The relation between album artwork and music?

Hi,

The "standard" for me, was Hipgnosis, that also worked as a sort of small "editorial" as to how interesting, or worth while the music was. Sometimes it was "raw" (Edgar Broughton Band) and other times it was funny, but also showed it was not exactly big time (the cover where the hubcap looks like a flying saucer), and then at times, it was very much on par with the band's work (10CC) ... and I specially like their cover for Capability Brown's album VOICE ... and that album is a masterpiece when it comes to the vocal parts in their material. The long cut is stunning. And I doubt many of us do not remember the first two albums by Flash ... and I've often wondered if that was Sherry, the lady that used to post a lot of stuff on the band a few years back. Regardless, while sexist (you could say) the material is actually as nice and good as the picture seems to suggest ... but that might be my man side speaking, and I accept that. And then you see the original cover for one Be-Bop Deluxe cover, and you go wow ... not to mention that Scorpions original cover for their 3rd album was also hard core and censored really quick. Not sure what that might suggest for the music by Scorpions, but what the heck, the album was not that good, but it was worth having for the cover alone?

I like a lot of the early posters at the Fillmore, even though they were a lot more about the experience of the music at the place, than they were about the music itself, but you really had to go see it, and end up thinking how well the posters showed up the work on the stage ... it was neat, and it's a real shame that there are not a whole lot more "recordings" from that era, specially the SF shows ... and I'm betting that the Billy Graham estate has them, but they are not looking for the ability to release the materials.

All in all, the Amon Duul 2 covers for a while were done by the same person that also played keyboards, and some of the work is actually fascinating and strange, although seeing yourself in a cockpit of a spaceship in space traveling through the visuals in your mind, is a bit daunting, but it is really well done, and then the cover of "Wolf City" is magnificent, like picking up the invisible energies in the music, and the inside cover is another crazy imaginary scene in your mind ... which is very AD2 for the majority of their work.

Covers are interesting, but the fact of the matter, specially in the USA, bands do not work alongside many other artists with which they can share their work and come up with new ideas. NY had some of it in the early days of the VU, but the fame, fortune, and money, and of course the cardboard Andy, killed that ability for everyone else I thought. Even weirder, is Kim Gordon's book about her band ... as much as she was a part of the artistic side of NY, the covers showed nothing for it, which I think it was just something that the rest of the band could not exactly relate to.

Some other covers that are very thoughtful and interesting ... ECM ... and in many ways it really speaks a lot about the music they put out for many years, likely with the exception of the works by Keith Jarrett, that have what I would think some not as clear, or as good covers, when compared to his work. I have a feeling that he felt himself very far apart, and different from what any "artist" could come up with for a cover ... but that's just a thought.

I would like to see a larger/wider acceptance of the artist's community within rock music, but the commercial attitude and the song formats, probably have done away with possible ideas and concepts that might explain the music better ... and as such, I think it brings down the quality of the music and the work in general.

Hi,

Another thought ... I'm not sure that most folks that were not around in the 60's, 70's and early 80's can quite relate to the "art" in so many albums, regardless of how many we post and show ... the "artwork" itself is too far "removed" from the music scene that the youngsters have grown up with ... and understanding it, would be really tough and then some. Likewise, a lot of us older folks, might look at the quasi-gottamakelooklikeart stuff that DT has done, and the first thing that goes through our minds is ... too much of nothing, and one detail is missing ... the greatest thing in art ... is ITS SIMPLICITY ... and you fall for it ... and then you see a bunch of nothing symbols that supposedly mean something and it's hard to not roll my eyes and eyebrows and say ... wake up guys!

This is likely, my biggest take from the 60's and 70's ... all the art ... you can't say the same thing for the 90's and anything after, just about! And that should tell you that what came out of that psychedelic haze was an artistic scene that developed into progressive ... and 30 years later, is empty music that has no art in it, because there is no artistic scene for them to work with and learn/share from.And it's a bit worse, in seeing some of the folks requesting to be considered into PA and probably PF, although their setup and system is more fan oriented (afaik), though I tend to dislike that since the whole of "progressive" music was an anti the establishment thing, with different rules away from the society mold and the top ten ... and guess what we are doing ... hurting the ability of new folks to learn from something else other than the top ten and the "fan's choices" ... many of which are no different than the Animals that went after the pink pig's parts at Anaheim Stadium and many other places!

You may want, then, to rename the album to Luv Bitch

But this has been done before

Other than that, I don't know how strong the correlation really is. It'd be interesting to rate some albums and also rate the album covers to see if there's any relation. There's definitely some ugly-ass album covers among my favorite albums (Paranoid, anyone?).

I definitely like when bands have a strong visual identity, but most won't get to the level of something like Pink Floyd or Yes. And even then, Yes have just used generic Roger Dean artwork for their more recent albums. Even Drama, as much as I like that cover, seems pretty generic to me compared to 1971-1974 Yes covers. Ozric Tentacles and Zappa generally had a pretty good identity as well, and black midi so far have managed to create some memorable and consistent album covers that perfectly fit the music too.

But I think in that regard, a special shout-out to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is in order. All their album covers have been done by Jason Galea, but they all feel very diverse, and use different types of art or sculptures. Recently a friend even expressed surprise that they were all done by the same guy because they're so varied. And yet, they all feel very KGLW and consistent with each other. This extends to their tour posters and merch as well, which often feature original artwork. On top of that, it just looks fantastic.

Concerning the artwork of Tarkus, I can tell that the music seems to me somehow militaristic, and the artwork reflects that.

Btw, I find the music to be really great, even it took me many years to get really into it.

It seems a bit trickier with modern albums. I love Anathema - Weather Systems but the artwork is bit of a miss for me. Big Big Train put out great albums but I struggle to think of anything although I do like the bird motif they use on a couple of albums.

^ Right--   Led Zeppelin ll  works, And Then There Were Three  not so much, both fairly ugly but both housing good music.