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.
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Alain Bashung Fantaisie Militaire (1998) |
Stephan Eicher & Traktorkestar
Hüh! (2019) |
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Het Goede Doel Tempo Doeloe (1983) |
Manuel Göttsching
E2-E4 (1984) |
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Songs: Ohia The Magnolia Electric Co (2003) |
Kevin Morby & Waxahatchee
Farewell Transmission b/w The Dark Don't Hide It (single) (2018) |
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Swell Maps A Trip to Marineville (1979) |
The Veils
Time Stays, We Go (2013) |
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Janet Jackson Janet (1993) |
Mandinga
Adrenalina (single) (2015) |
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Roberto Carlos Em Ritmo de Aventura (1967) |
Corduroy
Out of Here (1994) |
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Ozark Henry The Sailor not the Sea (2004) |
Texas
Red Book (2005) |
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Emerson, Lake and Palmer Love Beach (1978) |
Heaven 17
The Luxury Gap (1983) |
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Eli Paperboy Reed
Come and Get it! (2010) |
Chiddy Bang
Breakfast (2012) |
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Fehlfarben
33 Tage in Ketten (1981) |
Honey for Petzi
General Thoughts and Tastes (2011) |
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Nada Surf
High/Low (1996) |
Wavves
Wavves (2009) |
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Jefferson Airplane
After Bathing at Baxter's (1967) |
Joe Walsh
The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973) |
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Depeche Mode
Exciter (2001) |
Crosby & Nash
Crosby & Nash (2004) |
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Nutz Nutz (1974) |
St. Vincent
Masseduction (2017) |
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Desaparecidos Payola (2015) |
Roger Waters Is this the Life We really Want? (2017) |
Various The Black Book (2018) |
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Roxy Music Flesh+Blood (1980) |
The Style Council
Walking the Night (1987) |
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Kyuss Into the Void (EP) (1996) |
The Afghan Whigs
1965 (1998) |
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The Walker Brothers Images (1967) |
Cat Power
Jukebox (2007) |
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Queens Of The Stone Age R (2000) |
F.S. Blumm & Nils Frahm
Music For Wobbling Music Versus Gravity (2013) |
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Nick Drake
Nick Drake (1971) |
Robert Plant
The Principle of Moments (1983) |
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Glasvegas Later... When the TV Turns to Static (2013) |
Angelo Badalamenti
Twin Peaks (reissue) (2017) |
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Hanadensha The Golden Age of Heavy Blood (1989) |
Swervedriver Mezcal Head (1993) |
Urge Overkill Oui (2022) |
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Ray Anderson What Because (1990) |
!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
!!! (2000) |
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Neil Young Neil Young (1968) |
MIJ
Color by the Number (1969) |
