This is Part Eight in my series listing my 50 Favorite Rock Album Covers of All Time. We are oh-so-close to the top, drawing just shy of the Top 10. This group of five, Numbers 11 to 15, contains the designers’ answers to some very interesting sounds, and has strong representation from the early 1990’s – probably my favorite musical era. Let’s peruse these next five visual gems.
#15: My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
The color in this is just phenomenal to me. It’s so rich and layered. That, combined with the blurred and textured nature of the guitar image, is the perfect visual reflection of the record’s dense, drenched sound that broke so much musical ground.
#14: The 101 – Green Street
I don’t know if this image is of a street in the band’s native neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or not, but if it isn’t, it certainly could be. The bright light of the sky, with the dark shadows on the cars and street below, is such a great look. It doesn’t telegraph the sound of the record to me, but it gives me a definite sense of mood.
#13: The Belltower – Popdropper
One of the earliest uses of pixilation on an album cover? Could be. These benefactors of the earlier MBV Loveless album also did an admirable job of matching the image on the cover to the sound on their record. Dreamy, spacey, gooey…awesome.
#12: Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff
It’s widely known the songs on this record are what got America ready for Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the entire Grunge/Indie/Alternative explosion of the 1990’s. But before that occurred, this cover, with its photo of the band members in full losing-their-minds-and-control-of-their-bodies performance mode, got plenty of people interested in what the hell was going on there up in Seattle.
#11: Delerium – Euphoric
Like Green Street, this cover gives me the exact mood of the record. It doesn’t tell me exactly what it will sound like – it could be metal, or maybe something like Sarah MacLachlan or Enya, with the dial turned quite a bit darker. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful, elegant. Some might argue this is not a rock album. Although it employs a lot of electronic elements and sampling, there’s enough industrial banging and clanging to meet my standard.
Coming next – we will arrive at the lofty heights of the Top 10! In the next five entries, the 1980’s are heavily featured, as well as two covers from one single band. And I would bet quite a lot of money you don’t know which band it is.
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#15: My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
The color in this is just phenomenal to me. It’s so rich and layered. That, combined with the blurred and textured nature of the guitar image, is the perfect visual reflection of the record’s dense, drenched sound that broke so much musical ground.
#14: The 101 – Green Street
I don’t know if this image is of a street in the band’s native neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or not, but if it isn’t, it certainly could be. The bright light of the sky, with the dark shadows on the cars and street below, is such a great look. It doesn’t telegraph the sound of the record to me, but it gives me a definite sense of mood.
#13: The Belltower – Popdropper
One of the earliest uses of pixilation on an album cover? Could be. These benefactors of the earlier MBV Loveless album also did an admirable job of matching the image on the cover to the sound on their record. Dreamy, spacey, gooey…awesome.
#12: Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff
It’s widely known the songs on this record are what got America ready for Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the entire Grunge/Indie/Alternative explosion of the 1990’s. But before that occurred, this cover, with its photo of the band members in full losing-their-minds-and-control-of-their-bodies performance mode, got plenty of people interested in what the hell was going on there up in Seattle.
#11: Delerium – Euphoric
Like Green Street, this cover gives me the exact mood of the record. It doesn’t tell me exactly what it will sound like – it could be metal, or maybe something like Sarah MacLachlan or Enya, with the dial turned quite a bit darker. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful, elegant. Some might argue this is not a rock album. Although it employs a lot of electronic elements and sampling, there’s enough industrial banging and clanging to meet my standard.
Coming next – we will arrive at the lofty heights of the Top 10! In the next five entries, the 1980’s are heavily featured, as well as two covers from one single band. And I would bet quite a lot of money you don’t know which band it is.
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