Return to Form
With the introduction of iPods more than a decade ago, the fear was that album art would become obsolete. What artists would spend the time creating an image when it would only be displayed on a tiny screen? Turns out, album art is as strong as ever. With vinyl making a comeback, album art is extremely important today, and artists everywhere are churning out beautiful, inspiring covers. Check out the covers below and see which artists are resurrecting album art. BY LAURA ANDERSON
Tame Impala – Lonerism (2012)
Tame Impala hired Leif Podhajsky to handle the cover art for Lonerism (Podhajsky also created the cover art for Innerspeaker, the band’s first album). Taken by the band’s frontman and guitarist Kevin Parker and edited by Podhajsky, the cover photo is a perfect symbol of the album. The photo is of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, France, and viewers will pick up on the vibe of isolation by looking through the garden’s gate to the people on the other side.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (2013)
Album art has long been controversial with the inclusion of nudity. In this cover, the image is of Cave himself along with his wife, model Susan Beck. Cave took the photo but Dominique Issermann is credited with the editing of the photo. Musically, the album is very minimalistic and natural, which is reflected in the image of the woman in her most natural form.
Father John Misty – Fear Fun (2012)
The ex-Fleet Foxes drummer has re-invented himself in the form of Father John Misty. The cover is especially fitting for the album. Psychedelic, psychotic, apocalyptic fun would be one way to describe it. Dimitri Drjuchin, a New York-based painter, created the cover.
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)
What else would you expect from the French duo? A clean, simple image representative of their musical style and production. The image itself, part futuristic and part robot is striking against the plain background.The artwork also marks a classic album artwork design by not having either member of the band present on the cover.
All album art is public domain
Feature image courtesy of Flickr User Mayeesherr.
