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.

Twin peaks











Sophie's Dream

Sophie's Dream (1976)

Cameo

Cardiac Arrest (1977)

Moonbootica

Shine (2014)

B/w electric pole









John Eliot Gardiner

Bach: St John Passion (2011)

Slowly Rolling Camera

Where the Streets Lead (2021)

Melting









Pale Saints

In Ribbon (1992)

Battles

Ice Cream (EP) (2011)

Guitar tuning









Moon Martin

Street Fever (1980)

Dave Morrison

WIth Joe Soap (1981)

Stripes










Horace Parlan Quintet

Speakin' My Piece (1960)

Freddie Hubbard

Hub-Tones (1962)

Jazz Sabbath

Jazz Sabbath (2020)

Man in Suit behind Desk









Gary Numan

The Pleasure Principle (1979)

Band Apart

Band Apart (1983/2019)

Flaming dolls









Caroline Rose

Superstar (2020)

Juliette Armanet

Brûler le Feu (2021)

Cave









The Verve

A Storm in Heaven (1993)

Oranssi Pazuzu

L_Värähtelijä (2016)

Front/Back









Various

Tighten Up Volume 2 (1969)

Eric Clapton

E.C. Was Here (1975)

Yellow background









The Walker Brothers

The Singles (2000)

The Spencer Davis Group

Live in Finland 67 (2017)

Mercedes









The Michael Schenker Group

Built to Destroy (1983)

Schneider TM and KPT.Michi.Gan

Binokular (2000)

Over and over











Kiss

Rock and Roll Over (1976)

Various

Pure Fire - The Ultimate KISS Tribute (2004/2018)

Anthrax

Kings among Scotland (2018)

Divided helmets









Daft Punk

Random Access Memory (2013)

Cro

Trip (2021)

Jaws









Leftfield

Leftism (1994)

M. Ward

What a WOnderful Industry (2018)

Doll's house









Family

Music in a Doll's House (1968)

John Cale & Terry Riley

Church of Anthrax (1971)

Lying dead









The Smiths

The Queen Is Dead (1986)

The Smiths

The Queen Is Dead (Box set) (2017)

Marsheaux

E-bay Queen Is Dead (2012)

City lights









Doves

The Last Broadcast (2002)

M. Ward

Migration Stories (2020)

Disco queens









Cher

Take me Home (1979)

Nicki Minaj

Queen (2018)

Hand sign














Run the Jewels

Run the Jewels (2013)

Run the Jewels

2 (2014)

Run the Jewels

Meow (2015)










Run the Jewels

3 (2016)

Run the Jewels

RTJ4 (2020)


Tastes









The Aphex Twin

Classics (1995)

Grandaddy

The Sophtware Slump (2000)

Spain









Miles Davis / Gil Evans

Sketches of Spain (1960)

Billy Jenkins with The Voice of God Collective

Scratches of Spain (1987)

Red box with coloured border









Dire Straits

Making Movies (1980)

Mkwaju Ensemble

Mkwaju (1981)