Thursday, June 11, 2009

More album cover trends - return of the collage

The collage has long been a part of the rock 'n' roll album-art style book — most memorably punk's political-statement by juxtaposition — but also in classic rock like the Beatles' iconic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" cover. In fact, the first true album cover, ever, was a rather striking collage, of sorts. It seams the style has come back in vogue, not that it ever went away, but I'm seeing more and more appear on both pop and indie rock covers — not all of them indebted to punk.

Vintage magazines provide the best and most affective source material for album-cover collages, conveying a perverted, commercialized version of past lives and trends. It provides apt ammo for one traditional target of alternative music — consumerism. Or sometimes it just creates a skewed nostalgia affect. With the Internet, creepy old advertisements or any other printed ephemera is almost too easy to gather for art purposes.

I had some fun with this style myself here and here. (anyone in need of an album cover, my services run as cheap as the quality of my work.)

The resurgence:
Oasis - "Dig Out Your Soul" (2008)















Thermals - "Now We Can See"
(2009)















Thermals - "The Body the Blood the Machine"
(2006)














Heartless Bastards -
"The Mountain"
(2008)














Panda Bear - Person Pitc
h (2007)














N.A.S.A. - "The Spirit of Apollo"
(2009)

(editors note: this album sucks, but it might be my favorite cover on the list)














Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 - White Lies for Dark Times
(2009)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like these. did any of these give you inspiration for the ones you created or did you make your own before being influenced by the idea?

Warped Coasters said...

i made my own before I saw any of these particular album covers except the Panda Bear album cause I got that when it came out, one of the best records of '07. The style of my collages is definitely influenced by older album art.

But my silly little pieces of art are just collages for the sake of collage, not specifically for generic album art, though some unheard of garage band could use it for that purpose.

bahler said...

Good choice on Oasis. It's not a collage, but I think Robyn Hitchcock's "Goodnight Oslo" deserves attention as far as 2009 goes. It looks simple at first, but then you start noticing how out of place the dude on it looks. I think my favorite cover of all time would have to be "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea."

Most of the covers this year have been predictable/boring (Green Day, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Morrissey, Eminem) but you got some good ones. And that NASA album just looks like a mess, from the guest list and the cover.

Amber said...

I think your Paint art is better than some of these collages.

Anonymous said...

this is a pointless blog article.