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Artist: N.E.R.D.
Release: Seeing Sounds
Label: Interscope
Designer: ???
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Weird lighting on their backs, an indecipherable background, a red CGI-looking red gorilla, and it’s rising up out of some water? This is just awkward.
[hat tip: Always Hustle]
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Artist: Take It Back!
Release: Can’t Fight Robots
Label: Facedown
Designer: Dave Quiggle
Release Date: June 24, 2008
I’m starting to like Quiggle’s cartoonier stuff more than his portrayal of sobering topics. This one is almost a combination of both; it’s marginally violent but in a fun sort of way, if one can combine almost mutually exclusive concepts as “fun” and “violence” realistically. The notable thing about this one is that the robot seems to be the focus, not even the band name or album title. The dude is symbolic…of something. Note the ATM chest and the clock on the leg.
Interpret!
[hat tip: Indie Vision Music]
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Artist: Islands
Release: Arm’s Way
Label: Anti-
Designer: ???
Release Date: May 20, 2008
If you really look at this, it’s a pretty gruesome cover. It’s rather subtle because the colors and textures don’t immediately communicate the fact that there’s a burning car, two naked chicks, and four arms (among other things) bursting out of this person’s ribcage. Hey, as long as the blood is Kool-Aid colored, it’s fine with me.
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Artist: The Classic Crime
Release: The Silver Cord
Label: Tooth & Nail
Designer: ???
Release Date: July 22, 2008
Not sure of the artist, but I want to say Invisible Creature because of the label. This is one of the many, many CD covers that are virtually incomprehensible without looking at the rest of the layout to add to the “storyline,” if there is one.
As one commenter over at IVM astutely pointed out, the perspective of the entire thing is off, assuming that the back part of the glass rim or the hovering torch-plate thingy isn’t bent or warped. Odd.
[hat tip: Indie Vision Music]
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Artist: Iron Maiden
Release: Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989
Label: Sony
Designer: Derek Riggs
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Without the band’s logo you could tell right away that this is an Iron Maiden album, as Riggs’ artwork is par for the course - not to mention Eddie. This one contains element from some past Maiden covers, an appropriate theme considering the nature of the album.
Head on over to Colour Lovers and read up on the history of the color wheel, from Newton to Goethe to urban street art. Color is fundamental!
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Artist: Taking Over
Designer: Shorthanded Studio
Strong and blocky layout with nicely defined border which makes for easy content reading. I did find it odd that the right sidebar is the same width as the content area, but it almost doesn’t function as a sidebar. The meta-info area is relegated to the bottom, as wide as both columns - a design trick that I’ve seen elsewhere but also isn’t the blogworld’s modus operandi. It works well either way.
[hat tip: Indie Vision Music]
Esao Andrews has new art for show at the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. If you have a few thousand dollars’ worth of disposable income, I recommend you picking up a piece. It’s worth it.
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Artist: Local H
Release: Twelve Angry Months
Label: Shout Factory
Designer: Kii Arens
Release Date: May 13, 2008
I did a quick image search of Twelve Angry Men, because I thought this album’s title was a play off of the film and perhaps the art would have followed suit. Turns out that it seems that neither is the case. The album is about breaking up with a girl. Ho-hum.
RandT posts an addendum (I assume) to the Worst Album Covers Ever. I generally give the older ones a bit of a handicap since tastes and talent change and develop dramatically over the decades - chintzy now was novel back then.
Using these parameters, the worst has to be Limp Bizkit’s, and I don’t say that only because Fred Durst’s concept for the title was utterly ridiculous and should not have been used as a basis for the artwork. Bad.
