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.

Goats and dogs












The Beach Boys

Pet Sounds (1966)

Charles Manson

Live from St Quentin (1993)













Turbonegro

Ass Cobra (1996)

The Surf Sluts

Pot Sounds (2000)

Boyarin

Boyarin (2016)


From Memphis to South Africa












Paul Simon

Graceland (1986)

El Vez

Graciasland (1994)


Red Gradient














Lightnin' Hopkins

Lightnin' Hopkins (1959)

Paolo Nutini

These Streets (2006)

Brimstone Howl

Guts of Steel (2007)


Faces on wood












Bob Marley and the Wailers

Burnin' (1973)

Lauryn Hill

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)


Octopus












Polmo Polpo

Science of Breath (2002)

Shakedown

Spellbound (2006)