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.

Chromatic








The Walker Brothers

Images (1967)

Cat Power

Jukebox (2007)

White banner on blue background








Queens Of The Stone Age

R (2000)

F.S. Blumm & Nils Frahm

Music For Wobbling Music Versus Gravity (2013)

Leaning on a brick wall with a passer-by








Nick Drake

Nick Drake (1971)

Robert Plant

The Principle of Moments (1983)

Chevron








Glasvegas

Later... When the TV Turns to Static (2013)

Angelo Badalamenti

Twin Peaks (reissue) (2017)

Cow face








Hanadensha

The Golden Age of Heavy Blood (1989)

Swervedriver

Mezcal Head (1993)