I believe you can and should judge a book, and in this case, an album, by its cover. Album covers are an important part of music. It's the first thing you see before you even listen to the album itself. There are a lot of things that can make an album cover stand out. My personal favorite is color. To me, every album has a color and I think it's important a cover radiates that. Here I will go over three of my favorite album covers and why they stand out to me.
Melodrama by Lorde
Truly a work of art. The painting was made by artist Sam Mckinniss. Lorde had liked his art for a while and reached out to him to work together to create the album cover. The anxiety and sadness mixed with beauty and calmness of the album is perfectly converted in this cover. The transition from youth to adulthood mixed with heartbreak is put on canvas with visible brushstrokes in a post-impressionist style. The color scheme perfectly matches the album and you can tell that a lot of thought was put into it.
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys
For this album, Arctic Monkeys went a different way music-wise. The concept album follows the events of a hotel on the moon where people can get away from the apocalypse on earth. The album cover depicts the hotel itself. The building on the album cover was made by Alex Turner, the lead singer, himself using cardboard and a tape machine. For him, the cover was a big part of the album. He said; "In the past, I've definitely had record covers that don't, to me, represent what's on the wax, and I certainly don't feel that way about this one. By the end of it, I think I'd forgotten there even was a record. I'd just gotten obsessed with cardboard."
The idea of the hotel started with a picture of the Lunar Hilton hotel being built and was later in the process inspired by architects Eero Saarinen and John Lauter. The hotel with the lights and the black background really portrays that feeling that the hotel is in outer space and the only thing around for a while.
When the pawn... by Fiona Apple
This is one of those music covers where for me it perfectly represents what is on the album. A portrait of herself but not in a boring way. The red on the music cover perfectly radiates the jazzy feel of the music. the text on the cover reads; When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right. It's a poem written by Fiona Apple and the album's full name. It was written by her as a response to backlash she was getting after a magazine cover story. she said; "It came from being made fun of and then, of course, it becomes a thing I'm being made fun of for."
Album covers are the doorway to a record. The effort or lack thereof can tell you a lot about an artist and their entire creative process. Which factors they think about and how they see their own album. In these specific examples, the colors on the cover perfectly reflect the feel of the songs on the record and I'd recommend these albums to everyone who likes the covers.