What Does the Fox Say Album Art See You Again Album Art

They're images you've seen a grand times, but what practice they mean, and how did they end up on the cover of your favourite ever albums?

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We rounded up 50 of the well-nigh iconic pieces of album artwork from indie releases from Joy Partitioning, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Nirvana, The Smiths, Strokes, Killers and more and dived into their back 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 non dearest" inscribed on his helmet. Information technology was used as the epitome for Emile de Antonio'southward doc 'In the Year of the Grunter' in 1968, only The Smiths inverse the wording to "Meat is Murder" for their '85 anthology. Wynn is reportedly still alive and living in Australia.

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Amy Winehouse – Back To Black

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black: Amy arrived 4 hours tardily to this shoot, having been partying all nighttime at her friend's wedding ceremony. Shot in a black room at lensman Mischa Richter's house in Kendal Rise, which had blackboard paint on the cupboards, this was the final shot of the twenty-four hour period, with early evening light streaming through a bay window to the correct. Information technology was the last time Richter saw Amy.

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Nirvana – Nevermind

Nirvana – Nevermind: Conceived later Cobain and Grohl watched a program on h2o births, the iconic sleeve was eventually shot in a public pond puddle with 3-month-erstwhile baby Spencer Eldon. When concerns regarding the prototype showing the infant'southward 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 power, the idea of belfry blocks and pyramids," says sleeve creative person Stanley Donwood. He and Yorke – under the Tchock allonym 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 Clash – London Calling: Photographer Pennie Smith didn't want this blurry alive shot to exist used for the embrace, only Joe Strummer and the band'due south graphic designer Ray Lowry overrode the decision, adding in the distinctive pink and green lettering of Elvis Presley's debut anthology. The remains of the shattered bass are now on display at Cleveland'due south Rock and Scroll Hall of Fame.

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Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division – 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 print that's been replicated on trade ever since.

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Oasis – Definitely Possibly

Oasis – Definitely Perchance: I of the well-nigh iconic sleeves of them all (an exact replica of the room was recently mocked upwardly for a special exhibition), 'Definitely Maybe's artwork was shot in Bonehead'southward living room with numerous prominent cultural reference points – a scene from The Good. The Bad And The Ugly, a poster of Burt Bacharach – on display.

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Led Zeppelin – IV

Led Zeppelin – IV: As a 'fuck yous' to the critics who'd put the success of their starting time three albums downwardly to hype, Led Zeppelin decided to release their fourth untitled. Instead of any words, the encompass features a painting singer Robert Plant found in an antiques transport in Reading. The record itself displays four symbols, or runes: one for each ring member.

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Blondie – Parallel Lines

Blondie – Parallel Lines: This classic sleeve got the ring'due south manager, Peter Leeds, fired. Without telling the band, he chose the image, which had been rejected by Debbie Harry – "I don't think information technology's a cracking design, personally," she said – without informing the band, who were hoping it would evidence 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 Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Airplane Over The Body of water: Based on a vintage postcard, Mangum asked artist Chris Bilheimer to replace the face of the adult female 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 one has Dylan and his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo strolling downwards Jonas Street, NYC. Critic Janet Maslin once wrote that the cover "inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, look distant, and let the girl do the clinging," merely actually Dylan was simply chilly.

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The Velvet Cloak-and-dagger – The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Secret: The front and back cover photos were shot by artist Billy Name, who lived in Andy Warhol's debauched NYC studio The Factory at the fourth dimension of the anthology'due south release. He's namechecked past Lou Reed in 'That'due south The Story Of My Life'.

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Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth – Fantasize Nation: A section 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 price of £2.5m, but it sold for £7.1m.

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Jeff Buckley – Grace

Jeff Buckley – Grace: Designer duo Nicky Lindeman and Christopher Austopchuk came up with the cover concept, and much of the focus is on the singer's good looks. Speaking to 'Interview Magazine' in 1994, Buckley rejected the poster-boy tag: "The manner you look doesn't hateful shit if yous can't sing, or if you're mean to people".

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Interpol – Turn On The Vivid Lights

Interpol – Plow On The Vivid Lights: Inspired by minimal colour palettes and the Bauhaus fine art motion, artist Sean McCabe somewhen concluded up using a photo taken inside a London cinema as the assuming epitome on the forepart 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's 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 peak of the buildings read 'structure material development'.

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Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters: The encompass photograph of an antiquarian Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol was taken by Grohl'south then-married woman Jennifer Youngblood. The image caused controversy because of the way that Kurt Cobain had died, but was just intended to tie in with the sci-fi theme of the ring's proper noun ('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 encompass art is a Jackson Pollock-influenced painting by Roses guitarist John Squire (also a noted artist), 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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Yes Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell

Yeah 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 past his "wacked-out artistic sensibility", saying of the artwork: "Information technology is my belief that Cody is a cult legend in the making. I was helpless to its electric, raspberry amuse".

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Air-conditioning/DC – Dorsum In Blackness

Ac/DC – Dorsum In Blackness: The embrace of the archetype 1980 LP was a simple design of manifestly, stark black in laurels of former AC/DC vocaliser Bon Scott, who passed away the same twelvemonth after drinking himself to death.

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Kraftwerk – The Man Car

Kraftwerk – The Homo Car: A striking take on Lissitzky and Rodchenko, this Constructivist image feels oppressive, merely not straight communist or fascist: equally percussionist Karl Bartos has said, information technology had "a strong paramilitary image, but it is a contradiction because we wore reddish shirts and not brown." To make the artwork even more perplexing, the title appears in iv different languages.

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PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love

PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love: Her first two anthology covers had featured the wok of Polly's friend and long-term visual collaborator Maria Mochnacz. The 'To Bring My Beloved' shot was taken past fashion photographer Valerie Phillips on the fix of the 'Down By The Water' video, directed by Mochnacz.

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The Strokes – Is This It

The Strokes – Is This It: The shot, taken past lensman Colin Lane, is of Lane's so-girlfriend and was taken spontaneously later she emerged naked from the shower. "We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was simply trying to take a sexy picture," says Lane of the image.

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Portishead – Dummy

Portishead – Dummy: A nevertheless from the 10-minute short film 'To Kill A Expressionless Human', a spy film homage starring Barrow as a rooftop assassin and Gibbons as the distraught married woman of the human he'due south contracted to kill.

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Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Surfacing so soon afterwards 9/11, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's' comprehend image of 2 towers picked out against a blank background had a item resonance. They're actually the twin Marina Metropolis towers, on the north bank of the Chicago river, and the cover was finalised before the catastrophic events.

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Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley: For 47 years it was believed that this photo – taken on July 31 1955 in Tampa, Florida – had been taken by Popsie Randolph. It was August 2002 when Elvis skillful Joseph A. Tunzi discovered the shot was actually taken by William V "Carmine" Robertson. The cover mode has been echoed over the years by anybody from Tom Waits to Chumbawamba.

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Pixies – Doolittle

Pixies – Doolittle: 'Doolitle' was the offset album where 4AD'south in house designer Vaughan Oliver had admission 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 Drain' and 'Gouge Away'. Oliver said in 2013 that it remains his favourite 4AD sleeve.

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Lou Reed – Rock N Roll Animal

Lou Reed – Rock N Roll Beast: The cover shot is credited to little-known photographer 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 unproblematic design, this went through a surprising number of permutations. At one stage the back comprehend was the front. The angle of tilt on the logo – xiii degrees – will be forever ingrained upon my memory!"

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David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

David Bowie – Diamond Dogs: Bowie appears as one-half-man, half-dog character Halloween Jack, leader of the Diamond Dogs gang. Photographer Terry O'Neill took the pictures, which were and so given to Belgian artist Guy Peellaert to render as a painting. RCA execs worried about the domestic dog genitals on bear witness, and censored the image. "I thought it was very sad," Peellaert said later.

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Slint – Spiderland

Slint – Spiderland: The encompass shot, which depicts the band standing in an abandoned quarry, was taken by none other than Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham). 'Spiderland', yet, is the vocalist'due south only notable foray into sleeve blueprint.

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The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society: The cover shot for 'Hamlet Green…' took identify at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. Melody Maker photographer Barrie Wentzell took the pictures. 'Village Greenish…' would be the last album to feature the original Kinks line-upwardly, with bassist Pete Quaife leaving in 1969.

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Morrissey – Your Arsenal

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

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu: Civil war buff Stephen Stills wanted the comprehend to look similar a photo from that era (1860s). To achieve that, the ring rented lookalike outfits from a costume shop and requested that photographer Tom O'Neal utilize an onetime-fashioned wooden box camera for the shoot, which took identify in David Crosby'due south 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 signal, only for 'Disintegration' Robert Smith was thinking of using someone new. In response, Thompson and Vella moved from their usual abstruse designs into one that focused on Smith's face, which some saw equally a conscious ploy to curry favour.

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The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation

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

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Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: Floyd'south label weren't happy virtually the prism gatefold sleeve, insisting it was too minimalist. '…Dark Side' ended upward beingness their biggest-selling album all the same. Art grouping Hipgnosis, the squad behind the design, have said the prism is meant to celebrate the group'due south famous low-cal prove.

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Elton John – Good day Yellowish Brick Road

Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Illustrator Ian Beck was chosen for the sleeve thanks to his work on vocalizer-songwriter Jonathan Kelly's 'Wait Till They Change The Backdrop'. Elton's Rocket Tape Company were so smitten they originally wanted to utilize the same picture. Elton looks so long-legged because 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, then all their artwork was taken from archive photos and shots of friends, in homage to the classic Smiths sleeves.

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The Keen Pumpkins – Admire

The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore: Corgan's and so girlfriend, Ukrainian-born Yelena Yemchuk, who had been involved with the videos for the singles from 'Mellon Collie…', is credited with the art direction of 'Adore'. Compared to the whimsy of 'Mellon Collie…', the gothic darkness of the chief epitome 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 'Come across the Beatles!' for this cocky-titled album, but after a disastrous shoot which cartoonist John Holmstrom described as like "pulling teeth", opted for stark simplicity: the band lined upwards against a brick wall, expertly captured by photographer Roberta Bayley.

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Bloc Party – Silent Warning

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

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Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Kate Bush – Hounds of Dear: 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-league.

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The Kinks – Kinks

The Kinks – Kinks: The embrace shot was taken by Klaus Schmalenbach, who went on to work with the ring 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 by Nick Drake, Scott Walker, Tricky and more – the sleeve was designed to resemble the battered box of a 1940'due south board game. A deluxe edition even came with a wad of Monopoly-style money

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The Replacements – Let It Exist

The Replacements – Let It Exist: The front-cover photo was taken by Dan Corrigan and features The Replacements sitting on the roof of the Stintsons' family abode. Left to right, it's Paul Westerberh, Bob Stintson, Chris Mars, Tommy Stintson. The picture is said to be a homage to the Beatles' final rooftop concert during the 1969 'Let Information technology Be' sessions.

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Elastica – Elastica

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

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The Cure – Boys Don't Cry

The Cure – Boys Don't Weep: The sleeve for 'Three Imaginary Boys' featured a fridge, a vacuum cleaner and a lamp – the latter apparently representing Smith. The same designer, Polydor art director Bill Smith, produced a similarly aesthetic sleeve for 'Boys Don't Cry', albeit one that seems to interpret the rails 'Burn 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's transition into an unlikely 35-yr-erstwhile dancefloor rex was cemented with LCD Soundsystem'south 2005 debut. What better paradigm to testify this than a disco ball? Effortless, precise and perfectly executed, it was typical Spud.

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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 third anthology sleeve: "1 tablet 70 min" it reads. Pierce actually cut several minutes from the anthology in order to circular off the figure and make the typography await neat. 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

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