# Best Album Covers



## PrimoUomo (Jul 7, 2013)

I especially like this one:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

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For starters...............................


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

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Another batch of five (and then some).


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

First thoughts.....I've always liked this set of individual Archiv releases from Pinnock & The English Concert...I collected them when they were issued & thought that the discs looked and sounded great.






























etc...Hope when I click the Post tab that they won't appear all disparate sizes?? Here goes.....


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

Always loved this one......


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'm repeating myself from other threads, but classical album covers are terminally unimaginative in my opinion. I suppose the labels do not have the funds to go the route of mid-1970s progressive rock and hire Roger Dean to do the covers. In lieu of that, I enjoy spacey or vague atmospheric covers .

Here are some I don't necessarily own but found while browsing.

Aside from the silliness of including Pluto in The Planets Suite (it wasn't a planet then and now it isn't one again) I enjoy the spacey ambiguity of this one.








This one is kind of cool from a graphic standpoint.









With the advent of digital albums the "covers" no longer need to be that oh so limiting square shape. Here's some more ambiguity. I wonder what we are looking at.








Of course I never tire of tastful paintings.








And the good old fashioned landscape photo still works well if it reflects the feelings or themes of the music.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Weston, I like the Vaughan Williams cover, but the cows are too small!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Here's a striking cover.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Here are a few that I like.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Always thought this one is rather nice, even though it seems not to really have anything to do with the music:









Naxos often comes up with very nice covers as well.

Of course, in the age of MP3 downloads, the days of the album cover are numbered...


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Just got this in the post and it's the most beautiful collection of artwork in one box in my entire collection. Hope the music matches it.
Also thought it was time that this thread was resurrected as the worst cover thread is doing so well.


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

I don't know, generally classical music's cover aren't special. We must search in pop or rock music to find the best covers.


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

The only classical cover i really liked it's Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammer


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

First my favorite...








....then the best and worst of Perlman....














....the the greatest cover in any genre....








....and finally, where the hell is ahammel? I really miss reading his posts. I hope he's well.


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

scratchgolf said:


> ....the the greatest cover in any genre....
> View attachment 57693


I remember my phisic's professor in college complaining about the wrong angle of refraction of the light in thath image.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​Just stunning!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Any of the Bach Cantata Series with John Eliot Gardiner. Every cover is striking and memorable!
Here are just three examples.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

The first Mahler album I purchased.

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I knew nothing about Mahler other than I had just heard the "Adagietto" from the 5th Symphony (although at the time I had no clue what it was from, all they said was Mahler's name). I bought this one because I liked the cover, turns out the performance was pretty good as well and after that I was hooked on Mahler for life.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

These are my favourite three In no particular order.
They do look better in actual life than these web jpg''s


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

MagneticGhost said:


> Just got this in the post and it's the most beautiful collection of artwork in one box in my entire collection. Hope the music matches it.
> Also thought it was time that this thread was resurrected as the worst cover thread is doing so well.


I have them all (most of them for over 20 years), and love them.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

For classical music, Chandos has a lot of great cover photos. Here's one I like.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

MagneticGhost said:


> Just got this in the post and it's the most beautiful collection of artwork in one box in my entire collection. Hope the music matches it.


I expect you won't be disappointed.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I have to many favorites to post, but I love all the covers of Seraphim albums


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

I love the covers for István Kertész's series of Dvořák LPs that feature Pieter Bruegel paintings. Here are a few of them:





































Bruegel's art make these special. But I also like the simple, colorful design choices above and below the paintings.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

starthrower said:


> For classical music, Chandos has a lot of great cover photos. Here's one I like.


I agree. This is very powerful.

It makes me think of _Hamlet_. The ghost of his father will appear shortly. 

(I guess the _Hamlet_ reference is also appropriate since this is music written by a Danish composer and performed by a Danish conductor and orchestra. Ha, ha. )


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

There's this one disc of Bach's violin music by Lara St. John that I quite admire.

:devil:


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

A few more that I really like:









Love the color here. Very Russian. To me, it's reminiscent of both fairy tales and Kandinsky.









Evokes the white of winter and the austere purity of Sibelius' music perfectly. I also love the upper right-corner to lower-left corner balance.









This is a bit cartoon-ish. ("Heavy Metal," anyone?) But it's also _awesome_. I'm not even an opera guy. But I do enjoy hearing Wagner's "bleeding chunks" -- especially when Stokowski's doing them.









There's just something magical and evocative about this art. (I wish the image was more well-illuminated. I grabbed the picture off the net.)


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Honestly, these Chandos covers to the music of Gliere are what first truly attracted me to his music:


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I would love almost anything featuring Maria Callas... but I find these particularly beautiful:


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## omega (Mar 13, 2014)

I think the covers made for Chailly's Mahler cycle are great! I think the colors are especially relevant.


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## omega (Mar 13, 2014)

And such a landscape for Sibelius


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

hip HIP art:


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

File too large...I was trying to post some of BIS recordings of Schnittke. Colorful abstract covers on those


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> File too large...I was trying to post some of BIS recordings of Schnittke. Colorful abstract covers on those


Like this one?

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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

This is probably my favourite album cover which features a photo rather than artwork. It takes only a single intimate snapshot like this of HvK, Rostropovich and some of the Berliners for me to realise that great music is being made.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I always loved this LP cover. It was a gated design in very thin cardboard that yet felt of good quality and resisted wear quite well.

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Doesn't look so good as a photo.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I have love the series of covers Chandos produced for Jarvi's Dvorak recordings.
They have a relevance to the works on the disc and for me there is an element of nostalgia as it was the first series of discs I actively sought out and acquired when my interest in classical music was in its infancy.

For example:

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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Less intimate cover, for less intimate music, a big band for big music:


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

One of my favorites. Helps that the first cello sonata is one of the best:










I also really like this aesthetic:


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

just adding to the covers...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Many great classical music covers out there. And, I'll admit, somewhat hesitantly, that I've purchased a few discs based on the cover art. Hey! They were great covers!

Off hand, I suggest fans of album cover art to check out the releases on BIS of the Vagn Holmboe orchestral music. Here are three:





















The abstract photographs used in the designs for these covers were taken by Meta May Holmboe, the composer's wife. A beautiful series of albums. And the music is great, too!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Too, I've long admired the covers featured by Arte Nova Classics. There are so many, and though few ever seem to have anything to do with the music at hand, each is uniquely interesting as art.



























So much variety, it's well worth taking a look at the entire catalog!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> This is probably my favourite album cover which features a photo rather than artwork. It takes only a single intimate snapshot like this of HvK, Rostropovich and some of the Berliners for me to realise that great music is being made.


This is a classic, the artist on the cover and on top the Composer in Yellow label .


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​Another great one, how to promote your new soprano.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I've long tended to prefer a composer's portrait on an album cover rather than a performer or conductor:

This






, rather than this






. Or this






.

I do like to see the composer with the performer, as here:






.

But, there are always exceptions. As here:


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I do find art (abstract, classical, romantic, sculpture) can enhance a cover and a listening experience when it proves appropriate. Coming to a work previously unheard remains an exciting adventure. A clue given in cover art is often helpful in anticipating what's to come. For experienced listeners, however, no graphic art work can ever completely satisfactorily explain a work of music. Which is what music is all about. Which is why I don't mind a portrait of a composer on a CD or LP cover. But I like art, and enjoy seeing it on music disc covers, for I can caution myself that it need not mean anything at all in terms of the music to be heard there. Still, having a large record collection, I automatically gain a large art collection. I can't complain.

Here are a few graphic art covers that prove to whet the appetite, or to somewhat reveal what the music sounds like:

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Then again, if you know this music, you may think differently. Which is fine. After all, graphic art is not music, as music is not graphic art. I'm thankful we human species provide both of these arts, and many others.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Sometimes cover art is quite inappropriate in terms of relating to the sounds of the disc it adorns, though in an of itself it may prove delightful.

I still puzzle over this one:

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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

^^^^^
Noting to see SONNET CLV


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)




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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Art Rock said:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

^
Attachments were deleted in a clean-up action last year (uploaded copyrighted album covers to TC server).


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)




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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Many LP covers were great ... some were even pleasantly tactile as well as attractive. But I don't think record companies ever really rose to the challenge of the CD. There was a lot to learn from our very long tradition of miniature paintings but they didn't bother.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'm certainly no fan of the clunky multi-disc jewel cases from the 80s/90s but the way in which Klimt's _Wasserschlangen I_ was used on this cover overcame my prejudice in this instance - the triptych effect with two blank end panels is really attractive.


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## DuncanW (Aug 19, 2018)

Well, here goes, my first post on talk classical! A number of years ago a now-closed retailer here in Canberra had several CD boxed sets in the EMI Reflexe Stationen Europaischer Musik series. I was drawn to them solely by the artwork of the box and individual discs - knew nothing about the artists or composers/compositions. While I didn't purchase any then, several years later another retailer was selling them at a considerable discount and I managed to get seven of the ten boxes for an absolute bargain, and am more than glad that I did.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)




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## WNvXXT (Nov 22, 2020)




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