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.

Armchair








Paul McCartney

Memory Almost Full (2007)

Snarky Puppy

Culcha Vulcah (2016)

Modern cowboys in sepia








Big Audio Dynamite

This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985)

Jane's Addiction

Strays (2003)

In the back of the car








The Kills

Blood Pressure (2011)

Warhaus

We Fucked a Flame into Being (2016)

Car with blue sky








Hank Mobley

A Caddy for Daddy (1966)

Sharkboy

Matinee (1994)