White Noise
Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson - The cover that turned a rock star into an alien, then hid a message in plain sight.
Category
1990s
Sleeves from a decade caught between analogue grit and digital possibility; CD-era covers with something to prove.
Stories
Why Try Harder
You've Come a Long Way, Baby by Fatboy Slim - The man on the cover has been famous for over twenty-five years. He still doesn't know it.
The Dog Book
Odelay by Beck - A stranger's old dog photo, a girlfriend's tip, and a cover chosen in a last-minute scramble to beat a deadline.
The Mannequin
The Slim Shady LP by Eminem - A visual monument to the American Dream gone wrong. A dark pier, a borrowed daughter, and a moral compass that functioned like a high-end toaster in a bathtub.
Almost Looks Like It Means Something
OK Computer by Radiohead - A road. Some blurred figures. White space. Here's what it all means and the hotel window it was photographed from.
The Dream She Gave Me
Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins - My wife introduced me to the Smashing Pumpkins. Before her I only knew the rat in a cage song.
That Was On Purpose
This Is Hardcore by Pulp - I was a young man in 1998. I saw the cover and noticed a semi-naked woman. I was mesmerised.
Fifteen Seconds
Nevermind by Nirvana - The shoot lasted fifteen seconds. The baby was four months old. Thirty years later he sued the band that made him famous.
10050 Cielo Drive
A look at the controversy behind the cover of The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails