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.

Circus tricks








The Doors

Strange Days (1967)

Family

Entertainment (1969)

Snow globe








Book of Love

Candy Carol (1991)

Laika

Sounds of the Satellites (1997)

Red setting sun








Cactus

Cactus (1970)

Black Renaissance

Body, Mind & Spirit (1976/2002)

Band on a glacier








The Fucking Champs

V (2002)

Archive

Restriction (2015)