This is Part Five in my series listing my 50 Favorite Rock Album Covers of All Time. This group of five, Numbers 26 to 30, is a pretty unique grouping. It features two simple, cartoon-like drawings of figures, two artist photos (see what I said about that regarding Some Girls’ Feel It cover at #39 in Part Three), and one photo with no people or figures whatsoever. Here we go.
Oh, as I’ve said in every post of this list, if you have a favorite album cover or two you’d like to share, please post it/them in the comments on the blog here, on my Facebook page facebook.com/collindanielsfanpage, or Tweet it to me @collindaniels.
#30: Hole – Celebrity Skin
I imagine it must be difficult to make a world-famous, major label rock band look dangerous and threatening, but not so dangerous and threatening that stores start refusing to carry their new album. This cover seems to walk that line perfectly. The black and white photography, the large, ambiguous object on fire behind them, and the looks on the faces of each of the band members here (is it burning rage or hardened ambivalence?) all come together to make me want to listen.
#29: Rival Schools – United by Fate
This cover proves you can draw the observer into a cover…by getting rid of the people’s faces entirely! I may be imagining it, but thanks to writing about each of the entries so far, I see a possible influence from Blondie’s Parallel Lines cover on this one. One particular interesting shade of green, a big circle, two oppositely-gendered-yet-information-less figures, and an oddly-spaced set of horizontal lines. Simplicity and limitation yield an elegant kind of brilliance.
#28: Kasabian (Self-Titled)
An example here of the band name encased in a particular logo featuring prominently. Seems a solid choice for its self-titled nature. The head of the figure here has one eye more than both occupants of the United by Fate cover, and what an eye it is. Haunting, mysterious. The figure asserts potential danger with its possible-terrorist-in-action head covering, not exactly a note many artists would be interested to strike in the West after 9/11.
#27: Julianna Hatfield – Hey Babe
This is the second cover on the list featuring a photo of Julianna herself – the other, again, being #39 with one of her bands, Some Girls. Incidentally, her much-later solo album Made in China did not make the Top 50 but came damn close. She seems to appear on most of her covers, not sure if that’s her personal preference or that of whoever designs them. I can’t exactly put my finger on why I love this one so much – something about the bizarre angle of the shot, the lone strand of hair crossing her lips, the monk-like hands with interlocked fingers.
#26: The Damn Lovelys – Trouble Creek
Perhaps the only entry for a Southern Rock/Country Rock band on the list. This is just a beautiful, simple shot, seemingly looking a bit behind, out a car window, on a road somewhere in America, at dusk. It could be a lot of places, I guess – Connecticut, Indiana, even Wyoming maybe. But it reminds me of how the sky looked so many times at that time of day-meets-night, in the area of southern Maine and New Hampshire where I grew up.
Coming soon, Numbers 21 to 25, which will have some of the most visually-interesting and eye-popping covers yet on the list.
Remember, if you have a favorite album cover or two you’d like to share, please post it/them in the comments on the blog here, on my Facebook page facebook.com/collindanielsfanpage, or Tweet it/them to me @collindaniels.
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Oh, as I’ve said in every post of this list, if you have a favorite album cover or two you’d like to share, please post it/them in the comments on the blog here, on my Facebook page facebook.com/collindanielsfanpage, or Tweet it to me @collindaniels.
#30: Hole – Celebrity Skin
I imagine it must be difficult to make a world-famous, major label rock band look dangerous and threatening, but not so dangerous and threatening that stores start refusing to carry their new album. This cover seems to walk that line perfectly. The black and white photography, the large, ambiguous object on fire behind them, and the looks on the faces of each of the band members here (is it burning rage or hardened ambivalence?) all come together to make me want to listen.
#29: Rival Schools – United by Fate
This cover proves you can draw the observer into a cover…by getting rid of the people’s faces entirely! I may be imagining it, but thanks to writing about each of the entries so far, I see a possible influence from Blondie’s Parallel Lines cover on this one. One particular interesting shade of green, a big circle, two oppositely-gendered-yet-information-less figures, and an oddly-spaced set of horizontal lines. Simplicity and limitation yield an elegant kind of brilliance.
#28: Kasabian (Self-Titled)
An example here of the band name encased in a particular logo featuring prominently. Seems a solid choice for its self-titled nature. The head of the figure here has one eye more than both occupants of the United by Fate cover, and what an eye it is. Haunting, mysterious. The figure asserts potential danger with its possible-terrorist-in-action head covering, not exactly a note many artists would be interested to strike in the West after 9/11.
#27: Julianna Hatfield – Hey Babe
This is the second cover on the list featuring a photo of Julianna herself – the other, again, being #39 with one of her bands, Some Girls. Incidentally, her much-later solo album Made in China did not make the Top 50 but came damn close. She seems to appear on most of her covers, not sure if that’s her personal preference or that of whoever designs them. I can’t exactly put my finger on why I love this one so much – something about the bizarre angle of the shot, the lone strand of hair crossing her lips, the monk-like hands with interlocked fingers.
#26: The Damn Lovelys – Trouble Creek
Perhaps the only entry for a Southern Rock/Country Rock band on the list. This is just a beautiful, simple shot, seemingly looking a bit behind, out a car window, on a road somewhere in America, at dusk. It could be a lot of places, I guess – Connecticut, Indiana, even Wyoming maybe. But it reminds me of how the sky looked so many times at that time of day-meets-night, in the area of southern Maine and New Hampshire where I grew up.
Coming soon, Numbers 21 to 25, which will have some of the most visually-interesting and eye-popping covers yet on the list.
Remember, if you have a favorite album cover or two you’d like to share, please post it/them in the comments on the blog here, on my Facebook page facebook.com/collindanielsfanpage, or Tweet it/them to me @collindaniels.
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