2. “NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA” BY JENS LEKMAN
This album cover depicts the
artist, Jens Lekman, having his hair cut
by hands that appear to be coming out
of clouds. This is a reference to the
opening lines of the track Shirrin;
“When Shirrin cuts my hair it’s like a
love affair.” Quite simply this album
cover represents Jens Lekman’s love of
telling stories in his songs. If you look
closely at his shoulders it would appear
that the picture of him has been printed
in black and white and then been
painted with watercolours to give it a
calm and faded colour scheme. I don’t
think there is very much to say about
this front cover other than what is
obvious about it – it looks nice and is
abstract enough to let you know that
you are probably going to be in for a
slightly unconventional listening
experience, without being too eccentric.

3. “IN RAINBOWS” BY RADIOHEAD
This album cover is an explosive
display of colours (quite literally you are
in a rainbow) and sets the mood
perfectly for an equally colourful and
varied listening experience. I think the
reason why the artwork works so well is
because you could not describe the
music visually in any other way - the
powerful reds represent the hyperactive
mania of the song Bodysnatchers, or
the passion of All I Need, while the
blues and oranges evoke the peaceful
mental image of “Ripples on a blank
shore,” mentioned in the song
Reckoner, and the lighter blues remind
me of the sparseness of 15 Step. Overall
I would put this up there as without a
doubt one of the best album covers of
all time.

4. “MOVEMENT” BY NEW ORDER
This album cover was created by
graphic designer Peter Saville, and is
not only bold and iconic, but I think it
perfectly describes the music. Inspired
by a piece of artwork by futurist
Fortunato Depero, the album cover
displays a sense of sophistication in its
slick design. To fit the cold and
industrial sound of the album, the band
decided on this fairly minimalist front
cover, which only contains the band’s
name, the year of the album’s
release, the name of the album, and the
record label, Factory, and the number 50
(Factory Records issued each of their
products with a catalogue number)
against a cold blue backdrop. The
apparent simplicity and emptiness of
the artwork suits the sparse production
of the album.

5. “SMILE” BY THE BEACH BOYS
Everything about the album Smile is
happy, and this album artwork, drawn
with childlike naivety, represents the
innocent and purely joyous music the
album contains. The album cover has
been made to look like a warm and
welcoming shop front, and the two
cartoon characters (as well as the fairly
over the top amount of smiling mouths
contained in the image) do everything
they can to offer a warm welcome into
the album. The album cover makes
reference to stereotypical American
ideals (the idea of a happy couple
offering a smile to passers by) and the
way the cover is drawn is obviously
meant to look like a child’s drawing.
American life and Childhood (more
specifically a child’s relationship with
their parents) are two of the
predominant themes in the music.