10 Great Album Covers, Chosen by Jason S. Thompson of Amp
Rage Against the Machine, Sunny Day Real Estate, Hopesfall and more
Published by: Jason S. Thompson | Muse by Clio on January 4th, 2024
Like many that come from both a visual and audio background, it's nearly impossible to separate an album cover from the music itself, especially the first time you hear a given record. The artwork presented is the musician's brand and holds more weight than some might like. I'll admit that I skipped past many amazing albums initially purely based on artwork that I didn't like.
On the flipside, artwork has pulled me in to listen to an album that might otherwise never be in my rotation. The first time I listened to Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell I had to make sure that the record wasn't swapped out and a metal album was laying sleeveless somewhere in the record store. No knocks on Meat Loaf, of course, but that was a confusing day at the shop.
While the albums below vary in style both in genre as well as aesthetics, they act more like a time capsule for me and I'm sure you can relate.
I can't listen to Dookie by Green Day without remembering scanning the cover for all of the little weird shit on it like a punk rock, bizarro world "Where’s Waldo?" I can't hear "The Hunter" by Björk without floating back to the darkroom in college where I put Homogenic in my CD player for the first time, barely able to make out the cover with the glow of the amber safe light.
Anyway, here's "Wonderwall."
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