On the Blogs Category

My Modern Metropolis blogger Katie Hosmer has written about British artist David Marsh, who recreates classic album covers using Pantone swatches.

If you are a graphic designer, you will immediately recognize these little squares that represent Pantone swatches in Adobe design software. British artist David Marsh took these functional little squares and turned them into something completely new. Take a step back to get a really good look at the pixilated scenes, which use minimal amounts of colors to form the famous and recognizable artwork.

Source: Pantone Swatches Form Classic Album Covers

Check out the covers on Hosmer's blog. All of them are instantly recognizable. My favorite is Roxy Music's Country Life. Other examples include Nirvana's Nevermind, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Weasels Ripped My Flesh by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention.

Portland's RockPop Gallery is a unique showcase of the best artistic and photographic talent from all areas of today's music industry. Founder Mike Goldstein has just published an interview with Roddy Bogawa, the filmmaker responsible for Taken by Storm, a recent documentary about artist Storm Thorgerson. As many of our readers know, Thorgerson is one of the most famous album cover designers of all time and best known for designing classic album covers for bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

Interview with Roddy Bogawa on the documentary film Taken By Storm

RockPoP Gallery's Mike Goldstein interviews film-maker Roddy Bogawa about his new film titled Taken By Storm

When filmmaker Roddy Bogawa was in his teens, a ticket to a date on Pink Floyd's Animals tour exposed him to full-scale examples of the work of Storm Thorgerson and that artist's unique approach to rock music-related design. In Thorgerson's forward to the revised (2008) edition of his book on album cover design titled "Album Cover Album", he posits that record sleeves were "often the first place where pubescents come across the visual arts - being reluctant to visit galleries or read art books while in the throes of hormonal disarray" and, in this case, his words seem prophetic when you now take into account the path that Roddy has taken to becoming the talented multi-media artist he is today.

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Famous Album Covers is a fun collaborative blog that I have been contributing to for many months. It features fictional album covers by fictional bands and often fictional stories about them.

My latest creation uses an acid-washed stencil font like those that have been popping up on a lot of recent album covers, particularly the various ICON greatest hits collections (right).

I also wanted to follow the trend of using scans of old family snapshots and amateur photos as album art. So, I used a scan of a my late mother in a photo booth with a friend that was taken in the 1950s. Mom was the blonde on the right. I imagined that it was the kind of photo girls would send to their boyfriends who were away at war.

I like making up stories that are almost believable and based on real artists. You'll have to guess who inspired the fictional artist Ellen Townsend. You can click the image for a larger view.

Ellen Townsend: Missing You

Ellen Townsend (born August 16, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Townsend was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. A musical prodigy, she learned to play guitar by the age of 10. Her formative years were spent in the small town of Clarinda, Iowa, where she began performing in a bar owned by her stepfather. Her first public concert was at age 15 at the University of Iowa campus. Townsend cites Joni Mitchell as a primary influence on her music, and her initial recordings reflect that.

Townsend began working in the music scene professionally in the late 1970s. She moved to New York City in 1983, where she became involved with the Fast Folk cooperative in Greenwich Village. She has recorded 10 studio albums.

Released in August 2010, her most recent album, Missing You, is being called the best of her career by many top music critics. The title track was used for the theme of the TV series Deadly Little Bitches and has reached #4 on the pop music chart.

Famous Album Covers accepts submissions. If you're inspired to create a fictional album cover and a short story to go along with it, feel free to drop them a message.

I ran across an article on Huffington Post today about Album Tacos, a blog that features album covers that have been altered to feature tacos.

Album Tacos: Every Album Cover Is Better With A Taco (PHOTOS)

The Internet continues to surprise us on a daily basis. Today, the hottest Tumblr on the web is Album Tacos, an amazing blog with a simple purpose: inserting tacos into our favorite album covers. Tumblr users continue to amaze us with their creativity, and Album Tacos is no different...

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There aren't that many covers on the blog at this stage, but they are all hilarious.

Animated Albums is a fun blog where you will find dozens of animated album covers, created from the cover art from many popular albums. One of my favorites is the Rolling Stones Tattoo You with an animated tattoo needle.

Animated Albums

A blogger who goes by the handle Jrod published an article today about how his photograph was selected by Interscope Records to be the cover of the forthcoming album Last Train to Paris by Diddy - Dirty Money. I don't know whether or not this account is true. However, I have had several photographs that I've posted to my Flickr account used for things like greeting cards and travel books by companies who found them through a Internet search. So, it is certainly believable.

When I accidentally designed Diddy's album cover

I've had to keep a secret for a little while now, but finally I can reveal all.

Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Diddy, or Sean Combs, whatever you prefer to call him, has released a new album.

Last Train To Paris as part of the group Diddy Dirty Money.

So far everything is going along normal.

Diddy is a big recording star, he makes albums, all is good with the world.

But then something got fucked up, I got involved.

Interscope emailed me repeatedly, and then called me, they wanted one of my photos for the album cover.

Who was I to argue?

Especially as they were going to pay me.

So I gave them my picture, and then I had to wait for the Album to get made.

For some reason I never asked where on the cover the photo would go. I assumed the back cover with some writing over the top, I like my photo and all, but I never really saw it as front of an album cover material.

Apparently I was wrong.

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Jrod writes that on at least one website the commeters were calling the album cover "whack" and another asked visitors to rate it against the cover for Enrique Iglesias' Euphoria. He will have to come to AlbumArtExchange Blog when Last Train to Paris is released on June 22, 2010 to see how his cover fares in the Best Album Cover of the Week poll.

Personally, I like this album cover. I would have never guessed it was taken by an amateur photographer.

Recently, Jeff Crouch at Famous Album Covers invited me to become a regular contributor to the best fake album cover blog on the Internet. Creating parodies of album covers has always been a kick for me, so I gladly accepted the opportunity.

My latest contributions are parodies of the album covers of New York indie rock band Vampire Weekend (right). The photos are old snapshots from my family album. They were taken in 1960 of cousins who I haven't seen for decades.

The trend of using scans of old snapshots for album art is one that has gotten a little cliche. It seems as every indie band has been busy searching through shoeboxes of faded old photos.

Martian Holiday: S/T

Martian Holiday is a Chicago-based American indie rock band, formed in 2008 and signed to SuperSized Recordings. The band members include: Walter Cartwright, lead vocals and guitar; Omar Kahlil, keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals; Tom Christianson, drums and percussion; and Chachi Charles, bass guitar and backing vocals.

The band's name is derived from the film Christmas on Mars by psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips. The band first gained attention via a variety of blogs, such as Stereogum. The members claim to be influenced by both 1960s psychedelic rock and Middle Eastern classical music, describing their genre of music as Bucktown Freak.

The members of the band met as students in the Department of Music at Chicago University where they studied ethnomusicology and composition; after graduation they self-produced their first album while concurrently working full-time jobs. The self-titled album met with immediate critical acclaim.

In 2009, Martian Holiday's song Terrible Terrorist was ranked 42th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of the year. In November 2009, they toured the United Kingdom with Kylie Minogue. They were declared "The Year's Best New Band" by Spin magazine in the March 2010 issue.

The band is also known for their unusually minimalist album cover art. The cover for Martian Holiday featured a Polaroid snapshot that lead singer Cartwright found in a family photo album. Cartwright revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that the people in the snapshot are his mother and her twin brother. The band's sophomore album Green Again is scheduled to be released in June 2010. The band's website was recently replaced with a single image that is believed to be the official album cover.

I recently uploaded a bunch of 1980s Beggars Banquet album covers and was inspired to greate a couple of new submissions for my favorite fake album cover blog, Famous Album Covers.

Many of the album covers from the era exhibit a similar design style. They often feature textured backgrounds and a morbid photograph of some sort. The photograph used in the first example is one that I took at the Santa Barbara Mission. The one used in the second is a vintage 19th century photograph.

I created the textures by scanning a couple of old journals that I had around the house. I think that I was able to recreate the look of the era. I am especially pleased with the second cover.

Micheli and the Macchiaioli: Macchie Macchie

Micheli and the Macchiaioli were a British alternative rock band active from 1978 to 1996. They are known for complex instrumentation and atmospheric and often unintelligible vocals.

Though formed in the post-punk and New Wave era, Micheli and the Macchiaioli continues to defy precise categorization. Their music is recognized as being a key influence on ethereal goth.

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Micheli and the Macchiaioli: Tomboj de niaj patroj

The sophomore album by British alternative rock band Micheli and the Macchiaioli, Tomboj de niaj patroj, cemented their place in the history of goth music. Not only were the compositions darker than that of the band's debut album Macchie Macchie, the heroin addiction of lead singer Connie Cooper resulted in a bizarre slurring of the already incomprehensible Esperanto lyrics.

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Famous Album Covers accepts submissions. If you want to submit a fictional cover and a story to go along with it, just visit the blog and use the email address listed.

One of my favorite blogs is Famous Album Covers. It is a collaborative blog that posts album covers for fictional bands, often with fictional stories. I have contributed my own creations several times.

The recent cover for Delphic's Acolyte (right) reminded me of several photographs I took of jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium a couple of years ago. The viscous trails behind the human figures floating in water look quite a bit like the beautiful tendrils of the jellies.

That inspired me to create a fictional album cover for Famous Album Covers using one of my photographs. I also chose to parody the recent trend in rock music of bands covering entire albums by other artists.

I really like the way my "famous" album cover turned out. I think that this image would make an excellent album cover for the right project.

Famous Album Covers is a unique collaborative blog that features short stories about fictional album covers by fictional bands. Here is my latest contibution to the collection. The photograph used on the album cover was taken last year by my friend Cliff Stewart at the annual Candy Cane Lane display in Pacific Grove, California.

Merry Elvmas: A Holiday Tribute to Elvis

Merry Elvmas is a classic Elvis Christmas album with classic Christmas songs done as only Elvis could do them redone by Famous Album Cover artists (mostly). Yes, you will thrill to hear Christmas tunes done by Elvis redone by Famous Album Cover artists. Just consider it the musical equivalent of Jim Carrey portraying Andy Kaufman. It’s all about sytle.

Santa Claus Is Back In Town - Edvard Just Knows
White Christmas - The XRays
Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) - String Theory
I’ll Be Home For Christmas - Before We Get Too Waco
Blue Christmas - The Blue Eels
Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me) - Crik
O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Oliver and the Otters
Medley - Benita Becquer and the Fashionettes
(There’ll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me) - Bigfoot Meets Industrial Orange
I Believe - Runaway Train Engineers
Take My Hand, Precious Lord - Tin Drum
It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) - Vapor Mints

The story for the album was written by Famous Album Cover’s Jeff Crouch. For those of you who may be interested, the blog accepts submissions. The contact email address can be found at the Famous Album Covers blog.

A few days ago, I ran across a story on a blog about a professional wrestling promoter named Paul Heyman who believes that the cover for Rihanna’s single Russian Roulette may have been inspired by a cover for album he produced back in 1998. I was surprised when I saw that the story grew legs and was repeated by dozens of other blogs and online magazines.

Today, a blog called People Magazine Daily (not affiliated with People magazine) went so far as to accuse Rihanna’s record label of unauthorized use:

Rihanna’s photograph was an unauthorized use.

So when do you think she and her company will have to pay the Pied Piper?

So, I think it is time for the AlbumArtExchange’s most vocal album art expert to weigh in on the issue. This “scandal” needs a voice of reason.

Those of you who follow the AlbumArtExchange blog know that there are probably thousands of examples of these kinds of coincidences involving album covers. At first glance, it appears that these two covers have a great deal in common. The pose is similar and both figures are wrapped in barbed wire. If you’ve never seen a photograph of a person wrapped in barbed wire, you may come to the hasty conclusion that the later cover must have been inspired by the first. In truth, the artistic theme of a person wrapped in barbed wire has a long and kinky history.

Posted by: zeefritz

Posted by: zeefritz

Those of us who have studied art and photography recognize being wrapped in barbed wire as a fairly common theme that stems from the world of S&M and bondage. There are paintings and photographs showing women (and sometimes men) wrapped in barbed wire going back decades. Often these images are focused on a woman’s breasts, as with the Rihanna cover. I have found several examples online (below) that are very similar in concept to the Rihanna cover.

The fact that Rihanna is wearing a mask and a corset indicates that her cover was inspired by the S&M fetish, rather than professional wrestling. Where Paul Heyman got his inspiration is another question. I don’t think fans of professional wrestling realize just how much kinky stuff is displayed in this field of entertainment — sweaty, muscular men wrapped in barbed wire, hmm.

The larger issue that should be discussed is whether or not either cover is really appropriate for items that are displayed in public to a general audience that includes children. Being wrapped in barbed wire is a form of torture. Yet, both images unrealistically depict the person wrapped in barbed wire as being free of any obvious pain. Some may argue that such an image is more degrading to women.

Graphic designers and art directors typically have college degrees in the field of Art. They study paintings and photographs that often explore controversial subject matter. The problem with using those types of themes on an album cover is that the proper context is often warped or absent. What does it mean to a 12-year-old child to see his or her pop idol or a wrestling star wrapped in barbed wire? What is really being sold by both of these covers? Sex and violence appears to be the answer.

Let me begin by making it clear that I am NOT one of those people who don’t like to say “I told you so.” Back in August, I wrote about the new digital sales formats that both Apple and major record labels are introducing in order to boost album sales.

In Apple’s Project Cocktail vs. CMX: Either way indie artists lose, I wrote:

One thing that most of the news articles about these new formats seem to overlook is how they will impact recording artists. The digital music format was not developed by the record industry. The MP3 was something that was forced upon them. In addition, the technology that is used to produce an MP3 is not proprietary to the recording industry.

This means that independent recording artists and small record labels can easily produce their own product and distribute it for sale through online stores. This will not be the case with Apple’s Cocktail and CMX. These formats will be owned by the record industry and artists who wish to use them to promote their albums will undoubtedly have to make deals with the major labels.

If these formats end up being something that consumers like (and that’s probably not likely), it will be a step back for independent recording artists and small labels. They will almost certainly be locked out of the game by the big boys.

Yesterday, John Herman wrote an article for tech and gadget blog Gizmodo that reveals Apple is in fact shutting indie artists out of the iTunes LP sales format:

Apple to Indie Labels: iTunes LP Is Out of Your League

With a higher price than regular albums, no lossless audio and virtually no device support, iTunes LP seems like a hard sell. Turns out, it might be lame for musicians too—at least, the ones without platinum records.

I spoke with Brian McKinney, who runs Chocolate Lab Records, a smallish label out of Chicago. As someone who actually makes records, he saw potential in iTunes LP, and after seeing how incredibly simple the actual LP files are, started looking into making some himself. It didn’t go so well:

I contacted the digital distribution manager at my label’s distributor. He had a conference call with an iTunes rep and asked how we go about putting an LP together. He was told that LPs aren’t being offered to indies and that there are only about 12 LPs being offered right now. They also said that iTunes charges a $10,000 production fee for them as well. So that pretty much edges out the indie market completely.

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So, there you have it. I am still surprised that this wasn’t reported on much earlier. I know that my earlier blog post got quit a lot of traffic when it was published back in August. I was certain that someone who works with independent artists would raise this issue.

I didn’t take a genius to figure this one out. Oh, and global warming is real, too.

I’ve submitted another cover to Famous Albums Covers, the best fake album cover blog on the Internet. This time, I decided to create a creepy, Halloween type album cover. Check out all of the other fun “famous” album covers they have to offer.

behind the red door: come play with us

Behind the Red Door is an Athens, Georgia alternative rock band formed in 2004 by twin brothers Jacob and Jared Marx. The band took their name from the 2003 movie starring Kiefer Sutherland and Kyra Sedgwick about a man dying of AIDS.

“Our music is very dark and we deal with issues of death, violence and injustice quite a bit,” said Jared Marx in a recent interview. “Our drummer Stacy (Roper) was diagnosed with HIV shortly after he joined the band and that was why we wanted to name the band after that particular movie. There’s some meaning there that is too painful to go into.”

Come Play with Us is the band’s third studio album and it has met with some positive reviews, especially in the Athens music scene. The video for the first single “Death Panels for Sarah Palin” went viral on YouTube last month.

“That is Jared and me on the album cover,” said Jacob during the same interview. “We were about six years old. The hallway and red door have been added in. But that’s how we looked back then. Don’t ask us to tell you which one is which. Even we can’t tell.”

Creative Review published a blog article today about a French artist who uses Rubik’s Cubes to recreate classic album covers.

We’ve already seen people doing something similar with a Swedish bead art called pärlplattor. Basically, these designs reduce the original image to pixels and can deliver some impressive results. Our brains fill in the missing information and we can easily see the face of Jim Morrison or Michael Jackson.

Obviously, it would be much easier and far less expensive to use the pärlplattor beads than to take hundreds of Rubik’s Cubes apart. The end result is very much the same. Perhaps someone should let this French artist know about pärlplattor.

Space Invaders, Rubik’s Cubes and album art

Many of our readers will be aware of the work of French artist Invader, who has made a name for himself in recent years by creating mini mosaics of space invaders out of coloured tiles and installing them in street locations in cities around the world.

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Over the past few days, I’ve noticed that a significant number of visitors to the AAX blog came here via a Google search for singer-songwriter Kate Earl. I’m not sure what has sparked the sudden interest in this talented performer, but I’m happy to give my readers what they’re looking for.

Earl recently announced on her blog that her single Melody is going to be the free download of the week on iTunes beginning August 18.

Tell Your Friends!

My single “Melody” will be available as a free download, it is Itunes single of the week starting August 18th. The entire album will release that day! Woo hoo!

I already own her EP Introducing Kate Earl. It came out a couple of months ago. The covers for both the EP and the album have been uploaded to the AAX gallery. I have also posted a video that features Earl performing Melody live.

Since this is a blog about album cover art, I have to put in my two cents about the covers for the EP and the album. Kate Earl is uncommonly beautiful. If I were designing covers for this artist, I would only use the best headshots money can buy. Forget about multi-colored special effects and staged bedroom locations. This artist’s face could easily sell a million albums (see my recent article about Madonna). Her label needs to recognize that.

Posted by: zeefritz

Posted by: zeefritz

According to mjsbigblog, a celebrity makeup artist who did Adam Lambert’s makeup for an album cover photo shoot tweeted about the experience on Thursday. I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

Adam Lambert Album Cover Photo Shoot

Jasen Kaplan “celebrity makeup artist” twittered all day Thursday from the location of Adam Lambert’s album cover shoot. You’ve got the location, possibly the outfits, the accessories and some eye wear and of course, the jacket.

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Blogs are buzzing about a “new” Thriller 25th anniversary album. The cover being shown on the blogs writing about this rumor is that of the deluxe casebook edition that was released in February 2008.

Sorry, folks. This is not a new album. It is simply a deluxe edition of the Thriller 25 album that came out last year — several months after the 25th anniversary of Thriller. The cover was added to the AAX gallery in December 2008.

It is a great version of the album with extra tracks and Amazon.com has it in stock. It is on sale for $20.99. Just click the “buy now” button and you’ll be taken to Amazon.com.

It is likely that the unusual cover featuring Jackson surrounded by zombies from the Thriller video is what started the rumor. Not very many people are familiar with this particular cover. Sorry to disappoint those who thought this was a new release.

I’ve contributed another cover to Famous Album Covers. This one was inspired by the recent conspiracy theories surrounding Obama’s healthcare proposal.

Washington D.C. alternative rock band Kill Granny has just released their latest album Medicate Me. Having recently been fired by their label, U.S.A. Productions, the album was self-produced on a very limited budget and recorded in a small studio in the D.C. area.

Sadly, Kill Granny’s limited resources are quite evident on this album. The tracks are cliche and transparent. The music is uninspired and seems to have been borrowed from previous recordings.

It seems that Kill Granny’s stock in trade of attempting to shock their audience has become far too predictable. This is an album that nobody is buying.

There are lots of new covers to see a Famous Album Covers. Check them out!

Lucas Silviera, the singer for alternative rock band The Cliks, answered questions about transistioning from female to male and the meaning behind the group’s latest album cover in an interview on The New Gay blog today.

LS: I hate to dwell too much on your album art, but I thought the cover image was very brave. Was exposing your chest scars your decision?

TNG: Completely my decision. The publicist was very adamant about it; they were very wary of the situation. Even my band members were wary and thought that it was not the best idea, but when people tell me not to do something that’s when I want to do it even more. It’s not that the label wasn’t supportive. They were worried. I’d have to fight a lot, I think that a lot of people didn’t understand what I was trying to express in doing that. People read into stuff about me trying to be a big trans poster boy. To me it was about exposing myself as a human being, and I thought that that was the best format to do it. In my opinion, an album cover shouldn’t just be a band standing there with fucking guitars looking stupid. The purpose of creating music is to connect to people and create art. If you can’t evoke emotion with the cover, no one will go into it. It’s like a book. It’s such a valuable medium to have this visual attached to something that is sonic. The death of the album cover is sad. I remember looking through the cover of [Pink Floyd’s] The Wall, and being so connected to the imagery through the music. I’m glad i fought for it. Now it’s not just an album cover, it’s a beautiful piece of art.

Read the entire interview…

Here is music video for The Cliks title track, Dirty King:

Scott Colothan is a man who I can agree with regarding the future of album art. He’s written a great article at Gigwise that focuses primarily on the covers of singles. In the article, he also voices an opinion that I share, “As you can probably tell, I don’t think the single cover, like the album cover, will die.”

Colothan presents an interesting collection of single covers as his personal top ten. I’m not sure that I agree with all of his choices. For example, number one on his list is the very creepy Windowlicker by Aphex Twin.

The Best Single Covers Ever - My Top Ten

And why is single artwork often overlooked?

by Scott Colothan
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We’ve all read the headlines. ‘The Album Cover Is Dead!’, ‘The Death Of The Record Sleeve!’, ‘Album Artwork RIP!’ and so on. Endless column inches and website space has been wasted by journalists and bloggers spouting their obituaries while anguishing the loss of the “cultural institution” that is the album cover at the supposed grimy hands of downloading.

[…]

While I love everything about album artwork and don’t want them to “die a death” as widely and portentously predicted, if writers are going to waste their time mourning anything then surely it’s the physical single cover?

[…]

Below I present some of my favourite single covers from over the decades, many of which will feature in complete gallery countdown on Gigwise next week.

Read the article at Gigwise…

You will have to visit Gigwise to see Colothan’s entire list. I must say that I was disappointed that it isn’t more focused on many milestone covers that influenced the way singles have been marketed over the years.

There are many pioneers who began to position singles as collectibles in the early 1980s. The Smiths and Depeche Mode are prime examples. Both groups used cover art for their singles to encourage fans to buy them up in large numbers. My list of top ten single covers would include Hand In Glove by The Smiths and New Life by Depeche Mode.

  

In addition to launching enormous sales of singles by both bands, these covers where both revolutionary from an artist perspective. Hand In Glove is one of the first to feature male erotica, a photograph by the renowned Jim French. New Life, the second single for Depeche Mode, features a man climbing out of a vagina. The cover was banned and the single was not released in the U.S. Yet, it was the second of over 50 singles released by the band over the following 27 years.

While I can appreciate amusing and quirky covers like Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker, I don’t really think that it can be considered a milestone cover. However, I certainly do agree with Colothan that the covers of singles are often overlooked or take a backseat to album covers. Here on the AAX blog, I try to give equal attention to notable single covers. Singles are often the focus of our New and Notable articles.

Famous Album Covers is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs. It is a collaborative effort by some very talented artists who create “some of the most famous album covers you have never seen.”

I recently submitted my second “famous” cover to the blog. It was inspired by my spam filter.

Since the release of her eponymous debut album in 1995, Acai Berry has established herself as one of the most accomplished performers of the digital age.

The wife of a Nigerian prince, Acai has pioneered online marketing in the music industry. She has sold over 40 million albums worldwide strictly through email advertising.

Her 15th studio album, Spice Up Amorous Dish, is already the best-selling album of 2009. It comes on the heels of 2008’s “You’ve Received a Greeting Card” that included the hit dance track “You Can Wear Cartier Watch Now.”

The track listing for Spice Up Amorous Dish is as follows:

1. Virtualization Webinar
2. Let Your Love Stick Grow (Radio Edit)
3. Career Advancement Opportunities
4. Winning Notification
5. Possible Friendship
6. Credibility by Maximizing Your Productivity
7. All-Night Love Cascade
8. Increase Your Member
9. Qualitative Drugs For The Cheap (Bonus Track)
10. Let Your Love Stick Grow (Junior Vasquez Remix) (Bonus Track)

There are many wonderful album covers to browse through on the blog. Some are humorous. Ohters are poignant. Check it out. If you’re into album covers as much as I am, you’ll love it.

Check this out. SpeckyBoy has posted a collection of 30 classic album covers that have been recreated using Lego toys.

Here’s an amusing article from the L.A. Times Culture Monster blog about a spelling error that has delayed the release of a classical album. Oops!

Spelling mistake delays ‘Doctor Atomic Symphony’ CD
10:00 AM, July 21, 2009

Classical music fans who were looking forward to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s world-premiere CD release of John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic Symphony” on Tuesday are going to have to wait another week — and they can thank a typo for the delay.

That’s because a minor printing error at Nonesuch has caused the shipment to be pushed back to July 28. A misspelling of the conductor’s name meant that the cover art had to be reprinted, resulting in the one-week postponement, according to the music company.

The first album cover (pictured) misplaced the “t” from St. Louis Symphony music director David Robertson’s name.

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If you’re interested in the history of album art, you simply must visit Sleevage. The blog features regular articles about notable album covers and the designers who created them.

Today, I was happy to see an article about one of my favorite albums, Blondie’s Parallel Lines.

Parallel Lines

This is the fourth in our series of five seminal album covers by female artists

Parallel Lines, the third album by Blondie, was released in late 1978. By 1979, when they were finally huge in the States, the band felt the need to start a “Blondie is a Group” button campaign. Even for those discovering the band’s considerable appeal today, it’s so easy to think of Blondie as Debbie Harry and her backing band.

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Wired’s Epicenter blog has an interesting article about new innovations is music distribution that include packaging and format. We’ve already written about a couple of them here on the AAX blog, such as the Mos Def music t-shirt and recycled album art.

My brother’s band, Javelin, is considering an elaboration on this approach in their upcoming release for Thrill Jockey Records: hand-making every album cover using re-purposed vintage album covers, giving each fan a unique copy of the music and saving money on manufacturing.

I’m not sure whether or not the author of the article was joking about the recycled album covers. But, the rest of the article can definitely be taken seriously. The article features 10 recent innovations.

10 Weird Ways to Distribute Music

By Eliot Van Buskirk

Microsoft prepares a new streaming music service in the U.K., and a new report indicates a sharp decline in downloads among teenagers in favor of sites like Pandora, what’s an artist to do? Reinvent the distribution business, course.

Industry execs may fret about declining traditional sales, but some enterprising artists and labels have devised new ways to sell music that give fans something to collect, even in an age when the music itself can be infinitely duplicated for free. Or when the cloud makes the very idea of collecting and owning music seem quaint.

[…]

1. Max Tundra’s Limited Edition Kosher Chicken Soup

Purchasers of Domino Records artist Max Tundra’s 2008 album, Parallax Error Beheads You, have four formats to choose from: compact disc, vinyl, digital, or as a $19 soup can that comes with a download code. Domino calls this “the new kosher format,” due to the nature of the chicken soup contained inside the customized label. In addition to a food item that can be consumed in the event of lapsed fandom (or nuclear winter), fans who choose the soup can format also get an exclusive digital compilation of Max Tundra’s friends covering his songs…

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Paint My Album is a blog with a pretty simple concept. Two guys named Diarmuid and Anthony ask people to redo classic album covers using MS Paint. So far, they’ve received over 1,700 covers.

It is a pretty interesting concept. MS Paint is comes standard with Windows, so virtually everyone with a PC has the software needed to participate. It is amazing what some people can do with such a limited graphics program.

Here are a few examples:

 The guys promote their project using Facebook and YouTube. Their YouTube videos are more like a comedy sketch show than a show about sketches.

Norweigian metal band Theatre of Tragedy released the cover for their upcoming album Forver Is The World on their MySpace blog today:

We are proud to present the 7th Theatre of Tragedy album cover! This was one again made by the ingenious artwork wizard Thomas Ewerhard. Following up his excellent work on “Assembly” and “Storm”, Thomas has once again managed to amaze us with his skills. The album artwork is also an challenge to the die hard ToT fan. Somewhere inside this cover there is incorporated elements from all 6 studio album covers for the band. See if you can find it?

Shakira released the cover for her new single for She Wolf today. I was stunned that Perez Hilton had only good things to say about it!

Words can do this no justice!!!!

Shakira just unveiled the cover for her new single, She Wolf.

Exquisite!

It isn’t that I don’t agree with Hilton. The cover is pretty darn sexy. I just can’t believe Hilton doesn’t have something mean and catty to say about Shakira.

Shakira looks great in this shot. However, it appears that her record label is using this same photo for the Spanish version of the single. It is dissappointing that the Spanish version of the song, Loba, has the same art as She Wolf. I think that they qualify as being worthy of at least slightly different cover art. The AAX gallery has both versions thanks to user leothegreat.

The cover of former Destiny’s Child founding member LeToya’s new album Lady Love hit the blogs today. The cover features the singer wrapped in some kind of leather braids. It is very sexy and LeToya looks like a superstar. Wow!

This is exactly the kind of look that Jordin Sparks needed for her new album, Battlefield. Unfortunately, the creative direction behind Spark’s album cover just wasn’t as good. The composition, tone, and lighting for LeToya’s cover is everything a glamorous star could ask for. I don’t know what those braids are and I need to find out! That’s what an album cover is supposed to do. I suppose LeToya’s been in the business long enough to know what works.

This cover has not yet been added to the AAX gallery. I wasn’t able to find a high resolution version. Lady Love is set to be released on Friday, August 25.

The Blender is running a poll to find out what most people consider to be their favorite Michael Jackson album cover:

“Thriller” is considered Michael Jackson’s greatest musical accomplishment, but how does it rate among his all-time best album covers? I loved the artwork from “Dangerous,” but can’t deny Jackson was the ultimate little cool cat on the cover of “Got to Be There.”

Take the Poll

Robbie Daw has written a commentary about Mariah Carey’s new album cover over at his blog, Chart Rigger:

Thoughtful Commentary On Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel’ Album Cover

I meant to comment on Mariah Carey’s album cover art for Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel earlier this week, but the Michael Jackson news kind of sideswiped that. So let’s get to it now!

First of all, given the title of this trash, you kind of expect serious Mariah on the cover. Mariah with a grey background, looking pensive, if you will. Mariah feeling contemplative over her imperfections as a sad-winged missionary for God.

No, instead it’s giggle-squeal Mariah—three of them, in fact—in a skin-tight cotton dress with her ass hanging out. In fact, is that even a dress? Maybe a T-shirt, stretched down just far enough to cover Mimi’s secret.

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Mariah Carey announced the release of her latest album cover via Twitter today.

Here is the album art that was posted on MariahCarey.com:

 Of course, Perez Hilton was one of the first to write something nasty about it.

Check out the three beautiful - and beautifully Photoshopped - versions of Mariah Carey on the cover of her new album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.

Hawt!

God bless her retouchers!

I don’t know about you, but I am getting very sick of Perez Hilton. Not only is he predictably mean, he’s got a lot of nerve to write about Mariah’s album cover being Photoshopped. Have you seen the cover of single he released recently with Larry Tee called My Penis?

Now, take a look at an unretouched photo of Hilton. YUCK! I doubt that Mariah Carey had to have hundreds of zits airbrushed away.

A few days ago, I wrote about the cover for Jordin Sparks’ new album Battlefield. I wasn’t shy about sharing my dissatisfaction with the cover. As I wrote previously, it is a very bad design that doesn’t make the artist look her best. 

Today, a new cover has popped up on the blogs. It is reported to be a new version that was created in response to the negative reactions caused by the first. I have not been able to confirm whether or not this is a new cover produced by the record label. However, it is a vast improvement over the “up the nose” shot.

I don’t know who is leaking these covers. But, it is very unusual for a record label to change a cover this quickly due to negative comments posted online. I will post an update as soon as I have a confirmation.

Fictional bands, with fictional stories, and most important of all, fictional album covers. Welcome to Famous Album Covers!

That’s the description of Famous Album Covers, a collaborative blog that I found to be very entertaining. The blog gives us exactly what is promised, a series of fictional album covers with creative stories about the bands. The satire presented on this blog could serve as an inspiration for TV and movie writers.

Here is one of my favorites:

Barbed Wire Undergarments (Ireland’s equivalent of the Sex Pistols) hit the scene in 1975 with their highly acclaimed debut album, Sharp Spoons. Frontman Smithy O’Leary’s lyrics spoke to a nation of disillusioned youths through base-driven riffs of violence and unrest, as illustrated in this excerpt from, “The I.R.A. Ain’t Never Gonna Pay”:

The I.R.A. ain’t never gonna pay
for the bombs that they’ve been dropping
on the Protestants and Catholics
on the prison camps and parliament
and hijacked cars and homes —

This album features several full on live tracks as well as a stripped down version of O’Leary’s lyrically genius, “Gunmen and Ghettos.”

A must have for any record collector.

K.R. Copeland

Famous Album Covers is a great example of creative writing and graphic design. The covers are over the top enough to be instantly recognized as fake. In fact, many of the albums on the blog could easily be mistaken for the real deal. Heck, I would have bought an album by Barded Wire Undergarments back in the ’70s. That’s the difference between comedy and satire.

The blogs are suddenly buzzing with news that the cover for Jordin Sparks’ Battlefield album has been revealed. However, I can’t find an official announcement and the image file that is being posted all over the Internet is not of professional quality. It is a very compressed and only 418 pixels square. I also doubt that the record label would slice the artist’s face right down the middle like this.

I can imagine this being a cover for an EP or a single, but it doesn’t look like the cover of an album to me. If this really is the cover of Sparks’ album, she better start looking for a new producer. I’m going to file this cover under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Gadget and technology blog Gizmodo has published the results of a Photoshop contest in which participants were asked to add technology to classic album covers. The results are nothing less than hilarious!

There are 50 of these covers over at Gizmodo. Check them out.

50 Classic Album Covers Made Awkward by Technology

Pop music blog TuneVille has posted a promotional photograph that has been released for Whitney Houston’s upcoming comeback album. According to the blog entry, September 1st has also been given has the release date.

Whitney is DOING the damn thing, especially at the ripe old age of 45. She looks stunning. I also like the photo because it’s not drowned in Photoshop and it’s very natural.

Alec at the blog Our Kitchen Sink has posted a few bad album covers for your amusement. I’ve included two of my favorites in the excerpt below, but all six are hilarious.

Some of the Worst (Yet Awesome) Album Covers Ever

Having a really good album cover is ALMOST as important as the music itself. Somehow these guys never got the memo, and decided to put together some of the worst cover art of all time…

 

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