Cover art has always played a big part in new record releases, as it gives the listener a strong visual impression of what the music is all about. That’s why great music deserves art that’s just as poignant and expressive on its sleeve. Art Record Covers looks at some of the best cover art throughout history, exploring the artists behind them and offering insightful analysis about their significance.
Compiled by Francesco Spampinato and Julius Wiedemann, the anthology rounds up record covers from the 1950s to the present day, presenting each one in full-color detail with detailed factsheets listing pertinent information about each one. Simply put, flipping through this thing should feel a lot like browsing the shelves at record aisles back in the day, making for potentially engaging light reading that you can return to many times over.
Aside the numerous record artworks featured through the pages, Art Record Covers also contains essays that explore how various art movements have informed record sleeve art through the decades, as well as interviews with musicians and artists who have worked on numerous album art covers. Across 450 pages, the book covers a total of 500 records that include Jean-Michel Basquiat’s urban hieroglyph for the Tartown record label, Damien Hirst’s synecdoche skull for The Hours, and Banksy’s stenciled graffiti for Blur.
Available now, Art Record Covers is priced at $69.99.
