Red Yellow Green Traffic Light Cube Art Album Cover

They're images y'all've seen a thousand times, but what do they mean, and how did they end up on the comprehend of your favourite always albums?

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We rounded up 50 of the nigh iconic pieces of album artwork from indie releases from Joy Segmentation, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Nirvana, The Smiths, Strokes, Killers and more and dived into their dorsum stories. Some of the tales of these covers' creation are as interesting as the albums themselves…

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The Smiths – Meat Is Murder

The Smiths – Meat Is Murder: The original photo of this soldier, Marine Corporal Michael Wynn, was taken in 1967. He had the words "Make state of war not love" inscribed on his helmet. Information technology was used as the image for Emile de Antonio's doctor 'In the Year of the Sus scrofa' in 1968, simply The Smiths changed the wording to "Meat is Murder" for their '85 album. Wynn is reportedly all the same live and living in Australia.

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Amy Winehouse – Back To Black

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black: Amy arrived four hours late to this shoot, having been partying all night at her friend'south wedding. Shot in a black room at photographer Mischa Richter's house in Kendal Rise, which had blackboard paint on the cupboards, this was the last shot of the mean solar day, with early evening light streaming through a bay window to the correct. It was the last time Richter saw Amy.

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Nirvana – Nevermind

Nirvana – Nevermind: Conceived later on Cobain and Grohl watched a program on water births, the iconic sleeve was eventually shot in a public swimming puddle with three-calendar month-quondam baby Spencer Eldon. When concerns regarding the paradigm showing the baby's penis were raised, Cobain suggested a sticker saying "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile".

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Radiohead – Kid A

Radiohead – Kid A: "The overarching idea of the mountains was that they were these landscapes of ability, the thought of tower blocks and pyramids," says sleeve artist Stanley Donwood. He and Yorke – under the Tchock alias he uses when making art – were also inspired by a photograph of the war in Kosovo, which ended in 1999.

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The Clash – London Calling

The Disharmonism – London Calling: Lensman Pennie Smith didn't want this blurry live shot to be used for the cover, but Joe Strummer and the ring's graphic designer Ray Lowry overrode the decision, adding in the distinctive pink and green lettering of Elvis Presley'south debut album. The remains of the shattered bass are at present on display at Cleveland's Rock and Whorl Hall of Fame.

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Joy Sectionalisation – Unknown Pleasures

Joy Sectionalisation – Unknown Pleasures: Renowned artist Peter Saville designed the sleeve, which is based on an image of radio waves taken from the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy. The original image, created in 1970, was then reversed and so that black was the dominant colour, leading to an instantly recognisable impress that'south been replicated on merchandise always since.

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Oasis – Definitely Perhaps

Oasis – Definitely Maybe: One of the virtually iconic sleeves of them all (an verbal replica of the room was recently mocked up for a special exhibition), 'Definitely Maybe'due south artwork was shot in Bonehead's living room with numerous prominent cultural reference points – a scene from The Adept. The Bad And The Ugly, a affiche of Burt Bacharach – on display.

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Led Zeppelin – IV

Led Zeppelin – Iv: Equally a 'fuck you' to the critics who'd put the success of their starting time iii albums down to hype, Led Zeppelin decided to release their fourth untitled. Instead of any words, the cover features a painting singer Robert Establish establish in an antiques ship in Reading. The record itself displays four symbols, or runes: ane for each band member.

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Blondie – Parallel Lines

Blondie – Parallel Lines: This classic sleeve got the band'due south manager, Peter Leeds, fired. Without telling the ring, he chose the paradigm, which had been rejected past Debbie Harry – "I don't remember it'south a bully design, personally," she said – without informing the ring, who were hoping it would show them fading in and out of the monochrome stripes. Leeds was replaced by Shep Gordon.

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Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Ocean

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Body of water: Based on a vintage postcard, Mangum asked artist Chris Bilheimer to supersede the face of the woman with a potato. The resulting image tiptoes a thin line between cheery nostalgia and something much eerier.

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Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: Shot in 1963, this 1 has Dylan and his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo strolling downward Jonas Street, NYC. Critic Janet Maslin once wrote that the embrace "inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, expect distant, and let the girl practise the clinging," but actually Dylan was just chilly.

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The Velvet Secret – The Velvet Surreptitious

The Velvet Hugger-mugger – The Velvet Undercover: The front and back cover photos were shot by artist Billy Name, who lived in Andy Warhol'southward debauched NYC studio The Factory at the time of the album'southward release. He's namechecked past Lou Reed in 'That's The Story Of My Life'.

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Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation: A department of the painting 'Kerze' by High german artist Gerhard Richter, who was known for his photorealistic works. The original was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2008 with a guide toll of £2.5m, merely information technology sold for £seven.1m.

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Jeff Buckley – Grace

Jeff Buckley – Grace: Designer duo Nicky Lindeman and Christopher Austopchuk came up with the comprehend concept, and much of the focus is on the singer's skilful looks. Speaking to 'Interview Mag' in 1994, Buckley rejected the poster-male child tag: "The way you look doesn't mean shit if you can't sing, or if you're mean to people".

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Interpol – Plow On The Brilliant Lights

Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights: Inspired by minimal colour palettes and the Bauhaus art movement, artist Sean McCabe eventually ended up using a photo taken within a London cinema every bit the bold epitome on the front of Interpol's debut. "They knew their audio and look had a presence to it, and they wanted [the artwork] to have a sense of awe and wonder," he says of the sleeve.

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The Killers – Hot Fuss

The Killers – Hot Fuss: Despite the band'south well-documented Vegas roots, the buildings pictured on the front of their 2004 debut were actually located at a structure factory in Shanghai, China. The Chinese characters on summit of the buildings read 'construction textile development'.

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Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters: The comprehend photograph of an antique Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol was taken by Grohl'due south then-married woman Jennifer Youngblood. The image acquired controversy considering of the way that Kurt Cobain had died, but was simply intended to tie in with the sci-fi theme of the band'due south proper name ('foo fighter' was a wwII term for a UFO).

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The Stones Roses – The Stone Roses

The Stones Roses – The Stone Roses: The embrace art is a Jackson Pollock-influenced painting by Roses guitarist John Squire (too a noted creative person), which is said to make reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris. The lemons that are featured on the sleeve refer to the fruit that was used every bit an antidote to tear gas.

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell

Yes Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell: Cody Critcheloe, frontman of electro-punks 'Ssion', created the illustrations of Karen, Nick and Brian. Karen later said she was taken by his "wacked-out artistic sensibility", saying of the artwork: "It is my conventionalities that Cody is a cult legend in the making. I was helpless to its electric, raspberry charm".

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AC/DC – Back In Black

Air-conditioning/DC – Back In Black: The cover of the classic 1980 LP was a unproblematic design of plain, stark black in honour of one-time AC/DC singer Bon Scott, who passed away the same yr later drinking himself to death.

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Kraftwerk – The Homo Machine

Kraftwerk – The Man Machine: A hit take on Lissitzky and Rodchenko, this Constructivist image feels oppressive, only not directly communist or fascist: as percussionist Karl Bartos has said, it had "a strong paramilitary epitome, just information technology is a contradiction considering we wore crimson shirts and not dark-brown." To make the artwork even more perplexing, the title appears in 4 dissimilar languages.

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PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love

PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love: Her outset 2 album covers had featured the wok of Polly'southward friend and long-term visual collaborator Maria Mochnacz. The 'To Bring My Dear' shot was taken past fashion photographer Valerie Phillips on the set of the 'Down By The H2o' video, directed by Mochnacz.

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The Strokes – Is This It

The Strokes – Is This Information technology: The shot, taken by photographer Colin Lane, is of Lane's and then-girlfriend and was taken spontaneously after she emerged naked from the shower. "We did about 10 shots. At that place was no real inspiration, I was but trying to take a sexy picture," says Lane of the image.

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Portishead – Dummy

Portishead – Dummy: A however from the x-minute curt film 'To Kill A Expressionless Homo', a spy motion picture homage starring Barrow every bit a rooftop assassin and Gibbons as the distraught wife of the man he'due south contracted to kill.

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Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Surfacing so before long later nine/11, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'due south' cover epitome of two towers picked out against a blank groundwork had a particular resonance. They're actually the twin Marina City towers, on the northward bank of the Chicago river, and the embrace was finalised before the catastrophic events.

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Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley: For 47 years information technology was believed that this photo – taken on July 31 1955 in Tampa, Florida – had been taken by Popsie Randolph. It was Baronial 2002 when Elvis expert Joseph A. Tunzi discovered the shot was really taken by William Five "Blood-red" Robertson. The embrace style has been echoed over the years by anybody from Tom Waits to Chumbawamba.

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Pixies – Doolittle

Pixies – Doolittle: 'Doolitle' was the first album where 4AD's in house designer Vaughan Oliver had access to the lyrics beforehand. Thus the monkey references in the track 'Monkey Gone To Heaven', while the booklet as well contains oblique references to the likes of 'I Bleed' and 'Gouge Abroad'. Oliver said in 2013 that it remains his favourite 4AD sleeve.

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Lou Reed – Rock N Roll Animate being

Lou Reed – Rock N Roll Fauna: The embrace shot is credited to little-known lensman DeWayne Dalrymple, who worked during the '60s and '70s with artists including Wilson Pickett and psych-folk band The Trout.

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Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand: In conversation for an exhibition of Domino Records' sleeve art in 2007, art director Matt Cooper recalled: "For such a simple blueprint, this went through a surprising number of permutations. At one stage the back embrace was the front. The angle of tilt on the logo – 13 degrees – will be forever ingrained upon my retentivity!"

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David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

David Bowie – Diamond Dogs: Bowie appears as half-man, half-dog character Halloween Jack, leader of the Diamond Dogs gang. Photographer Terry O'Neill took the pictures, which were then given to Belgian artist Guy Peellaert to render as a painting. RCA execs worried about the dog genitals on evidence, and censored the paradigm. "I thought information technology was very pitiful," Peellaert said after.

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Slint – Spiderland

Slint – Spiderland: The cover shot, which depicts the band standing in an abandoned quarry, was taken past none other than Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham). 'Spiderland', however, is the singer's but notable foray into sleeve design.

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The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Hamlet Green Preservation Society: The cover shot for 'Village Green…' took place at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. Tune Maker lensman Barrie Wentzell took the pictures. 'Hamlet Dark-green…' would be the terminal anthology to characteristic the original Kinks line-up, with bassist Pete Quaife leaving in 1969.

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Morrissey – Your Arsenal

Morrissey – Your Arsenal: Both the front and back cover images are live shots taken at a 1991 gig at New York's Nassau coliseum. The photographer was visual creative person and punk singer Linder Sterling, whom the singer has described as "steadfast and constant in [his] life" since they met in 1976.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Immature – Deja Vu: Ceremonious war buff Stephen Stills wanted the cover to await like a photo from that era (1860s). To reach that, the band rented lookalike outfits from a costume store and requested that lensman Tom O'Neal apply an old-fashioned wooden box camera for the shoot, which took place in David Crosby'southward rental house.

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The Cure – Disintegration

The Cure – Disintegration: Paul Thompson and Andy Vella had designed all of The Cure's artwork until this bespeak, but for 'Disintegration' Robert Smith was thinking of using someone new. In response, Thompson and Vella moved from their usual abstract designs into one that focused on Smith'southward face, which some saw equally a witting ploy to curry favour.

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The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation

The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation: There are ii pieces of art on this anthology – the screaming cover, by Stuart Haygarth, and the gatefold, by horror illustrator Les Edwards. Liam Howlett constitute a plaster caput at Camden Market and asked Haygarth to sculpt information technology as if it were breaking through skin. Many interpreted information technology to exist a visual response to the criminalisation of raves in 1994.

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Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon

Pinkish Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: Floyd's label weren't happy about the prism gatefold sleeve, insisting it was also minimalist. '…Night Side' ended up existence their biggest-selling album all the aforementioned. Art group Hipgnosis, the team behind the pattern, have said the prism is meant to celebrate the group'south famous lite show.

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Elton John – Cheerio Yellow Brick Route

Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Illustrator Ian Beck was chosen for the sleeve thanks to his work on vocaliser-songwriter Jonathan Kelly's 'Await Till They Change The Backdrop'. Elton'due south Rocket Tape Visitor were then smitten they originally wanted to utilize the same picture. Elton looks so long-legged considering Beck asked his taller friend Leslie McKinley Howell to pose for framing shots.

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Belle And Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister

Belle And Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister: Early in their career Belle And Sebastian would refuse to have their picture taken, so all their artwork was taken from archive photos and shots of friends, in homage to the classic Smiths sleeves.

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The Bully Pumpkins – Adore

The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore: Corgan's so girlfriend, Ukrainian-born Yelena Yemchuk, who had been involved with the videos for the singles from 'Mellon Collie…', is credited with the art management of 'Adore'. Compared to the whimsy of 'Mellon Collie…', the gothic darkness of the main image was a signpost to the bleakness within.

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The Ramones – Ramones

The Ramones – Ramones: The punk legends originally wanted a cover like to 'Meet the Beatles!' for this cocky-titled album, simply after a disastrous shoot which cartoonist John Holmstrom described as like "pulling teeth", opted for stark simplicity: the band lined up against a brick wall, expertly captured by photographer Roberta Bayley.

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Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

Bloc Party – Silent Alert: The bare winter landscape was photographed by freelance Ness Sherry and expresses a desolate theme of isolation, loneliness and low. A negative version of the same photograph was used on the later release, 'Silent Warning Remixed'.

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Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Kate Bush – Hounds of Beloved: The shot of Kate reclining seductively on the encompass takes on a rather creepier tone when you detect it was taken by her own brother, John Carder Bush.

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The Kinks – Kinks

The Kinks – Kinks: The cover shot was taken by Klaus Schmalenbach, who went on to work with the band on several of their subsequent releases. He later became a record executive at BMG.

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Kaiser Chiefs – Employment

Kaiser Chiefs – Employment: Designed by veteran art director Cally – whose credits include records past Nick Drake, Scott Walker, Tricky and more – the sleeve was designed to resemble the battered box of a 1940's board game. A palatial edition fifty-fifty came with a wad of Monopoly-manner money

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The Replacements – Let It Exist

The Replacements – Permit Information technology Be: The forepart-cover photo was taken past Dan Corrigan and features The Replacements sitting on the roof of the Stintsons' family unit home. Left to correct, it's Paul Westerberh, Bob Stintson, Chris Mars, Tommy Stintson. The picture is said to be a homage to the Beatles' concluding rooftop concert during the 1969 'Let It Be' sessions.

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Elastica – Elastica

Elastica – Elastica: Renowned German way photographer Juergen Teller who was worked with artists including Sinead O'Connor, Bjork, Elton John, took the black-and-white snap for Elastica's debut – a encompass that, with its sparse, sparing style, stood apart from the elaborate and conceptual sleeves favoured by Mistiness and Suede.

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The Cure – Boys Don't Cry

The Cure – Boys Don't Cry: The sleeve for 'Three Imaginary Boys' featured a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner and a lamp – the latter obviously representing Smith. The same designer, Polydor art director Bill Smith, produced a similarly artful sleeve for 'Boys Don't Cry', admitting ane that seems to interpret the rail 'Burn down in Cairo' quite literally.

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LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem: After years spent performing in punk bands, James Murphy'south transition into an unlikely 35-year-old dancefloor king was cemented with LCD Soundsystem's 2005 debut. What better image to show this than a disco ball? Effortless, precise and perfectly executed, information technology was typical Murphy.

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Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen

Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen: "Music is medicine for the soul," said Jason Pierce, deciding on minimalist pill-themed artwork for his tertiary album sleeve: "ane tablet 70 min" information technology reads. Pierce actually cutting several minutes from the album in order to round off the effigy and brand the typography look bang-up. Designer Mark Farrow has since said he regrets the gimmicky packaging.

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Source: https://www.nme.com/photos/50-iconic-indie-album-covers-the-fascinating-stories-behind-the-sleeves-1429676