10 Great Album Covers, Chosen by Jason S. Thompson of Amp
Rage Against the Machine, Sunny Day Real Estate, Hopesfall and more
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."
To read the rest of Jason's top favorite 10 album covers, click the button below.