This 'Boring' Album Cover is Hiding a Masterpiece
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2022
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I actually love the minimalistic cover, it actually feels like you're at the very edge of an imagined universe where most of the physics of the inner artwork fray to nothingness
YES to YES. And the inner artwork opens to us as we journey into the music. And "Close to the Edge" is so complex and frenetic, like you I appreciate the outside cover being meditative & centering.
its such a great album cover
The cover shows the "edge" of that island inside. It's green and fades to infinite space. So that minimalist cover is in tandem with the artwork inside, they don't make sense in isolation
Lmao wtf
I listen to this album on mushrooms and when you see the cover it has a very interesting effect, where the letters light up light neon.
Close to the Edge's artwork never seemed boring. It looked minimalistically ethereal.
As a massive progressive rock and Rush fan, i gotta say that Close To The Edge is the magnum opus of progressive rock genre. The title track of the same name should be taught in music school.
I don't disagree, on my first ever listen those "AHHHH"'s breaking through the chaos hooked me immediately. But God damn does Tales from Topographic Oceans with The Revealing Science of God give it a run for its money in my books. Relayer with The Gates of Deirium is up there as well.
The revealing is my absolute favorite yes song! I'm happy to see someone else feel like it's a contender to CTTE
As an artist myself, I know that the digital distribution of additional album art is (unfortunately) sequestered off to "Special Edition" downloadable content. I do agree though, that some of that artwork needs to have an option for showing it while listening to the album digitally.
I guarantee the mediums/shops we use to stream music will be replaced by something else eventually. Those new places *could* offer a different visual experience.
@@nicholsonfile There's such an obvious solution too. Just show the panoramic art automatically when you turn your device to landscape mode. They wouldn't even have to get rid of things like Canvas so everybody gets to use the type of artwork they want.
@@fkknsikk Its obvious now that you pointed it out ‐ but I definitely didn't think of it til you said it.
I was a good student & considered becoming a public defender ‐ until my mum & I noticed the obvious REGULARLY escapes me🤣. So TY for pointing it out 😊
*edit* I had the Velvet Underground & Nico Banana on my fridge!! XO
Being able to scroll through album art and even booklets when listening to an album on streaming services would be a really nice feature
@@LordStarscream- I've been saying this for so long! Interactive album covers, the power to peel the velvet undergrounds banana on spotify! Maybe the only reason it hasn't happened yet is because it'll belittle the vinyl experience.
You’ve got to do a cover story on “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull, one of the most creative record packaging I’ve ever seen
Agreed. When I was a kid I used to read the "story of the album" displayed on the record when I found it in stores. It was over my head but I was an avid viewer of Monty Python so no stranger to absurdist British humor back then.
@@martineldritch the crossword puzzle haunts me
It's the best packaging on a record, ever. Simple as that.
He actually made it!
amazing timing! just recently reheard the album after awhile and its crazy how vivid and imaginative Yes' world is shown in just three songs
3 suites.... 😜
I just bought the vinyl a few weeks ago so it's perfect timing for me too
I just listened to Close to the Edge about a week ago, I put the needle on the vinyl, smoked a joint, and got lost in the music, Close to the Edge, brilliant song. The lyrics and artwork go hand and hand, especially the theme and concept of experiencing the hardships and triumphs. And You and I, beautiful song, absolutely beautiful, again great lyrics, romantic, heartfelt, mystical. Then we go right into Siberian Khatru, one of heaviest songs that "yes" has ever produced. Great album over all, Three Songs, One Album. A true masterpiece in of itself.
"Close to the Edge" was one of the first vinyl records I bought as a teen (I'm not that old, that's just when I got into records) and I got it for about a dollar and I love it. idk how it was in the US but here there usually were much less expensive non-gatefold versions of the original albums. I had never seen the inner artwork until this video. Holy shit
Yeah, that was a thing everywhere I think. I have a copy of Agents of Fortune by Blue Oyster Cult that was like, $8, but didn't have the gatefold
I had it on a re-released double play cassette with another Yes album, so even the front album art was compressed to about an inch square.
@@robgronotte1 ugh that sucks. Great value for money tho! Lol
@@Icsant3 yeah, I think it was that plus The Yes Album, and I probably got it used for under $5.
My father who recently passed introduced me to Yes, 30 years ago. He was in hospital for 2 weeks prior, after suffering a ruptured aorta. When I collected his belongings from the hospital, Close to the edge was the cd I found in his cd player. I'd never seen inside original aldum cover even though I know its in his collection. I remember him telling me about the first time he heard it as a teen, how ethereal it sounded and how it made him feel. I like to imagine that that image was somewhere in his last thoughts. R.I.P Old Man.
So sorry to hear of your loss. 🙏
I bought the LP in the late 80s in England and it wasn't a gatefold either. Just the front and back and an inner sleeve with the lyrics. i didn't see the inner artwork until I bought a Roger Dean book many years later. Yessongs was the best art piece though
Your dad is faking It! Dig HIM UP!!!!!! 🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵😭👍
@@josephtabar492 I would get out of the grave for close to the edge.
Merci pour votre témoignage....may your father rest in peace
Oh Yes! (Pun absolutely intended)
Love this band, love this album, love Chris Squire's bass playing
A fantastic discussion of the functional art of album sleeves and exactly why this is my favorite concept album of all time. The collaboration between Roger Dean and Yes is one of the coolest interplays between visual art and music that I have ever come across!
It's a real pity the Close to the Edge art didn't fully make it to CD. The beautiful psychedelia of Bitches Brew and even the foldout cross of Black Moses made it to my copies and are wonderful inclusions even in miniature
Currently reading “Close to the Edge: The story of Yes” by Chris Welch. And he told an interesting story.
In the early days before Yes was formed, Jon Anderson was looking to find a backing band for a potential solo career. His friend, Jack Barrie, found a band called “Gun,” who he thought might be a good fit for Anderson. Anderson rehearsed, and even did a gig at “The Marquee,” an extremely popular venue at the time. They were met with a wonderful reaction from the crowd.
One day, while Anderson was at rehearsal with Gun, Barrie received many phone calls about potential gig opportunities. He couldn’t wait until Anderson returned so that he could tell him. However, Anderson had news of his own-he had been kicked out! Gun thought that with such a great success at The Marquee they didn’t need a singer and they consequently ditched Anderson.
Gun went on and met relative success with their self-titled debut, but here’s the kicker: the artwork on that album also happened to be the debut of a certain artist… named Roger Dean.
That first Gun album had vocals on most tracks, just not JA's. So, if that's how it went down, I don't think the band members were being that honest with him.
Dean also designed a couple of cool record sleeves for Uriah Heep.
You are 100 percent spot on. I grew up in the vinyl age, and even though I progressed through 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and now digital downloads, I have always felt something missing both in not having the full-size album artwork, and just the simple tactile sense of putting vinyl on the turntable to hear it. No surprise to me that vinyl has made somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. Thanks for another great video!
Both covers are extremely well thought out, both represent the edge of the void, represented with 2 colours or with a whole landscape, which represents the musical, figurative side of the album but also its more inner side, and putting this more subtle part as the main cover creates some mystery but also the album asks us to think about what the music really means to appreciate it even more
ELO's Out of the Blue was my favorite as a kid.. Gatefold with the band working inside the spaceship
I miss the days of laying on the floor, listening to an album for the first time.... following the printed lyrics and looking at the artwork. It took you on a journey. Now I shuffle through songs on Spotify while I am working and its only background noise. We both changed.
Great video man....first time hearing the title song I couldn't even begin to comprehend what was happening......but it intrigued the hell out of me. The more and more I listened, the more I became obsessed with the ridiculous composition. Chris Squire's bass and Bill Bruford's drums are the absolute linchpin holding the madness together. I giggle every single time I hear John Anderson's 'AAAAAAAAA' right in the middle of the organised chaos. I love the slight pause and transition into the part after that.....absolute musical genius (goddam I should start writing about music...my big brain is doing good word things right now)
I’m a massive Yes fan, and I’m not sure how I missed this video! And You And I is by far my favorite love song. I’m a singer, and Jon Anderson’s vocals are just to die for. I find myself listening to this album over and over again, picking out every little intricacy in his voice. This is a band that rewards deeper listening at every turn - it’s no surprise that I missed the visual aspect.
Another fun thing of note is that a major meme in the Yes community is from this very album art. Specifically, the Deluxe Edition with the big yellow “L” shape bordering the left side of the album. You can find it all over the place in the real world, kind of like when everyone was finding “amogus” in stuff.
YES!!!!! One of my favorite CZcamsr making a video about my favorite album!!!
Roger Dean is amazing, and yes is amazing as well! I've always loved both the outer and inner artwork, the outer artwork acting to entice you. "A simple gradient? Whats That all about?" *opens the album* oh damn!
Another thing about album art in the past was that it was often the only thing we knew about artists, before you could find everything on the internet. No videos, no biography, and no interviews - or at least those things were very rare. Such a great time ti be a fan now
The album cover for URIAH HEEP's album, DEMONS AND WIZARDS is also done by *Roger Dean.*
I miss the importance of album packaging and how cool it was to read everything inside the lining. I grew up with cassette tapes and I would obsessively study the album covers it was great
Thank you so much for shedding some light on this gorgeous artwork and Roger Dean’s work in general. Opening the vinyl packaging for the first time immediately changed my perspective on the album. I’ve loved Dean’s work ever since.
Hey we are profile picture buddies!
@@Aquatarkus96 hey! That makes me happy :)
Finally a new video! You help me discover a lot of new/great stuff.
I would love to see a whole breakdown of the actual music in this album, its amazing
One of my favorite album from my all time favorite band.
I was introduced to Close to the Edge in 1978 or so, by a friend's older brother - and I then bought the vinyl and listened to it on headphones and stared at that inner artwork.
One of my all time favourite albums. glad you're covering it in some form
This album is so good I failed my first unit of chemistry because the title track was so wormed into my head I couldn't pay attention to what my teacher was saying. It's one of the greatest pieces of art ever.
He also did the cover for Osibisa, a very popular (in the UK) west African band.
Dean’s artwork caused me to buy that album back in the ‘70s, then the music sucked me in. I still listen to it.
Goes hard, crazy secret
The functionality for this sort of thing does already exist, I just don't feel it's all that utilised.
Spotify has its Canvas feature on mobile, and Apple Music has animated visualisers on some newer mainstream albums. Out of the two, despite being on mobile only, Spotify canvases are far better. Apple Music visualisers are nice, but only allow for gifs of the front cover. I've seen examples of Spotify canvases have different artwork for individual tracks. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's Murder Of The Universe is the best example that comes to mind, having unique canvases for its separate chapters, and other albums in their discography having some unique canvases for separate tracks (even if just snippets of their respective music videos).
It'd be possible to have something like fly-overs or zoom-ins on the inner gatefold art on different tracks while the album plays out. I have no idea why I don't see more of it, whether its just a lack of knowledge of them by artists/labels, or moreso if they're reserved for bigger artists.
The biggest problem with something like this is, much like the music hosted on the streaming services itself, it's all dependent on the service still existing. Say an artist creates unique art for a new release, then in a decade's time Spotify goes under; that artwork is then lost unless a similar streaming service creates a 1:1 visualiser system. You can guarantee an LP will still exist at the end of the day - can you guarantee a data hoarder has downloaded the canvases/visualisers all in time, or that the artist still has them saved? Even if they do still exist after that, what happens then? They get uploaded to a third-party site and you have to play the music externally while you watch? Hardly the same experience.
I'll end by saying imo the best way to do it is to have single art tie-in to the main cover, and have that assigned to unique tracks - it gives them a sense of purpose within the album while not detracting from the full experience. Justice's Woman Worldwide is a great example, having edited and messed up versions of the main cover.
Also a quick since this is already a rambly mess, p.s: Bandcamp allows artists to assign individual track art within an album, thank the lord.
‘Close to the Edge Green’ is absolutely my favorite color.
You might have my favorite CZcams channel ever. And when you dive deep on prog rock... I truly love you, dude.
I've owned the vinyl for about 10 years and, despite this being perhaps my favorite of Dean's works, I hadn't seen the little dwelling until now. Great job, as always.
So glad you finally made an episode on Yes. I've been obsessed with for over a year now
gorgeous art work , ALL of it and I LOOOOVE that green cover art
Great stuff as always man
You are so right about the album artwork of the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. The original Dark Side of the Moon came with a poster and couple stickers. Dave Mason's Alone Together was a triple fold out poster and the disc was marbled instead of back vinyl. Almost every album had 3 or 4 times as much artwork as a cd re-release.
Great video & analysis as always.
Really great editing on this one
Really shit
@@CartoonSlug quit being mean
Im always excited to see a new episode of Polyphonic.
Wonderful as always!
Your Wish You Were Here video was amazing, great job :)
Fantastic episode! Literally and metaphorically.
This brilliant Dean painting is tucked in the middle of the booklet for my Atlantic CD release of "Close to the Edge" and I've noticed it ever since I've picked up that record. Roger Dean's covers for Yes and other bands are some of the best ever made, and until this review I didn't even realize how beautiful this CTTE art is. Subscriber earned for this one
Man it's a trip to be a part of 3 different generations of how music was packaged as a kid I was a fan of albums because of their covers as well as what was on the inside with their music Roger Dean has always been one of my favorite bands as well so for me I still have just that way of looking at that album because I saw it as an album and there's nothing like that today I can't put myself in the same frame of mind as a lot of the kids today because of me growing up in the seventies eighties and nineties and seeing it transfer from vinyl to tape to CD and then audio file I think it may have stopped in the early nineties with C d's or probably more so with the audio file thanks either way I could never forget the way that albums were presented back then it was a prize it was like you got 2 great things in one great artwork and great music.. Yes close to the edges of masterpiece 1 of my favorite albums by them actually the 1st 5 years of that band is my favorite bill Bruford and Chris Squire are like a rad rhythm section and everything else that yes did within that time I'm really at the end of I like their stuff no matter what but that's my favorite period between 1969 to 1972 and then bill Bruford Joined King Crimson for my favorite period of that band
Im subscribed and LOVE your channel mate. As a music fan and specifically grown up on 70s rock, I truly appreciate and eat up your essays. Great work and look forward to future content. 👍
Really appreciate this video on one of my favorite albums of all time. The album artwork had astounded me from day one. You're not wrong about how opening up the album and discovering the gatefold can mimic a feeling of enlightenment.. As Jon Anderson would eventually go on to explain his meaning behind the title as representative of himself "Close to the Edge" of enlightenment, a spiritual breakthrough, which shone on Topographic, Yes' next studio album. One of my favorite pieces of trivia behind the artwork of Close to the Edge is that it's actually part of a continuous story which spans Fragile, CttE, and Yessongs. As Fragile depicts on its cover the distant view of a planet breaking apart from the inside, Close to the Edge shows a closer view of the same instance. Then across the 4 artworks of Yessongs tells the further story of the bits of remaining planet drifting away through space before affixing themselves to the landscape of another planet.. The story told across these albums then even inspired the story in Jon Anderson's solo album Olias of Sunhillow. Even the front cover (the "Moorglade Mover") is inspired by the ship soaring above the planet on Fragile.
I couldn't agree more about the nature of album art in digital mediums. The interactivity and physicality of the art can be integral to many albums, yet there doesn't seem to be any push to extend these things into a digital form..
Dean also designed logo and several album covers for Gahanian fusion band Osibisa, one of the first "world music" stars.
Great video! I also really thought it was cool that you used the James Webb photos as the background imagery as well.
Agree! There's so much great and absorbing art from vinyl album covers and gatefolds. I too miss that. Thanks for bringing it up and out. Allman Bros' "Eat A Peach" album also has a surprising involving 'Stoner' psychedelic gatefold. And check out Neon Park's great surreal art work for Little Feat albums. And his debut: The very memorable surreal and funny "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" cover for Mothers of Invention. BTW, Cream's Wheels of Fire album, the outside cover isn't really black and white but black and silver.
This masterpiece of an album ( and it's astounding artwork ) had its' 50th birthday just now! It was released September 13, 1972 in the States and a few days earlier in the UK. It has always irked me that it wasn't released on the 12th when I turned one 😌 In my top three desert island disks for sure! And if I ever get to have a dedicated music room, the inner sleeve painting will adorn the wall...
I love when album covers have a gatefold that shows the whole art. Just like the Yes album. The death metal band Autopsy's third album Acts of the unspeakable uses a closeup of a small part of the art work, if you own the vinyl version the gatefold shows the whole pictures and even refrences to a few songs on the album which is a nice detail.
Thanks for this video, as someone who didn't grow up with the vinyl this would have been lost to me, especially as I was never a fan of the outer cover, so knowing it is designed to contrast with the inner, and that the inner art invokes exactly what I imaged when listening to this album, is very gratifying
I went straight to my close to the edge vinyl to look at the inside before you showed it haha
I think one point you were missing was that the mundane front cover is I think a close up of the lake‘s water. It is the exact same colour with varying shades of green, just like the light creates on the lake. And it fits with everything you said very well too. Like how you miss the big picture because you‘re so focused on your daily vision. You often don‘t realize the beauty you are a part of.
Love your videos btw. You‘re a great artist.
Or image being in that lake and staring down into the abyssal depths. You would be literally close to the edge. Then the frontcover would be an artpiece inside the bigger artpiece. It is referencing each other.
I’d be fascinated to see a video on Tales From Topographic Oceans. It would be an absolute beast of a video but it’s such an under-appreciated masterpiece that deserves to be picked apart and analyzed like this
Great video, keep it up!
There is nothing like Close to the Edge. I can state for a fact that that section, I get uuuuuuuuuuppppppp....as that Amazing ORGAN begins blasting....I get chills EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Roger Dean, in an interview, discussed album artwork from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. He stated that that was a unique period when you could give someone the gift of music wrapped in the gift of art. What an apt description of that period (so glad that was "my time" to be involved in music).
The other aspect of the Close to the Edge cover not mentioned and impossible to capture digitally is that it was textured matt cardboard and not smooth and shiny, it had a feel to it when holding it while listening to the music. The inner gatefold picture was smooth to the touch.
Another amazing analysis! These are academic-level essays poly
Thanks for this contribution!
This is essential content. So many avenues can be opened to great music when accompanied by the all-important artwork that was meant to be experienced along with the music. Not only is Yes and Pink Floyd a big part of this, but also Led Zeppelin and so many other bands. Thanks for the video!
Later CDs have that artwork when I got my CD and saw it I instantly remembered those beautiful organ watches in the I get up I get down part of the album
It's an amazing piece of art!
There's ANOTHER secret to the gatefold(inner) artwork that you didn't mention. In his table-top book "Views," Roger Dean mentions that he was still learning how to spray paint when he produced this cover, and he didn't know about how attracted CATS are to spray-paint.
Roger used mixed media in painting the gatefold, using different types of paint. When he finished the background, he left the artwork facing up(so it wouldn't run) in his studio when he finished for the night, and the next morning, he was horrified to discover cat paw prints on his artwork! He was able to hide much of it by repainting the details, but the paw prints in the sky had to be carefully sprayed over and couldn't be hidden completely.
You can still see them, especially where the white mists fade into the blue at the top. He hid 'em pretty well, but they're still there, if you look. Actually, they add to the character of the mist, and it appears more realistic with the paw prints faintly visible which is why he left them as is, without eliminating them completely.
Roger designed the famous Yes logo and did many of their album covers, and also designed stage sets for some of their tours during the 1970s - he works in sculpting and mechanical designs, as well.
This is fantastic, Noah, thank you so much! I’m a Nebula and Curiosity Stream subscriber, and I also share your view that Pink Floyd’s album ‘Wish You Were Here’ is one of the greatest ever produced, so I am absolutely heading to Nebula to watch your work.😊
As an artist living in the Bay Area in the 70's. It was inevitable , that music and music art was a major influence. with 4 siblings we each had the entire catalogue of at least two of out favorite bands. Yes and the Who were my two. Dean's ethereal style fit the daydream of discovering the albums. And he was the originator of the flying fish ( on the Topagraphical album) that has evolved into flying whales used in modern fantasy Harry Potter , Fantasia 11. etc.
Wow. I'd love to hear about the packaging of other albums
Please do In Through The Out Door by Led Zeppelin The album sleeve of the original pressing had a "magic paint" picture on it. If you colored it with just water, the picture would change from black and white to color. Of course, this ruined the collectability of the album and later pressings didn't include the sleeve, so very few remain in their original condition.
Him talking about album covers reminds me also of the way Beck did the album cover for The Information and Princ and the New Generation's Diamonds and Pearls. Nothing should ever make people but albums more than the Easter eggs in the covers.
My favorite album, perfect in all ways, with a minimalist cover.
My favourite album of all time! I also love the outer cover - it reminds me of what it’s like to descend deep into a lake. It’s the reason green is my favourite colour. 💚
Im so glad you brought up wheels of fire, I had seen a copy of it as a child and wanted one since. Last weekend i went to the flea market and found a first edition pressing for all of 15 dollars and a small conversation about pink floyd lol.
Classic album! One my favs from the band.
Much of Roger Dean's album cover art was available in high quality prints. I used to have one up on my bedroom wall. It wasn't that unusual for certain album covers to also have print posters. It was also very common for people to use their records as wall decor. I definitely enjoyed listening to music while looking at the art & band photos or reading all the liner notes, lyrics & poems that may have been printed inside or even on the dust sleeve. It was an entire, immersive sensory experience to listen to & enjoy a vinyl record that you don't get nowadays with digital versions or streaming services.
Redesigning album art for contemporary presentation would be a different challenge for each album. For Close To The Edge, you could use the green cover as a frame for the fold-out. For Bitches Brew you could just turn the whole spread into the standard image one sees. Others would be more difficult.
YES! Love Yes!
Love this band love this album
Any man with a soul LOVES 👍THIS ALBUM BY YES!..... 🎸👍
Excellent video once again.
(if you like quality prog - of course you do! - then get your ears around this Leeds trio's debut album, just out last week. It's called 'The Good Notes' by 'Big Rooster Jeff.' ... oh my it rocks!)
One of my favorite albums. Had some great experiences with this one. Roger Dean is a favorite artist as well.
I only got into them in the last ten years. I got the record off amazon, took the cellophane off, opened the sleeve, and wow. I was not expecting that. Such a neat concept.
hadn't heard the album before but you piqued my interest and i'm glad i checked it out
When someone dives deep into my favorite album of all time - thank you !
My #2 pet peeve of the digital format's presentation of vinyl analog music... THE ART WORK (#1 of course being the sound!)
Just look at the progression of the physical designs as well as the amazing art work itself of many albums from the mid '60s into the '80s. As you mention, this was a way for the listener (usually wearing headphones) to interact with the concept of the music and expand its meaning and impact. Not only with Progressive Rock, but all musical genres...
Album artwork was definitely part of the experience back in pre CD times. The original UK issue of Mott by Mott the Hoople had a gatefold sleeve that later became a single drawing of a head. Originally, part of the head was cut out and replaced with transparent plastic, exposing the colour artwork inside the gatefold. Free Live was a big envelope. One of Guess Who's albums was like a package of junk mail. An obscure album by Chief was a school exercise book. Tiny Alice like a big book of matches. These are more extreme examples, but I agree that the straightforward gatefold can offer hidden artwork gems that are effectively lost in packagings for later formats.
7:27 .. "... I could go on..." and you don't... left out is the Allman Brothers Band "Eat a Peach" album with it's gatefold 'shroom inspired psychedelic dream landscape Bosch-like art.. I studied this forever when I got this in high school!
Oh, and you missed Yes's other Dean gatefold art, Yessongs and Yesshows (Yesshows had exterior and interior gatefold art though the exterior is marred by text and logos)
My favorite Prog Rock band? Either King Crimson or Can. Agree with you about the artwork for Close To The Edge, though.
That artwork looks eerily like the Mandelbrot set. I don’t even know if we had visuals for it at that time though
This is really good because the CZcamsr "The Prog Corner" released a video 2 days ago entitled "What's your favorite prog album cover?" I think my favorite is the inside of Steve Hackett's "Voyage of the Acolyte" cover with the hermit which is so inspiring! Thank you for your videos which are always very interesting and captivating!
The cover looks like ‘the edge’. Reminds me of scuba. Life teams before your eyes on an isolated shelf but over your shoulder is the dark abyss of falling off into the infinite off the continental shelf.
The front cover of CTTE always struck me as how the album began, soft nature sounds then suddenly you're awash in sound, a sonic explosion similar to the explosion of green rising from the bottom
I read somewhere a long time ago that the front cover is supposed to be a hit of acid, demonstrating the increased saturation of the LSD close to the edge of the sheet. The trip begins when the needle touches the record, and the cover opens up to enhance the visual experience.
There definitely needs to be better ways to enjoy album covers like they were back in the 1970's. I kinda wonder if new productions of vinyl covers could be made without the vinyl, replaced with some booklets with extra information, and links to stream the audio included with QR codes. I'd buy a lot of those, if the price was right. They'd make great wall decorations, or at least a lightweight alternative to a shelf stacked with vinyl.
PS: I subscribed just for the Magic: the Gathering reference. I hope WotC can commission Roger Dean to do some lands for a Secret Lair Drop some day.
Cool. Thanks for sharing.
I was going to mention the work Roger Dean did for Osibisa's covers, but Musa Musashi did. I've loved his work since I was a kid in the '70s, when it was easy to get posters of it. Also, if you haven't seen "Taken by Storm: he Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis," it's a must-see documentary about the man, and the company.
I just noticed that its an extension of Fragile's album cover as you can see the flying ship has landed and the bridge from Fragile is also seen here.
One of my favourite pieces of album "art" is "Five Miles Out" by Mike Oldfield. The cover is a good painting which gives the mood of the title track, but the inner sleeve is the track sheet for one entire side: Taurus II. You can literally follow along.
I recently bought an art book I had in the 1970's. The Album Cover Album.
That's where I discovered Roger Dean. I also had one of his design books.