Big Trouble in Little China Indie Album Cover Art
They're images you lot've seen a m times, but what do they mean, and how did they end up on the comprehend of your favourite ever albums?
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We rounded upwards fifty of the most iconic pieces of album artwork from indie releases from Joy Division, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Nirvana, The Smiths, Strokes, Killers and more than and dived into their dorsum stories. Some of the tales of these covers' cosmos are as interesting as the albums themselves…
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The Smiths – Meat Is Murder
The Smiths – Meat Is Murder: The original photo of this soldier, Marine Corporal Michael Wynn, was taken in 1967. He had the words "Make war non love" inscribed on his helmet. It was used as the image for Emile de Antonio's medico 'In the Twelvemonth of the Pig' in 1968, only The Smiths changed the wording to "Meat is Murder" for their '85 anthology. Wynn is reportedly still live and living in Australia.
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Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
Amy Winehouse – Dorsum To Black: Amy arrived 4 hours tardily to this shoot, having been partying all night at her friend's wedding ceremony. Shot in a black room at lensman Mischa Richter'south house in Kendal Rise, which had blackboard pigment on the cupboards, this was the last shot of the day, with early evening light streaming through a bay window to the right. Information technology was the last time Richter saw Amy.
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Nirvana – Nevermind
Nirvana – Nevermind: Conceived later Cobain and Grohl watched a program on water births, the iconic sleeve was eventually shot in a public pond puddle with three-month-erstwhile babe Spencer Eldon. When concerns regarding the prototype showing the baby's penis were raised, Cobain suggested a sticker saying "If you're offended by this, you must be a cupboard paedophile".
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Radiohead – Kid A
Radiohead – Kid A: "The overarching idea of the mountains was that they were these landscapes of power, the idea of tower blocks and pyramids," says sleeve artist Stanley Donwood. He and Yorke – under the Tchock alias he uses when making art – were too inspired by a photograph of the state of war in Kosovo, which ended in 1999.
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The Clash – London Calling
The Clash – London Calling: Lensman Pennie Smith didn't want this blurry live shot to exist used for the cover, but Joe Strummer and the band'southward graphic designer Ray Lowry overrode the decision, adding in the distinctive pink and green lettering of Elvis Presley's debut album. The remains of the shattered bass are at present on display at Cleveland'southward Rock and Ringlet Hall of Fame.
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Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures: Renowned artist Peter Saville designed the sleeve, which is based on an image of radio waves taken from the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy. The original prototype, created in 1970, was then reversed and then that black was the dominant color, leading to an instantly recognisable print that'south been replicated on merchandise ever since.
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Haven – Definitely Maybe
Oasis – Definitely Maybe: One of the most iconic sleeves of them all (an exact replica of the room was recently mocked upwardly for a special exhibition), 'Definitely Maybe'due south artwork was shot in Bonehead's living room with numerous prominent cultural reference points – a scene from The Good. The Bad And The Ugly, a poster of Burt Bacharach – on display.
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Led Zeppelin – IV
Led Zeppelin – 4: As a 'fuck yous' to the critics who'd put the success of their first three albums downwardly to hype, Led Zeppelin decided to release their fourth untitled. Instead of whatever words, the cover features a painting singer Robert Plant found in an antiques ship in Reading. The tape itself displays iv symbols, or runes: one for each band member.
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Blondie – Parallel Lines
Blondie – Parallel Lines: This archetype sleeve got the band'southward managing director, Peter Leeds, fired. Without telling the band, he chose the image, which had been rejected by Debbie Harry – "I don't call up it's a great design, personally," she said – without informing the band, who were hoping information technology would testify them fading in and out of the monochrome stripes. Leeds was replaced by Shep Gordon.
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Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea: Based on a vintage postcard, Mangum asked creative person Chris Bilheimer to replace the face of the woman with a white potato. The resulting image tiptoes a thin line between cheery nostalgia and something much eerier.
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Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: Shot in 1963, this ane has Dylan and his and then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo strolling down Jonas Street, NYC. Critic Janet Maslin once wrote that the cover "inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, look distant, and let the girl do the clinging," but actually Dylan was merely chilly.
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The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Cloak-and-dagger – The Velvet Underground: The front and back cover photos were shot past artist Billy Name, who lived in Andy Warhol'due south debauched NYC studio The Factory at the time of the anthology'due south release. He'southward namechecked by Lou Reed in 'That's The Story Of My Life'.
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Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth – Fantasize Nation: A section of the painting 'Kerze' by German artist Gerhard Richter, who was known for his photorealistic works. The original was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2008 with a guide price of £2.5m, but it sold for £vii.1m.
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Jeff Buckley – Grace
Jeff Buckley – Grace: Designer duo Nicky Lindeman and Christopher Austopchuk came up with the cover concept, and much of the focus is on the singer's good looks. Speaking to 'Interview Magazine' in 1994, Buckley rejected the poster-boy tag: "The way y'all wait doesn't mean shit if you tin can't sing, or if you're mean to people".
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Interpol – Turn On The Vivid Lights
Interpol – Plough On The Bright Lights: Inspired by minimal color palettes and the Bauhaus fine art movement, creative person Sean McCabe eventually concluded up using a photograph taken inside a London cinema as the bold image on the front of Interpol'due south debut. "They knew their sound and wait had a presence to it, and they wanted [the artwork] to have a sense of awe and wonder," he says of the sleeve.
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The Killers – Hot Fuss
The Killers – Hot Fuss: Despite the band'due south well-documented Vegas roots, the buildings pictured on the front of their 2004 debut were actually located at a construction manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China. The Chinese characters on meridian of the buildings read 'construction textile evolution'.
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Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters: The cover photograph of an antique Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol was taken by Grohl's then-wife Jennifer Youngblood. The image caused controversy because of the way that Kurt Cobain had died, but was only intended to tie in with the sci-fi theme of the band's name ('foo fighter' was a wwII term for a UFO).
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The Stones Roses – The Rock Roses
The Stones Roses – The Rock Roses: The cover art is a Jackson Pollock-influenced painting by Roses guitarist John Squire (as well a noted creative person), which is said to make reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris. The lemons that are featured on the sleeve refer to the fruit that was used as an antidote to tear gas.
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Yeah Yep Yeahs – Fever To Tell
Yep Yep Yeahs – Fever To Tell: Cody Critcheloe, frontman of electro-punks 'Ssion', created the illustrations of Karen, Nick and Brian. Karen later said she was taken by his "wacked-out artistic sensibility", maxim of the artwork: "Information technology is my belief that Cody is a cult legend in the making. I was helpless to its electric, raspberry charm".
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AC/DC – Back In Black
Air conditioning/DC – Dorsum In Black: The cover of the classic 1980 LP was a simple blueprint of plain, stark black in honour of former Air conditioning/DC singer Bon Scott, who passed away the same yr afterward drinking himself to death.
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Kraftwerk – The Man Automobile
Kraftwerk – The Man Machine: A hit take on Lissitzky and Rodchenko, this Constructivist image feels oppressive, but not direct communist or fascist: as percussionist Karl Bartos has said, it had "a strong paramilitary prototype, but it is a contradiction considering nosotros wore ruddy shirts and not brown." To make the artwork fifty-fifty more than perplexing, the title appears in iv unlike languages.
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PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Dearest
PJ Harvey – To Bring Yous My Love: Her first ii album covers had featured the wok of Polly's friend and long-term visual collaborator Maria Mochnacz. The 'To Bring My Dearest' shot was taken by mode photographer Valerie Phillips on the set of the 'Down By The Water' video, directed past Mochnacz.
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The Strokes – Is This It
The Strokes – Is This It: The shot, taken by photographer Colin Lane, is of Lane's then-girlfriend and was taken spontaneously after she emerged naked from the shower. "We did well-nigh x shots. There was no real inspiration, I was merely trying to accept a sexy picture," says Lane of the paradigm.
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Portishead – Dummy
Portishead – Dummy: A nevertheless from the 10-minute short motion-picture show 'To Impale A Expressionless Human', a spy movie homage starring Barrow as a rooftop assassin and Gibbons equally the distraught wife of the man he'southward contracted to kill.
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Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Surfacing so soon later on ix/11, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'southward' encompass epitome of two towers picked out confronting a bare background had a particular resonance. They're really the twin Marina Metropolis towers, on the north banking concern of the Chicago river, and the cover was finalised earlier the catastrophic events.
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Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley: For 47 years it was believed that this photo – taken on July 31 1955 in Tampa, Florida – had been taken by Popsie Randolph. It was Baronial 2002 when Elvis expert Joseph A. Tunzi discovered the shot was really taken past William V "Red" Robertson. The encompass style has been echoed over the years by everyone from Tom Waits to Chumbawamba.
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Pixies – Doolittle
Pixies – Doolittle: 'Doolitle' was the get-go album where 4AD'southward in house designer Vaughan Oliver had access to the lyrics beforehand. Thus the monkey references in the track 'Monkey Gone To Heaven', while the booklet also contains oblique references to the likes of 'I Bleed' and 'Gouge Away'. Oliver said in 2013 that information technology remains his favourite 4AD sleeve.
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Lou Reed – Stone N Roll Animal
Lou Reed – Rock N Scroll Animal: The encompass shot is credited to little-known photographer DeWayne Dalrymple, who worked during the '60s and '70s with artists including Wilson Pickett and psych-folk ring The Trout.
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Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand: In conversation for an exhibition of Domino Records' sleeve fine art in 2007, art director Matt Cooper recalled: "For such a unproblematic design, this went through a surprising number of permutations. At 1 stage the back cover was the front. The bending of tilt on the logo – thirteen degrees – will be forever ingrained upon my memory!"
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David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
David Bowie – Diamond Dogs: Bowie appears as half-man, half-dog graphic symbol Halloween Jack, leader of the Diamond Dogs gang. Photographer Terry O'Neill took the pictures, which were then given to Belgian artist Guy Peellaert to render every bit a painting. RCA execs worried near the domestic dog genitals on prove, and censored the image. "I thought information technology was very lamentable," Peellaert said afterward.
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Slint – Spiderland
Slint – Spiderland: The cover shot, which depicts the band continuing in an abandoned quarry, was taken by none other than Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham). 'Spiderland', withal, is the vocalist'south only notable foray into sleeve design.
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The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Dark-green Preservation Society
The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Hamlet Greenish Preservation Gild: The cover shot for 'Village Green…' took identify at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. Melody Maker photographer Barrie Wentzell took the pictures. 'Village Green…' would be the concluding album to feature the original Kinks line-up, with bassist Pete Quaife leaving in 1969.
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Morrissey – Your Arsenal
Morrissey – Your Arsenal: Both the front and back cover images are live shots taken at a 1991 gig at New York'south Nassau coliseum. The photographer was visual artist and punk singer Linder Sterling, whom the vocaliser has described as "steadfast and constant in [his] life" since they met in 1976.
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu: Civil war vitrify Stephen Stills wanted the cover to wait like a photo from that era (1860s). To achieve that, the band rented lookalike outfits from a costume store and requested that lensman Tom O'Neal utilize an old-fashioned wooden box photographic camera for the shoot, which took place in David Crosby's rental firm.
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The Cure – Disintegration
The Cure – Disintegration: Paul Thompson and Andy Vella had designed all of The Cure's artwork until this betoken, just for 'Disintegration' Robert Smith was thinking of using someone new. In response, Thompson and Vella moved from their usual abstract designs into i that focused on Smith'south face up, which some saw as a conscious ploy to curry favour.
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The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation
The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation: There are ii pieces of art on this album – the screaming comprehend, past Stuart Haygarth, and the gatefold, by horror illustrator Les Edwards. Liam Howlett institute a plaster caput at Camden Market and asked Haygarth to sculpt it as if it were breaking through skin. Many interpreted information technology to be a visual response to the criminalisation of raves in 1994.
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Pinkish Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: Floyd'south label weren't happy about the prism gatefold sleeve, insisting it was likewise minimalist. '…Dark Side' ended up being their biggest-selling album even so. Art group Hipgnosis, the squad backside the design, have said the prism is meant to celebrate the group'south famous light show.
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Elton John – Good day Yellow Brick Road
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Route: Illustrator Ian Beck was chosen for the sleeve cheers to his work on singer-songwriter Jonathan Kelly's 'Wait Till They Alter The Properties'. Elton's Rocket Tape Company were so smitten they originally wanted to apply the aforementioned picture. Elton looks so long-legged because Beck asked his taller friend Leslie McKinley Howell to pose for framing shots.
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Belle And Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister
Belle And Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister: Early on in their career Belle And Sebastian would decline to have their picture taken, so all their artwork was taken from annal photos and shots of friends, in homage to the archetype Smiths sleeves.
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
The Swell Pumpkins – Admire: Corgan's then girlfriend, Ukrainian-built-in Yelena Yemchuk, who had been involved with the videos for the singles from 'Mellon Collie…', is credited with the art direction of 'Adore'. Compared to the whimsy of 'Mellon Collie…', the gothic darkness of the main epitome was a signpost to the bleakness within.
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The Ramones – Ramones
The Ramones – Ramones: The punk legends originally wanted a cover similar to 'Come across the Beatles!' for this self-titled anthology, only later a disastrous shoot which cartoonist John Holmstrom described every bit similar "pulling teeth", opted for stark simplicity: the band lined up confronting a brick wall, expertly captured by photographer Roberta Bayley.
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Bloc Party – Silent Warning
Bloc Party – Silent Alert: The bare wintertime landscape was photographed by freelance Ness Sherry and expresses a desolate theme of isolation, loneliness and depression. A negative version of the same photograph was used on the afterwards release, 'Silent Alarm Remixed'.
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Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
Kate Bush – Hounds of Dear: The shot of Kate reclining seductively on the cover takes on a rather creepier tone when you discover it was taken by her ain blood brother, John Carder Bush.
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The Kinks – Kinks
The Kinks – Kinks: The cover shot was taken past Klaus Schmalenbach, who went on to piece of work with the ring on several of their subsequent releases. He later became a record executive at BMG.
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Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
Kaiser Chiefs – Employment: Designed by veteran art director Cally – whose credits include records by Nick Drake, Scott Walker, Tricky and more than – the sleeve was designed to resemble the battered box of a 1940'southward board game. A palatial edition even came with a wad of Monopoly-style money
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The Replacements – Let It Be
The Replacements – Let It Exist: The front-cover photo was taken past Dan Corrigan and features The Replacements sitting on the roof of the Stintsons' family home. Left to right, it'southward Paul Westerberh, Bob Stintson, Chris Mars, Tommy Stintson. The picture is said to exist a homage to the Beatles' last rooftop concert during the 1969 'Let It Be' sessions.
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Elastica – Elastica
Elastica – Elastica: Renowned High german manner photographer Juergen Teller who was worked with artists including Sinead O'Connor, Bjork, Elton John, took the black-and-white snap for Elastica's debut – a cover that, with its sparse, sparing style, stood apart from the elaborate and conceptual sleeves favoured by Blur and Suede.
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The Cure – Boys Don't Cry
The Cure – Boys Don't Weep: The sleeve for 'Three Imaginary Boys' featured a fridge, a vacuum cleaner and a lamp – the latter apparently representing Smith. The same designer, Polydor art managing director Bill Smith, produced a similarly artful sleeve for 'Boys Don't Weep', albeit one that seems to interpret the rail 'Fire in Cairo' quite literally.
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LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem: Subsequently years spent performing in punk bands, James Murphy's transition into an unlikely 35-year-onetime dancefloor king was cemented with LCD Soundsystem's 2005 debut. What amend image to show this than a disco ball? Effortless, precise and perfectly executed, information technology was typical Murphy.
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Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen
Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen: "Music is medicine for the soul," said Jason Pierce, deciding on minimalist pill-themed artwork for his tertiary anthology sleeve: "1 tablet 70 min" information technology reads. Pierce actually cut several minutes from the album in order to round off the figure and make the typography expect slap-up. Designer Mark Farrow has since said he regrets the gimmicky packaging.
Source: https://www.nme.com/photos/50-iconic-indie-album-covers-the-fascinating-stories-behind-the-sleeves-1429676
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