The first of its kind, 1977’s Album Cover Album was a popular coffee-table book that focused on LP covers without restrictions to musical genres or design. Of the books that followed, Blue Note: Album Cover Art (1991) and California Cool (1992) were among the most notable, but by then one feared such volumes were becoming exercises in nostalgia. With the resurgence of vinyl, however, album-cover books have reemerged, with themes including country, hip hop, classical, metal, punk, bossa nova, cars, and (for those who enjoy train wrecks) incredibly awful album covers.
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Books have also appeared on art record covers and art records. Published in 1989, Broken Records shed light on this bridge between art and music, as did Vinyl Records & Covers by Artists (2005). Recently two similarly-themed new volumes came out in the same week, and because so many art covers and art records have appeared since 2005, duplication between these new books and their predecessors is minimal. In fact, as Visual Vinyl and Art Record Covers both make clear, record art is very much a live tradition.
At this point I should throw out a very loose definition of art covers and art records. When a designer creates a cover, that’s not considered an art album cover—but when an artist does, it is. Artists produce an art record when they design the actual vinyl disc. Ultimately this tradition offers a window into the art world in general, and Visual Vinyl and Art Record Covers reflect pop art, op art, Fluxus, minimalism, conceptual art, graffiti art, pop surrealism, and many other art movements. Well-known artists who created album jackets include Andy Warhol, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Rauschenberg, Banksy, Jean Dubuffet, Keith Haring, Basquiat, Bridget Riley, and Damien Hirst. Designed for a 1949 ten-inch LP of music by Carlos Chavez, the earliest known Warhol cover puts us near the beginning of vinyl, and art record covers have been around ever since. In fact, when vinyl production dropped to its lowest numbers art covers continued to appear, largely because hip hop, electronic, punk/post-punk, indie rock, and noise music stuck with vinyl after other genres took a hiatus.
Although 232 pages of record art appears in Visual Vinyl, that’s but a fraction of the collection Jan van Toorn displayed at the event that spawned the book, his exhibit at the Schunck Museum in the Netherlands. Published by Verlag Kettler, Visual Vinyl includes an interview with van Toorn, who explains that most of these records are considerably more valuable now than when he bought them—so one fringe benefit of Visual Vinyl is that it offers readers a chance to see what’s out there without having to rob a bank to do so. With over 2,000 titles, the discography at the end of the book is a handy reference tool, and the stylish op art-like cover is itself an aesthetic statement.
Published by Taschen, Art Record Covers is larger and longer than Visual Vinyl, with more interviews and text. As such, Visual Vinyl may appeal to readers seeking a comparatively concise overview while Art Record Covers will attract those hoping to delve deeper. Readers particularly drawn to the actual discs should note that Visual Vinyl devotes a large section to art records. Both books do a good job of documenting classic covers from the early days of the LP; Art Record Covers includes more recent releases, confirming that the tradition is as active as ever.
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Because fewer records are produced now than in the heyday of vinyl, today’s high number of art covers may seem paradoxical. However, as audiophiles well know, the vinyl resurgence is partly a boutique industry with limited and pricey releases selling out as soon as they hit the market, and many art covers are released in extremely limited runs. It’s interesting that this enhanced emphasis on packaging occurs during a period when some musical formats marginalize or bypass altogether the visual element. Books like Visual Vinyl and Art Record Covers remind us that album covers are part of the cultural imprint of an LP. Let’s face it: when we think of Exile on Main Street, Sgt. Pepper, Who’s Next, or The Velvet Underground & Nico, our minds instantly flash to their album covers. That’s part of their history. And with so many musicians struggling to get noticed, perhaps the packaging is more important than we realize. After all, they deserve their history too.
By Jeff Wilson
This will take some explaining, but I can connect the dots between pawing through LPs at a headshop called Elysian Fields in Des Moines, Iowa, as a seventh grader, and becoming the Music Editor for The Absolute Sound. At that starting point—around 1970/71—Elysian Fields had more LPs than any other store in Des Moines. Staring at all the colorful covers was both tantalizing and frustrating. I had no idea who most of the artists were, because radio played only a fraction of what was current. To figure out what was going on, I realized that I needed to build a record collection—and as anyone who’s visited me since high school can testify, I succeeded. Record collecting was still in my blood when, starting in the late 1980s, the Cincinnati Public Library book sale suddenly had an Elysian Fields quantity of LPs from people who’d switched to CDs. That’s where I met fellow record hawk Mark Lehman, who preceded me as music editor of TAS. Mark introduced me to Jonathan Valin, whose 1993 detective novel The Music Lovers depicts the battles between record hawks at library sales. That the private eye in the book, Harry Stoner, would stumble upon a corpse or two while unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of some rare Living Stereo platters made perfect sense to me. After all, record collecting is serious business. Mark knew my journalistic experience included concert reviews for The Cincinnati Enquirer and several long, sprawling feature articles in the online version of Crawdaddy. When he became TAS music editor in 2008, he contacted me about writing for the magazine. I came on board shortly after the latest set of obituaries had been written for vinyl—and, as fate had it, right when the LP started to make yet another unexpected comeback. Suddenly, I found myself scrambling to document all the record companies pressing vinyl. Small outfits were popping up world-wide, and many were audiophile-oriented, plus already existing record companies began embracing the format again. Trying to keep track of everything made me feel, again, like that overwhelmed seventh grader in Elysian Fields, and as Music Editor I’ve found that keeping my finger on the pulse of the music world also requires considerable detective work. I’ve never had a favorite genre, but when it comes time to sit down and do some quality listening, for me nothing beats a well-recorded small-group jazz recording on vinyl. If a stereo can give me warmth and intimacy, tonal accuracy, clear imaging, crisp-sounding cymbals, and deep, woody-sounding bass, then I’m a happy camper.
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