fav's: Bowie, zepalin, stones, buckcherry, cheap trick, couting crowes. Seen: Black Crowes, Nirvana, Ugly Kid Joe, Pretenders, Phycadelic furs, Ozzy, Thompson Twins, B Adams...regret not seeing G&R.

[videoheadcleaner]

For me, the appeal of artwork has always been a bonus to the music. A lot of my top albums (overall and decade charts) have artwork that I also regard highly and would like to have on my wall.

Lately, listening to a fair bit of ambient, there seems to be a similar theme with them. Shades, block colours, obscured views, patterns, segments of larger images. Guess it correlates with soundscapes.

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[Facetious]

Album covers are REALLY important. An instantly recognizable cover can become an important part of the album's reputation, and the album becomes almost inseparable from its cover. Take Sgt. Pepper's, Sticky Fingers, Abbey Road or Dark Side. Sometimes this goes to such heights that the cover becomed almost as famous as the real title of an album, and so you get albums referred to as The White Album, The Banana Album or The Beano Album.

I have to admit that personally, sometimes the cover can affect my opinion of the music itself too if I like/dislike it too much

Revolver, The White Album, and Doc at the Radar Station may be my three fave covers. The albums themselves are also pretty good.

[WillWill1989]

I loved the klaxons album cover from last year
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