Recommendations of the Editorial team
The best album cover of all time (81): King Crimson – “In the Court of the Crimson King”
The album is undoubtedly the best invention of the last century. But the music is not the whole story. The album cover has been a cultural obsession for as long as there are albums. Since the 12-inch vinyl plates came onto the market in cardboard covers in the 1950s, musicians and fans have been fascinated by the art that can be seen on the cover. When the Beatles revolutionized the game with the cover of “Sgt. Pepper” in 1967, it became a way to give a visual statement about it. Where the music comes from and why it is important. But the art of the album cover continues to develop.
That’s why we celebrate this art. The 100 best album cover ever. From Biggie to Beyoncé to Bad Bunny. Nirvana to NAS to Neil Young. Sza to Sabbath to the sex Pistols. We have rap, country, jazz, prog, metal, reggae, flamenco, funk, gothic, hippie psychedelia and hardcore punk. But all of these albums have a unique look that fits their sound. The most unforgettable cover become part of the music. How many Pink Floyd fans broke their heads when the prism was on the cover of “Dark Side of the Moon” after they rolled up their smoky products?
What makes an album cover a classic?
What makes an album cover a classic? Sometimes it is a portrait of the artist. Think of the Beatles when crossing the street. Or to Carole King in Laurel Canyon with her cat. Others opt for iconic, half abstract pictures. How Led ZeppelinMiles Davis or My Bloody Valentine. Some artists show where they come from. Like Rem who represent the south with Kudzu. Or Ol ‘Dirty Bastard, who welcomes the Brooklyn Zoo with his food brand card.
Many of these cover come from legendary photographers, designers and artists. Like Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz, Storm Thorgerson, Raymond Pettibon and Peter Saville. Some have a cosmic symbolism that the fans have to decipher. Others rely on Starpower. But they are all classic pictures that have become an important part of music history. And they all show why the love of the world will not end.
The best album cover of all time (81): King Crimson – “In the Court of the Crimson King”
King Crimson knew that they were planning something big when they put together “21st Century Schizoid Man”, the growling, stirring portrait of a dissolving collective consciousness with which they opened their debut album in 1969.
And when the artist Barry Godber came to the Wessex Studios in London to show them the cover painting commissioned by the copywriter Peter Sinfield, they knew that they had found the perfect visual counterpart.
“This damn face screamed out of the ground and told us ‘Schizoid Man’ – exactly the song we had worked on,” Bassist and singer Greg Lake later recalled.
If you combine the picture with texts such as “Blood Rack, Barbed Wire/Politicians’ Funeral Pyre/Innocents Raped with Napalm Fire”, you can hardly imagine that the cover picture looks horrified at the atrocities that the song describes.