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From the simple but striking prism gracing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon to the naked, submerged, dollar-bill-chasing baby swimming across the front of Nirvana's Nevermind, a great album cover captures the imagination and sears itself into the brain, forever fusing its iconic imagery with the music it comes to signify.
Here are 25 album covers from the last decade that follow in this hallowed pop-music tradition...
25. Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask
Cover Artist: EH Questionmark
On top of some nice textures, and underscored by an ominous set of crossbones, the instantly recognizable mask of whimsical rapper MF Doom covers the face of the wily rodent representing producer Danger Mouse. It's simple, subtle and memorable. Plus, the art's cartoonish feel offers a preview of all the cartoon-character cameos that await on the album.
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 50 Best Music Videos of the…
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 10 Best Video Game Characters of…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms Vs. Bad…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Nice choice for number one! Someone was selling a Mercury Cougar in town and I almost bought it just because of that album (even though I hardly drive, and dislike it fairly intensely!)
TWENTY-FIVE
FREAKIN'
PAGES
Why Paste? Why? Why must you make a 25 pages for a 25 item list? Two pages maybe. I don't even look at the lists that are formated like this. Oh, yes...it's all of them. I stopped at
Eh...Least Favorite of all the decade lists so far...a lot of these just weren't that good...to 25 should have been far better.
I think Panda Bear's Person Pitch had the greatest cover of the decade! You completely missed on that one.
The goat on the Illinois cover is likely a reference to the Cubs curse.
I'm also reasonably sure that's not a "newsman" but rather Al Capone.
How could you leave out Black Sheep Boy by Okkervil River? That's one of the most stunning pieces of ART (let alone album cover) that I've ever come across.
Seriously, this list needs to be re-done with Will Schaff's instantly iconic cover somewhere towards the top. Even the liner art is jaw-dropping on that one.
Do it.
Go.
Good call, Mark. Fixed now.
25 pages with ads popping up every 15 seconds? painful. laaaaaaame.
It might have been nice to include the year of each album cover...
Hey guys,
Love your magazine but it's a pretty poor list for most of these albums regardless of their sonic clout. Marilyn Manson's 'Mechanical Animals' is a fine take on Bowie's glam art of 'Diamond Dogs' that you missed for the list.
Thanks,
Keith Kelleher
Worst list so far. Raditude, really?
You left off Grammy-nominated Cassadaga that uses a decoder to find secret symbols meanings in the album artwork, as well as other precious indie rock gem covers out there.
these were terrible and clearly submitted by a hipster
Nearly all of those covers are horrible! The 1968 Mercury Cougar is the best car Ford ever made. The headlight covers should've been closed for the Neko Case cover, though.
I love the new Lips album art!! Looks like Lady Gaga gave him the inspiration from her outfit at the VMAs. Are the rumors true that the person on the cover is Lady Gaga?? It kind of looks like her, but not as hot as she usually looks... Maybe its not her? Anyone know? The huge nostrils and the hard lines of the face realllly look like our transvestite diva. The Lips are always pushing the envelope! Go Lips!
Just off the top of my head I can't believe sam beam's beautiful painting for The Shepherd's Dog didn't get a nod. When I saw it my first thought was I need to find this on vinyl. It evoked feelings of the past before CDs were the norm and an albums sleeve was so much more important. I think it also deserves points for so suiting the music it sheaths. I mean really, Weezer's Raditude? Lame album and the artwork looks like something you'd find on an unfunny greeting card. I understand that artwork is by nature a subjective thing, but this list feels like it was thrown together at the last minute by someone who didn't have the time to go back and review some of the fantastic covers this decade has produced.
How could you forget this Saul Williams cover? A cat with a M-Fing eye-patch!
who would look at yankee hotel foxtrot and think "DNA under a microscope"? it looked like a building straight away to me.