Best prog album cover

Edited by Ricochet

AcostaFulano wrote: RELAYER

yep

King Crimson's "Lizard."  When I first bought this on gatefold vinyl it was so cool.  I wish I still had it on vinyl.  I left home at a very young age, not on good terms, and when I came back for my albums years later my brother was using them to make the sound effects for the rap music he was D.J.ing at parties.  In other words he ruined my records, the whole collection and quite a nice prog filled collection at that.  One of his favorite albums to use at parties was Crimsons In The Court Of The Crimson King.  I still wince when I think about coming home and seeing all my albums on a cart he had set up for D.J.ing.  I could cry and maybe I should.  I think I will. 

I have tosay Rising from Rainbow. Awsome

Some lack of imagination being shown.

I take 'the best cover' to mean more than an excellent piece of artwork printed on its front. It is the creative use of the package, including the pictures we should consider more. Hence CD inserts rarely have the dynamism of a 12" square LP sleeve.

So outstanding covers as packaging - but not sticking only to mainstream prog:

Small Faces : Ogden Nut Gone Brown ( LP came in a round LP sleeve, and the CD is available in a tin-plated steel can - subsequently imitated several times)

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here

Jefferson Airplane: Bark (LP comes in a brown supermarket bag)

(To reiterate) Man : Be Good To Yourself

Heaven (first and only album, folds out to 5 foot by 1 poster)

Isaac Hayes: Black Moses ( sleeve folds out into a cross)

The Deviant: Ptoof

Pink Fairies: Never Never Land (with outer printed, otherwise clear vinyl sleeve and complimentary printed card insert to give support).

Rolling Stones: Satanic Majesties (3-d image stuck on front of sleeve)

Rutles (OST)

 

In passing I must comment on some multi-CD sets. Recently obtained Captain Beefheart's Grow Fins, with thick walled cardboard slip case and a 3 to 4 cm thick book which includes the 5 CDs. it is very difficult to read the very extensive liner notes, and the CDs readily fall out of their sleeves - and the  price! Similar for Miles Davis's The Complete Bitchs Brew Sessions 4 CD set. In comparison a cardboard box, indiviual sleeve and a separate booklet containing notes, especially if the 3 or 4 CD set is sold less than 20 quid, is so much effective as a package and providing assessible information; e.g. Decca Record's Legend Of A Mind, Vertigo's Time Machine, Castle's Ars Longa Vita Brevis

 

a beautiful gatefold cover, with Art Deco inlays for the lyric sheets.

Balletto di Bronzo : Ys

Sirio 2222 - front cover and label

Ys - front cover

Ys - inner view

 

 

Edited by Alucard

"Going For The One" beats DSOTM, mainly for the photo in the middle. I think it's tragic that we have CDs instead of these fantastic album covers.

anything done by hugh syme.

obvious choices would be storm thorgerson and
roger dean, but that's all a matter of taste. roger dean
has lost much of his appeal, his recent work is far to
generic .. check out the cover of alan white's new
band project and you'll know what i mean.

i also admire what dirk rudolph does with
typography.

carl glover's work with the current marillion and
procupine tree is admirable as well.

or how about "smell the glove" by spinal tap (the
'censored' edition)? for that matter, any tap cover?

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