Fifty Pounds
Klaus Voormann spent three weeks creating one of the most celebrated album covers in history. He was paid fifty pounds.
Directory
Deep Dive
Long form explorations of iconic and fascinating album covers. The full story, properly told.
The Phoenix, The Harpy, The Pixels
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West - I thought it was just Kanye being Kanye. It was.
The Night Ziggy Landed
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie - He doesn't fill the frame. He's small, almost lost in the street.
Screaming From The Earth
Maggot Brain by Funkadelic - The cover disturbed me. The music surprised me.
Those Lines
Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division - The iconic cover isn't abstract art. It's a signal from a dead star.
Sleeve Notes
Short reads on album covers worth knowing about. Lesser known, overlooked and underrated artwork that deserves a moment in the spotlight.
It Came From A Rice Cooker
Aladdin Sane by David Bowie - The lightning bolt that appeared on millions of faces the night he died. It came from a rice cooker.
That's Not His Suit
The white suit on the cover of the best selling album in history wasn't Michael's. It belonged to the photographer. And the tiger kept wandering off.
The Stuff Of Diners And Motels
Neon Bible by Arcade Fire - The cover doesn't immediately grab you. A neon sign in the dark. Pink and orange against black. Something you'd walk past without stopping. Look again. There's considerably more going on here than first appears.
Hold It Up To A Mirror
Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys - I thought it was their private jet. Three lads flying somewhere loud and probably illegal.
Stolen From A Pub Toilet
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac - The cover is boring. Two people, a light background, and a pair of wooden balls hanging like testicles.
Cool. Suave. And, Whose Feet Are Those?
Kick by INXS - Michael Hutchence owned that cover. But whose feet are on the skateboard at the top?
The Playlist
Themed collections of album cover art. From the sublime to the ridiculous, the iconic to the obscure. Album covers gathered around a common thread.
Press. Ship. Regret.
Five album covers that got it wrong. A missing letter. A wrong title. A bridge nobody bothered to fact check. The mistakes that made it to print.
The Flame, The Beetle, The Bullet
Five albums. Five covers. One unmistakable visual vision. Here's the full story of Massive Attack's extraordinary album cover art from Blue Lines to Heligoland.
None More Fictional
Ten fictional album covers from film and TV that never existed. And yet somehow, some of them are better than the real thing.
Say Nothing
Nine album covers so confident in their artwork they didn't bother with a single word. No band name. No album title. Just the image.
Look Closer
Eight iconic album covers hiding secrets most fans never noticed. From Bowie to The Beatles, look closer and you might just be surprised.
Controversial
Album covers that caused a stir. Banned, debated, misunderstood or just plain provocative. The covers that couldn't stay quiet.
The Birth of Prince
Lovesexy by Prince - Most call it audacious. I call it confidence. There's a difference.
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.
Unzip This
A Controversial look at the cover of Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones
10050 Cielo Drive
A look at the controversy behind the cover of The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails
Raw Deal
The cover that shocked America, got recalled within days, and became the most valuable Beatles collectible in existence.