Greatest Album Art
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2022 10:20 am
I've just been thinking about a recent conversation I had with Savvy Paul.
He showed me what he considered to be "One of the best album covers of all time." (He might have said THE BEST, but being hyperbolic is standard when you've just visited the Local.)
Two things come to mind:
Firstly, that we really did lose something when we moved to the "smaller formats," CD and cassette tapes to start with: not only did we lose that tactile experience of handling our vinyl, but the importance of the cover picture, the notes, sometimes the lyrics too, all became somehow less impactful.
And Secondly, a whole TYPE of art began to die. Where is the outlet for those gifted creatives who produced these covers?
Sure, new releases still have their cover art, but it seems far more like an afterthought nowadays. And it's much harder to be impressed by the 1cm square on a media screen that we get to interact with now.
In that vein, I thought it would be nice to have a thread of some great cover art of the past that we can all admire.
To start the ball rolling here's Santana's Abraxas. (1971)
The cover of Abraxas is the Mati Klawein painting "Annunciation" from 1961.
Klarwein's provocative image depicts the moment that the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a child.
Enjoy
He showed me what he considered to be "One of the best album covers of all time." (He might have said THE BEST, but being hyperbolic is standard when you've just visited the Local.)
Two things come to mind:
Firstly, that we really did lose something when we moved to the "smaller formats," CD and cassette tapes to start with: not only did we lose that tactile experience of handling our vinyl, but the importance of the cover picture, the notes, sometimes the lyrics too, all became somehow less impactful.
And Secondly, a whole TYPE of art began to die. Where is the outlet for those gifted creatives who produced these covers?
Sure, new releases still have their cover art, but it seems far more like an afterthought nowadays. And it's much harder to be impressed by the 1cm square on a media screen that we get to interact with now.
In that vein, I thought it would be nice to have a thread of some great cover art of the past that we can all admire.
To start the ball rolling here's Santana's Abraxas. (1971)
The cover of Abraxas is the Mati Klawein painting "Annunciation" from 1961.
Klarwein's provocative image depicts the moment that the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a child.
Enjoy
