07 Album Covers That Changed My Life

It's Hard to Find a Friend
Pedro the Lion

It's difficult to try and create a short list of ones personal favorite album covers of all time, because it's easy to let some of your favorite albums be a large factor when creating this list. Yet I'm personally solely judging these album covers on aesthetics, concepts, and personal experiences alone, and not have my love for the music get in the way. Yet, at the same time, of course it's natural that a great portion of these covers will also be some of my favorite albums musically, but that's largely due to the fact that it's the music that I listen to as well.

Now, granted the album above is, It's Hard to Find a Friend by Pedro the Lion, and it's also true that it's one of my favorite albums of all time, yet the main reason why this album is on the list is because of the simplified aesthetics and white margin border combined with good typography and a black and white photograph. All of these elements combined (for me) make an amazing album cover that's certainly simple yet extremely effective, and ultimately a cover that speaks to the music and conveys a sense of what the album is about.

Leave Here a Stranger
Starflyer 59

At one time on the same label as Pedro the Lion (Tooth & Nail Records), is the next album, Leave Here a Stranger by Starflyer 59. Very similar sonically to Pedro the Lion as well, Starflyer 59 has been around since 1993, and is often labeled in the genre of shoegaze music. The reason as to why this album cover changed my life is because of the integration between photograph and typography. Similar to the last album, but more refined the outlined letters, sf59, seem to fit so well together, with the album title and track list tucked underneath the title with precision. Leave Here a Stranger is a beautiful album, but more importantly (at least in this case) the cover art is even
more beautiful.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel was released in 1998, and although the album didn't receive commercial success at the time of its release, it has gone on to sell over 100,000 copies and was also named fourth best album of the 1990's by Pitchfork (read more.)

Although I don't know much about the artwork that was created for the album, it's one of the most charming album covers I've ever seen. Although there's no text displaying the band's name and the title of the record, it perhaps doesn't need it in this case. Even if I didn't know who the band was looking at the album cover in a store, I would certainly be compelled to
find out.

Love Songs for Patriots
American Music Club

Although one should never judge a book by its cover, to a certain extent we're all forced to as consumers. Back in 2005 when I first moved to Saint Paul, I found the album Love Songs for Patriots by American Music Club at the local library, and I just decided to get it simply because of the album cover and the fact that the album was released on Merge Records, a record label I was familiar with at the time. But I'm really glad I picked it up because it's an amazing album. Yet now that I look at the album cover three years later I realize that it isn't that great; the illustration and renderings of the orchestra figures are timid and not very distinguishable, while the hand-written typography is some of the worst I've ever seen. But at the time I loved the album cover, and I still do, but now I just appreciate it in a different way. Despite the artwork and its shortcomings, it's nevertheless an album that changed my life.

Aenima
Tool

The moody and progressive rock band Tool is always innovative, and this is no different with their 1996 album Aenima. Displaying artwork that literally moves when one tilts the album in its jewel case up and down, Aenima pushed the limits of what could be done with album covers in the mid '90s. I think I've wasted hours of my lifetime starring at this album cover and it's hypnotic glow. Unfortunately, the album cannot faithfully be documented unless experienced in person.

Friend and Foe
Menomena

Along the same lines of innovation is the album Friend and Foe, released in 2007 by the Portland-based band Menomena. Graphic novelist Craig Thompson, perhaps most well known for his 2003 graphic novel Blankets, illustrated the cover art for the album. The on-going mural of demonic yet cute creatures tearing each other apart is charming in the sense that I can see something new every time I look at this album cover. That and the fact that the cover is die-cut so that the separate red sections of the cover are actually the disc on the inside which can be rotated to endless possibilities. This notion of interactive album artwork is a very charming idea and it's great to see it executed so nicely on this album cover.

The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Brand New

Lastly is the album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me by Brand New. Released in 2006, the album cover is a photograph entitled, Untitled #44. Taken from the collection Age of Man, by artist and photographer Nicholas Prior, the band saw the photograph at an art show and later found it appropriate to use it for the cover of their album (read more.)

The reason as to why I love this album cover so much though is because that it's just such a compelling photograph. Similar to Neutral Milk Hotel's album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, when released the album cover didn't display the band's name or the title of the album, (only on the spine of the cd) and although that's difficult water to tread in regards to marketing of the album, perhaps sometimes an album doesn't need to be as traditional with the band's name and title on the cover. In this case, perhaps the band felt that if text would've been displayed ontop of the photograph it would've taken away from the artwork as well. Perhaps this is the case, whose to know, yet it's a great album cover nevertheless.

So there it is, seven album covers that changed my life. I suppose that's a bold statement to make, and perhaps they didn't drastically change my life, but they certainly changed my life in regards to art and design.