This Week in Album Covers

In our newest weekly feature, Paste takes a look at the lost art of the album cover.

Bury Your Dead – Mosh And Roll Beatdown

Almost never does an album bearing a skull melt your face enough that it turns you into a skull. Especially this one.

John Hiatt – Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns

When you write as many songs as John Hiatt, for as long as John Hiatt, you get a bit of a free pass. Luckily he doesn’t abuse it, and goes for a middle aged semi-casual mystique. Part stoic saint and part aging bad-ass, he waits for the Lord outside a church he likely boarded up, and watches the Devil run for his life. It may be worth noting that Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns is one of the poorer album titles in recent memory. Also nobody gets a free pass.

Trace Adkins - Proud To Be Here

By “here” I assume you mean the Lanny MacDonald look alike contest.

Fountains Of Wayne – Sky Full Of Holes 

Stacy’s landlord, however, is a whole other story.

Moonface – Organ Music, Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped

Sometimes I’m tempted to break trust and actually listen to a record before I review it. Like this one. But that’s not the point. The point is that you can judge an album by its cover. Even if you shouldn’t. Can we all just marvel at the fantastic undying combination of purple and red for a minute?

Greyson Chance - Hold On Til The Night

Ellen Degeneres sees you cover Lady Gaga on YouTube and makes you an overnight star. Everybody hates you before they ever hear a song. Move back two spaces.

Keb Mo – The Reflection

Kevin Moore reflects on his goals, his past, and after all these years, what its like to finally give up on good album art.

O.A.R. – King

O.A.R. don’t need an art director so much as an overall image consultant. They must be the world’s most unknown famous band. Their string of more-weird-than-terrible surreal cover art portrays them as a probably unlikable but potentially interesting heavier concept prog band. Spoiler alert: No. Their bland ‘90s pop mixed with bland ’00s production values falls somewhere in between Christian Top 40 and Dave Matthews fronting Train. It’s not too far removed from some of the great radio pop of the ‘90s, minus any semblance of style or soul. Regardless, this sort of cover art is what happens when you don’t have anyone in the room to shoot down the first idea someone comes up with. 

Direct Hit – Domesplitter

Sometimes your head rips open and ground beef pops out. Deal with it.

The Duke & The King – Long Live The Duke & The King

In an age of Photoshop collage and blurry landscape, its nice to find a band that puts work into an album cover the old fashioned way. Sewing leather graphics onto the back of a human.