Top 5 Album Covers

This is my Top 5 list from Episode 16. In this episode, I discussed vinyl records and what the appeal of collecting an outdated medium is to me. The biggest draw of collecting LP (or Long-Playing) records is by far the amazing artwork that can be found on many record sleeves. In an era where more people buy music off iTunes or other digital services than actually purchase physical copies, the importance of album art is being lost. There's a vast difference between looking at a one-inch thumbnail on your computer screen and looking at the cover of a 12" record.

Thick as a Brick (1972)

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (1968)

Vinyl packaging was also clever in its use of creative designs, with gatefold sleeves, crazy flaps, pop-ups, and entirely original concept packaging (as seen on Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake). Here now is my list of the Top 5 most striking or iconic album covers (after Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, of course).

#5: Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Houses of the Holy (1973)

It's difficult to choose the best Led Zeppelin album cover. I was especially torn between this and the cover of Led Zeppelin IV with the old man threshing wheat, but this cover is just far more striking. With that tinting, the amazing landscape (the actual photograph was taken at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland) and those creepy naked children (which is actually the same child photographed in different positions), it leaves a real impression on me. The artwork was designed by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis. Hipgnosis was the design studio that is most famous for doing all of Pink Floyd's most recognizable covers, including Dark Side of the Moon, as well as designing covers for Genesis, Bad Company, and AC/DC.

#4: Tie - Santana - Abraxas / Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Abraxas (1970)

Bitches Brew (1970)

I had to name these two album covers a tie since they are stylistically so similar. That's because they were both done by the same artist, Mati Klarwein. You will also notice that both albums came out in the same year. Musically, Bitches Brew is the far superior album, but Abraxas does rank as one of Santana's best. The cover of Abraxas is a painting done in 1961 by Klarwein called Annunciation. The cover for Bitches Brew was specifically done for that album. Both covers feature the use of naked African people, swirling colors, and juxtaposition. If I had to give the nod to one of these albums, I would give it to Bitches Brew because the artwork is cleaner and more concise.

#3: Yes - Relayer

Relayer (1974)

I could have really put any Yes album cover here, but Relayer is the most representative of artist Roger Dean's unique style. Roger Dean painted the covers for almost every single Yes album, including their most recent 2011 release Fly From Here. His style features moody, surreal landscapes featuring graceful stone arches, alien structures, floating islands, and other fantastic natural features. He primarily works in watercolors. Says Dean, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape artist." Dean has also designed album covers for such bands as Uriah Heep, Asia, Gentle Giant, and Atomic Rooster, which are all excellent progressive rock bands (except for Asia, they suck).

#2: Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

ELP's masterpiece album features one of the creepiest covers you'll ever find. It was designed by H.R. Giger, who is most famous for designing the alien for the movie Alien. He is without a doubt the master of creating artwork that is horrifyingly disturbing and yet still subtle. His most distinctive characteristic is the melding of human bodies and machines in a relationship described as "biomechanical." You probably can't tell from the picture there, but that front cover is actually split vertically down the middle so that it opens in two flaps, revealing a woman's face with alien hair and multiple scars, including one shaped like the infinity symbol and one that is clearly from a frontal lobotomy. The odd glowing dome-like object beneath her mouth is clearly reminiscent of a phallus, and there is a rumor that the phrase "brain salad surgery" is slang for fellatio.

#1: King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

In the Court of the Crimson King (1968)

King Crimson's debut album is one of the most important albums of all time. It basically created the genre of progressive rock overnight. Its cover is one of the most iconic album covers in rock and roll history. Yet for all that significance, its original artist is not famous at all. It was painted by a computer programmer named Barry Godber; who died in 1970 not long after the album's release of a heart attack; this would be his only painting. The original painting is now owned by the leader of King Crimson, Robert Fripp, who had this to say about Godber:

"Peter [Sinfield] brought this painting in and the band loved it. I recently recovered the original from EG's offices because they kept it exposed to bright light, at the risk of ruining it, so I ended up removing it. The face on the outside is the Schizoid Man, and on the inside it's the Crimson King. If you cover the smiling face, the eyes reveal an incredible sadness. What can one add? It reflects the music."

And there you have it, my Top 5 Album Covers of all time. You'll notice that a common trend here is that a) most of the albums are progressive rock albums and b) most of them do not feature the band name or album name anywhere on the cover. What do you think about that? Comment and let me know.