honoring CD album art...

With the rise of digital music and albums for download, we are slowly but surely losing the art of the album cover. I know there was talk of the lost art when the vinyl made its departure from the main stream. But once again we are facing the demise of this interesting art form. I know that there will still be album art available with the downloaded music. But there is something special about fighting your way through the plastic on the cover of a fresh new cd. There are so many different ways to package it. Cover choices, papers, plastic, size, double or single stacked cds, posters, etc. So I've collected a few of the ones I remember that I liked from the artist I feel have good, interesting or thought provoking album art work. Feel free to add your own to the list.

The Roots:











I love the roots album art. It's always thought provoking and sometimes harsh to look at. They did several versions of their Things Fall Apart album.

Lauryn Hill:












This album was so amazing. Her voice was too beautiful for words. And the videos she created for the songs off the album were just inspirational to effect lovers like me. I know she is all about her family and doesn't care so much about this fame game, but your fans miss you.

Common:












So I love this man! I love his album art as well. It's not the most innovative I've seen, but the quality of the pictures and the graphics that accompany it make them some of my fav.


Gnarls Barkley:












I could go on forever about this group. Just amazing with their videos and I like the graphics in their album covers as well.


Kanye West:














Really. What can I say. I loved the whole cd package for this album. The fold out, the illustration of Takashi Murakami, the story the images told, the colors, everything. This album art and color scheme was the inspiration for the redesign of this blog.

Outkast:














Now if we're being honest Outkast has had some HORRIBLE album art. But I've chosen two of my favs from them. One featuring the artwork of Andre and the other I loved because if you got the album early, it was a hologram. Hold it one way see Dre, the other see Big Boi.

Honorable mention to Jay-Z's Kingdom Come for the hologram changing from hood to boardroom and Pharrell with his variations on his album art/poster collection. Now are these the absolute greatest? Not at all. These are just some I enjoy.