Easily the best thing about collecting vinyl records is the cool packaging you get with it. I like CDs for their small storing size and occasional sweet extensive liner notes, but they pale next to a giant, high quality vinyl LP cover or a glorious gatefold. So, I thought I’d have a gander at my collection, and pick out the best covers.
(Hint, click on the covers to see them larger, as they need to be seen!)
The Red Krayola – Parable of Arable Land
I should preface this by saying outside of a few stragglers, my vinyl collection is mainly extremely weird stuff, with an emphasis on early electronic music and krautrock, but this is easily the weirdest cover I have, and probably the weirdest LP as well. I mean, what is that supposed to be? Still, it captures the music perfectly, a frightening thought.
Santana – Abraxas
Like we could expect anything other than batshit insanity from a Santana LP cover, it almost hurts my eyes looking at it. Also, good to see some album cover nudity, a rarity in our day and age.
Graveyard – Graveyard
A lot going on again, a bunch of girls lying around a table, two of them doing something at the bottom whilst another above them looks down disapprovingly. Two cloud people make out in the corner, and holy shit, is that a dragon made of paper?
Suicide – Suicide
This is just messy and depressing, like the music itself.
Can – Tago Mago
The back cover is just as cool, with a green version of the orange thing on the front. Is it a man’s head? Is it a mushroom cloud? Is it a ‘Mushroomhead’ (name of a song on the album)?
I do have more, but I’ll save them for next time!
