The Album Cover Album

by Storm Thorgerson (Editor), Roger Dean (Editor), Dominy Hamilton (Introduction)

1977 Paper Tiger 'limpback' (paperback) edition (Dragon's World Limited, UK). ISBN: 0891040749. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-71713. Minor shelfwear on edges. Ships from the UK.

Genres: Music, Art, Nonfiction, Reference, History, Art Design

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, so this is rather old now, but when I first read it aged 14 it opened up a whole world of hidden music. Bands like Captain Beefheart, the Grateful Dead and Ohio Players weren't even names, and this book made me familiar with them long before I heard their music. It also works as a memento of the 70s, when the 12-inch format meant there was space for some real creativity in cover art. Some of it was cack, of course (Blind Faith, Toe Fat), but it's still a real eye-opener to a lost art form.

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good compilation of album art up to the mid-70s, but there was so much good stuff that came after...

...but you can't fault the book for that.

I guess I would have liked more single-image pages, highlighting some of the absolutely incredible artwork on display, much of which ended up as a single tile of nine or twelve (shrinking the image to a couple of inches at best). Yes, it was illustrative of how similar some of the covers were, but still...

The joy of album art is the SIZE of the albums. So, the art was good, but the layout was less so.

[Elliot Chalom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking for a good coffee table book about album covers? This isn’t it. It’s a decent enough book, and may have been really neat when originally published in the mid-‘70s, but too much has happened in the world of album covers for a book on the topic to include only the best covers up to the middle of that decade. It may have been too much to ask to get a full update when Album Cover Album was re-published in 2008, but for my money I think you’re better off with one of the many imitators or follow-ups, like The Art of the LP: Classic Album Covers 1955�1995.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great memories. CD covers and downloads killed cover art.

[wildct2003 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of images.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why I hate iTunes!!

Bring back album art & packaging!!