Would Sgt. Pepper's be exactly the same without Peter Blake's cover ? At a time when full-length records do not mean much any longer and album covers even less, I found interesting to make a website on sleeve design. Long before videos, record covers were the visual embodiment of music, a way to put images on sound. I remember having spent hours as a teenager detailing the cover of records while listening to them. Later on, I realised that some of them had things in common in their design, revealing either a mere sign of the times or a more deliberate connection. Some records even obviously copied famous sleeves, as a tribute or as a mockery. Here is a collection of record covers I came across, which share some common visual features.

Things behind the sun












Themroc

Beyond these Things (2003)

R.E.M.

Around the Sun (2004)


The red-orange combination




















Duke Ellington

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Stan Ridgway

Anatomy (1999)

Tindersticks

Working for the Man - The Greatest Hits (2005)

Elvis Costello live with the Metropole Orkest

My Flame Burns Blue (2006)


Making the headlines











































































Cliff Richard

Good News (1967)

The Beatles and Tony Sheridan

In the Beginning (1968)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band

Some Time in New York City/Live Jam (1971)

Jethro Tull

Thick as a Brick (1972)

Paul Levinson with Ed Fox & Peter Rosenthal

Twice upon a Rhyme (1972)

Fantastic Four

Uncover Alvin Stone(the Birth & Death of a Gangster) (1975)

Eric Burdon & War

Love Is All Around (1976)

Jimmy Cliff

Pop Gold (1976)

Tom Waits

Heartattack and Vine (1980)

The Exploited

Dead Cities (1981)

Guns N' Roses

G N' R Lies (1988)

Roxette

Look Sharp! (1988)

Leningrad Cowboys

Happy Together (1994)

Coleman Hawkins

The Indispensable - "Body and Soul" (1927 - 1966) (Jazz Tribune N° 52) (1994)

Sefyu

Suis-je le Gardien de mon Frère ? (2008)

Sizzla

Crucial Times (2010)

Siniestro Total

Country & Western (2010)

Oh No

Disrupted Ads (2013)

Bob Dylan

The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert! (2016)


Moulded faces (1)












Godsmack

Faceless (2003)

Nitin Sawhney

Human (2003)


The glorious times of idols












The Smiths

Hatful of Hollow (1984)

Gene

Olympian (1995)


Drawing and collage

































The Beatles

Revolver (1966)

Cathy Berberian

Revolution (1969)

Mina

Canta I Beatles (1993)

The Bartlebees

What is it all about ? (1994)

Superdrag

The Rock Soldier (EP) (2000)

The Punkles

Pistol (2003)

Smash Palace

7 (2010)


Flesh and fantasy














The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Electric Ladyland (1968)

Die Toten Hosen

Reich & Sexy (1995)

John5

Remixploitation (2009)


From atomic swing to trash metal


































Count Basie

Basie (1956)

Jefferson Airplane

Crown of Creation (1968)

The Eliminators

Loving Explosion (1974)

Kiss

The Originals (1977)

Dr. Dre

Presents... The Aftermath (1996)

Megadeth

Back to the Start - Greatest Hits (2005)

Sturgill Simpson

Sound & Fury (2019)


Field music












Fila Brazillia

Brazilification - Remixes 95-99 (2000)

Neal Morse

Testimony (2003)


The old sepia picture












Leonard Cohen

The Best of (1975)

Ween

The Pod (1991)