Album Art and Music

I was looking at a series of old album covers, and realised how much was lost when the album art ceased to be part of the music experience. I don’t think I’m just being wistful regarding the past when I say that the physical aspect of purchasing a record, and gazing at the cover as the vinyl played for the first time, actually enhanced the whole process, and added an important dimension to it.

In some ways, I would argue, the loss of album art and the transfer of music from the realm of the tangible to something purely digital, has facilitated the rise of all that trashy digi-pop shit kids now call music.

Anyway, I could be wrong, but – without this descending into a thread about the best album covers – does anyone else think likewise?

You can’t digitally skin up on an MP3.

There’s always been ‘trashy digi-pop shit kids now call music’.

That’s just you getting old. 🙂

But I do love album covers and have bought a few lps just because I was intrigued….

I’ve also bought a few just because the covers were awful, or cringed whilst handing over cash for something a bit naff……

I think the resurgence of records may actually bring back album art. I do hope so. I love being able to ‘hold’ music and, as you say OP, it enhances the whole experience.

I miss it.   But I’m conscious that I miss the innocence/naivety of my youth. In the days of LP covers I was very young and everything (including self) was green, sappy, full of interest and promise.  I don’t know how young people today feel about reading recording details and looking at digital art online but it could be* every bit as full of wonder as my 1980s experience.  Remember our choice was so much smaller back then.  Spotify has over 2 million artists IIRC.  This isn’t an argument for less choice or more choice is ‘better’, just something to add to the mix before weighing opinion.

*Minus smell and touch, the walk or bus to the record shop, the chat with the record shop owner, the delayed gratification before getting it on the platter, the pop of the needle and near-silent hiss before the hit, the sometimes cryptic hand-etched details after the run-out.  It turned out that video didnt kill the radio and neither did MP3 or home-taping kill music.  But cassettes were shit. And the cases.

Did American/Canadian albums all have a distinctive smell?

Bought a couple of albums in the states in ’79 and they still have a slight trace of an odd, but not unpleasant chemical type smell they had when new.

Me, right. I miss the album art and the inserts and all that. But I do have albums still. And I occasionally buy new ones too. But also, I bought an album display unit (I say “unit” but it’s really a big cloth thing) on a Kickstarter a year or so ago. It turned up recently, so I put a display of albums on my wall. It’s nice 😀

(I have a pic somewhere, bare with)

My current display

I don’t think the availability or otherwise of a nice sleeve changes the kind of music available. I think it might change the way we think about certain music though.

In the olden days there was a lot of chase and chance and speculation with buying new music – unless something was in the current  top 10 a record could take a bit of finding – there was also limited opportunity to try before you buy. You might have heard the singles on the radio but for the rest of the album you were relying on reviews and recommendations.

Then you had the bus ride home, looking at the sleeve of your new purchase before you got a chance to listen to it.

That means for people of that generation music is quite heavily anchored with the memory of finding and buying it and you can often place yourself in the experience of hearing it for the first time too.

I produced a wee film about music and memory in relation to Altzheimers a while back and learning then about how music sits in a place in your memory where it can activate other memories was pretty fascinating (Bill Drummond has said and written some very interesting stuff on the subject too) and I wonder whether music now would embed itself in peoples memories in the same way it used to. I can’t think of much music that is new to me from the last 10 years where I can remember first hearing it but I can remember buying my first single and playing it for the first time.

Yeah but Y&T were a bit rubbish so that album cover is representative of their musical prowess…

Always loved Led Zeppelin covers.. Zep III has an insert that would revolve too…. awesome.

 the loss of album art and the transfer of music from the realm of the tangible to something purely digital, has facilitated the rise of all that trashy digi-pop shit kids now call music.

You’re probably right, in some respects – the pop that makes up the Radio 1 chart, multiple entries for the same artist and most of the tracks sound like they are produced by the same person too… but it’s such a TINY part of the total music produced on a weekly basis, it’s laughable to think all music has been ruined by digital. There’s always been trashy pop in the charts anyway. Now there’s a gazillion more artists out there to discover and you don’t have to be fed what Radio 1 feed the kids.

Yeah but Y&T were a bit rubbish…

A bit?? They must be a damn site better than their artwork makes them look then!

‘Rescue Me’ was a Jilly’s/Rock World classic!

Bloody philistines……

I was very disappointed when I saw what they actually looked like…..

I produced a wee film about music and memory in relation to Altzheimers a while back…

Any chance you could point us in the general direction?

As a Graphic Designer I mourn the loss of cover artwork. But then I do think thats a lot to do with being backyard-gazing, doddery old **** too! 😀

Like Dezzy Baby I’ve got a few iconic album covers framed and up on’t wall, going up the stairs

Probably my all-time favourite. WFL by Central Station Design…

Thing is for our generation there was no competition for music.

What else were you going to do on your own in your bedroom ?…. No TV … No games console … No interweb ..etc.

So no…..  this, or the last few, generations will not have the same relationship with music.That might be a bit sad, knowing how much we all enjoyed it….  but i guess they’ll find a something for themselves??

Thanks for the responses so far. If you get a chance, please post your favourites – or the ones you think were pretty important – in this thread.

Dez B … like what you’ve done there, with the portrait covers.

Looks better, I think, than good/iconic but random covers.

‘Rescue Me’ was a Jilly’s/Rock World classic!

Yeah, so I plugged in some earphones to listen to that Rescue Me track and it’s 14 yr old chord progression crap.. That acoustic intro was pure “lesson 1” ..

But I admire you for posting Y&T, not many have ever heard of them never mind seen an album.. My old mate (a drummer, a very talented drummer) loved Y&T and he’d always be the one bringing along yet another cassette for the car… and we’d throw it out of the window… as you did back then.

There were some absolute crackers BITD..

DaSabs can’t go ignored:

Simple but both effective in invoking both style and music attributes inside..

Any chance you could point us in the general direction?

Here you go

there are more succinct films out there but our film was there really for a tool for care homes thinking of introducing playlists and learning how it can fit in with and aid their their existing work rather than being yet another thing to do . I think (with your work in mind) that Andy at Playlists mentioned looking at the work as therapy in other brain injury fields too.

Dez B … like what you’ve done there, with the portrait covers.

Looks better, I think, than good/iconic but random covers.

Thanks, nice of you to say 🙂

One of them is called “Many Faces” so I went with that as a theme. Planning to change the theme every now and again.

The display thing is cool cos you just slot the albums in and can easily take them out to play the records.

I ain’t spending all day on this but heres a few more:

Simple, effective.

And the copycats…

Earth, Wind and Fire:

Iron Maiden

 but our film was there really for a tool for care homes thinking of introducing playlists and learning how it can fit in with and aid their their existing work

Cheers mate, much appreciated.

Yeah, so I plugged in some earphones to listen to that Rescue Me track and it’s 14 yr old chord progression crap.. That acoustic intro was pure “lesson 1” ..

I know, fantastic isn’t it?

16, pissed on Newcastle Brooon, dancing with yer mates, eyeing up the ladies in tight denim shorts, flinging yer hair about….magic.

You’ll be telling me you don’t like Remember My Name by Stevie Lange next.

We’ve definitely lost something.

Not just album artwork, but album structure – 2-sides sometimes feeling very different, with killer tracks placed strategically.

I work for a company that make high-end network music music players, and it’s been a real challenge trying to provide as much of a flavour of artwork and album structure as possible. But the publishers aren’t even providing more than one jpeg these days so you can’t even see the inside/back of some of these great ones.

I don’t have the money to expand my vinyl collection, but I do miss it.

Not just album artwork, but album structure – 2-sides sometimes feeling very different, with killer tracks placed strategically.

It’s pretty odd how the album length, if not structure has endured though. It must just be an optimal length for number of songs to record and release, as well as to listen to. Either that or it’s just a tradition left over from vinyl releases.

Nearly all “album” releases are 12-18 songs, 30-50 mins length, whether on CD or digital album.

Some new artists (hip-hop, particularly, I’ve noticed) are now releasing one track at a time. Like, one track a week for about £1 each. Or just single track on Bandcamp. It just ain’t the same. (And why do they call a 2 track release an “EP”?, but I digress!)

There’s an Italian label that I really like called Life & Death, who’s artwork has been gorgeous. I only own the stuff on MP3, but it seems wasted that some of them don’t have a vinyl 12″! (or I don’t!) Couple of examples –

(Wish I hadn’t looked into that. Found an online shop selling the 12″s. wah!!)

Regarding length – Most new artists that I’ve been following don’t seem to bother with full-length albums until signed to a major label.
As you say Bandcamp singles and EPs.

Seems you can get pretty popular with just that.

The display thing is cool cos you just slot the albums in and can easily take them out to play the records.

Hi Dezb, do you have a link to the company you bought it from? Really like it, great idea and looks nice.

There have been some great album sleeves over the years, and the CD format did, sadly, restrict artwork more than a little, but there is the occasional album that somehow manages to find an artist who makes it work. One of those is on an album by Kris Delmhorst, called Strange Conversations, an album of songs based on other people’s poems. I absolutely love the cover, it’s a lovely design, and Kris had tour posters made up, all hand screen-printed,

@funkmasterp – https://record-roots.com/

quite pricey now its no longer a Kickstarter, unfortunately!

Re: Led Zeppelin III, as bikebouy posted, Physical Grafitti, has the brownstone building with the cut-out windows, and a bunch of odd little pictures on the inner sleeve that showed through.

Houses Of The Holy rreally only works as a 12” format as well.

This one needs no title, possibly one of the most recognisable sleeves ever, and while it does work even work on an MP3 player, it’s really at its best on a 12” sleeve:

And of course, the iconic..

Hardly needs the title on the sleeve does it..

It really is still a fabulous album..

I disagree about digital downloading and the rise of trashy pop.

Bandcamp has been mentioned, and is a good example. There must be millions of songs on there by tens if not hundreds of thousands of artists making very good music, who if it were not for the digital age, nobody would have heard of or have access to.

There is more quality musical content available now than ever before.

I have to admit, I have a love of the artwork of Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis and Roger Dean, the fantasy and imagination is an item to behold and in the 70/80’s, the artwork was nothing short of awesome. Even now, I look at some of the album covers and keep thinking to myself, “I must get them framed”, one day….maybe.

This?

Bikebouy ..

Although you didn’t exactly say who was copying who ..for the record Iron Maiden ( 1984 ) were ripping off Earth Wind & Fire ( 1977) ..

Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’ album folds out into a full broadsheet sized newspaper, with pages inside. I love that album.

Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, with the naughty undies under the desk?

I’ve spent years collecting  and listening to vinyl. Most of my music collection is on itunes now, but there’s still nothing better than sitting in my room with a glass of wine and popping a record on the turntable.

I’ve lost the paper panties 🙁  I wonder what happened to them…

I only skimmed the thread so sorry if I’m parroting someone else but I would disagree almost entirely with the OP. There have always been trashy pop bands and crap artwork, we tend to only remember the good ones. Perhaps in the most mainstream context possible something has been lost but if you look at independent / smaller bands such as the ones on bandcamp you’ll see there’s been no loss of creativity or artistry in terms of the artwork associated with the music and many of these artists are big supporters of vinyl too.

Some of the bands I follow invest in beautiful artwork for album covers, ep’s limited edition variants, tour posters etc and there’s are many incredible artists on instagram producing stunning work for bands and musicians.

Yep, echoing what I and a couple of others have said.

Only thing I’d say, in agreement with the OP is that the current chart is full of same sounding, fake r’n’b & rap, highly produced on computers, with similar sounding vocals. I’m very open minded to new music and there is the occasional one that’s ok, but I don’t ever recall a time when the most mainstream of pop has been so dull and uninteresting.

Keen vinyl owner here with a tonne of old and new records in varying condition. Some really great covers in the collection such as:

donated by my old man from the 60’s and 70’s inc:

electric lady land (you know the one)

sticky fingers (with the original zip)

some great hawk wind ones with fold out sleeves.

the led zeppelin albums with the slot in and fold out sleeves

most of the early pink floyd album again with double open out sleeves (a nice pair etc)

in fairness most of these got pretty trashed over the years what with people not bothering to put away all the delicate inner and outer sleeves and some just getting lost.

A lot of the early stuff had lyric inlays or other odd fact and information sheets. Many still have the old woolies or local record shop price labels on or the name of a previous owner.

There is something quite cathartic about the whole process of flicking through records and grabbing a whole bunch then taking them over to the deck and spending the rest of the night playing these. There’s quite a bit of housekeeping involved if you diligently take every thing out and put neatly away again.

My favourite sleeve used to be spiritualised’ s lazer guided melodies.

have to admit to switching to Spotify recently for the convenience of being able to sit in the garden, kitchen or dining room to listen to a reasonable blue tooth speaker as opposed to cranking up the stereo in the front room so I could hear it anywhere.

Theres definitely no investment in music by most kids or youngsters these days and if this is a bad thing remains to be seen. Most of the lads at work (late teens to mid 20’s) really only listen to “bangers” and then only out or at a party. Not sure they ever really sit down and introspectively listen to music or albums. I think the very fact that it’s all so portable now and can be played on just a phone or pocket sized speaker means that it can just become a back ground thing that just serves as distraction.

The other issue I see with the onslaught of digital streaming and lack of any tangible material to hold or keep is that these “bangers” are just music for the right now and will be gone never to be heard again in months or a year. This again creates no investment with the music and may diminish people’s appreciation.

so yes I agree with op that to some degree the loss of the physical material and the art work and the shop and the hours of flicking through banks of LPs on a Saturday, taking them home, unwrapping, giving a quick brush and finally playing (in some cases for the next month or two constantly) then putting away in your lovely teak credenza has lead to a decline in the general appreciation of music and this unlikely to ever reappear. Now I just shout “Alexa play next song” and like magic.

I bought Casual Gods by Jerry Harrison in WH Smith in Merthyr purely for the cover (by photographer Sebastio Salgado taken in a Gold Mine in Brazil.  Ended up getting into Talking Heads as a result.