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.

Ray of light












TV on the Radio

Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)

Supergrass

Road to Rouen (2005)


Blurred












The Rolling Stones

Aftermath (1966)

The Chesterfield Kings

Let's Go Get Stoned (1994)


2 digit numbers












The Magnetic Fields

69 Love Songs (1999)

Shackleton

Three EPs (2009)


Pixel worlds












Pharoah Sanders

Journey to the One (1980)

Herbie Hancock

Future Shock (1983)