10 Great Album Covers, Chosen by Corey Adams of Moonsville Collective

Mandolin Orange, Weezer, George Harrison and more

I remember the first time I laid eyes on a vinyl record. I must’ve been five or six years old—Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road—what a majestical, golden album cover. My parents were fans, but it must’ve been my mother’s. The songs remind me of her today, and the cover is etched into my mind as if first laying eyes upon it was a coming-of-age experience for me. The songs still hit. The cover still stands.

A good album cover at its best is an extension of the music inside—another look, feel, window into the artist’s own mind as they create a piece of music that will last forever. Some things are simply meant to be held. The first time your fingers feel a steering wheel, or a Gibson Les Paul, a Martin D18—all those indeed are “must holds.” But as a music lover, there is simply nothing quite like the feel of a heavy, 12-inch, 180-gram vinyl, in all of its glory literally adding more weight, color and depth to the 45 minutes of wonder to be found when the needle hits. Luckily, it has become easier than ever to hold one’s favorite record. 

Even the average Amazon consumer can find most records shipped to their door in 48 hours, honoring the entirety of the project that each band or songwriter had in mind when offering the piece to the world. I remember holding my first cassette tapes I personally owned as a kid in 1993: Dookie by Green Day, Punk in Drublic by NOFX, a greatest hits album from The Beach Boys, The Wall by Pink Floyd, of course. They were so small, and I still obsessed over every tiny detail. CDs made that experience even better, allowing more space for people to connect with the artist—but a 12-inch vinyl cover, the scale of it all, that’s how covers are to be consumed. As I reflect on some of my favorite album covers of all-time, or at least within my own collection, these are the pieces I have to offer. I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Vinyl records are still alive and well in my living room.

Gregory Alan Isakov

The Weatherman (2013)

The whimsical and sweeping feel of this album cover grabs me often. The colors are earthy in a way that captures both the warmth and darkness of love and philosophy and ache—all themes Isakov explores so largely on this masterful indie folk album. The man on the cover is seemingly holding on to, or perhaps being pulled away by, this large weather balloon as he tries to learn more about the universe. I find that accurate; in love and in life, we are always wrestling with how much we hold on to, or let go of a beautiful thing.

Gillian Welch

Harrow and the Harvest (2011)

It’s impossible to compare Gillian Welch records. Each comes with different layers of American folk archeology, lifetime interpretation and additions to the cannon us folk fans adore. This cover, though, is so rich. It’s extremely ornate and busy, yet the lack of color is calming. It’s not overstimulating, which it very easily could have been, and that simply would not be Gillian and Dave’s style. Their intricate delivery of every song is loaded, but feels simple to the soul. Musically, it is anything but. Lastly, you have Dave whispering in Gillian’s ear with the all-seeing owl on his shoulder—it really kind of captures their lifetime of work together, how they interplay, musically.

John Prine

Fair & Square (2005)

John Prine is a folk legend, writing dozens of studio albums over his lifetime, a true pioneer, or seer, in the genre of what we now call Americana. When this album came out, John was aging, having beaten some serious health conditions. Perhaps he thought it was his last. So he gives us his back and his guitar, walking down an old road filled with grays and some fading greens, with an album filled with timeless arrangements, stories and textures of the same hue.

Mandolin Orange

Blindfaller (2016)

Mandolin Orange has been putting out thoughtful, spacious, and tasteful records for years now. This record is warm and grand, and the glowing cover is mesmerizing. It’s not so much a use of negative space as it is a lack of self-branding, but regardless, the expanse of the cover’s forest scene has become one that is forever burned into my mind, and stays with me as I imagine how to best express my own music visually.  

Bob Dylan & The Band

The Basement Tapes (1975)

Dylan is still king in my book. And he’s had some great covers that have made many “best album covers of all time” lists, and for good reason. I love The Basement Tapes because it catches Dylan in perhaps the final phase of his metamorphosis in 1967 (though released in ’75). The cover is loose, jangly, silly, sincere, and careless—or maybe effortless is the better word—which, in my opinion, sums up The Band as much as it does Dylan.

Weezer

Blue Album (1994)

It’s 1994, the era of the grunge gods and alternative rock poets and bands—from Nirvana to Sunny Day Real Estate to The Cranberries—are selling records in droves with their sullen, heavy and dark melodies. In comes Weezer’s debut album, with this bubble-gum blue album cover that gleams with the optimism of an underdog uprising. It was so anti-grunge, yet so damn heavy, so filled with quirky introspection and humor and sorrow all the same. This cover was a statement, and it worked, as it’s recognizable worldwide. The album was so big it troubled Rivers Cuomo with their follow-up, before returning with a similar aesthetic in the Green Album.

The Rolling Stones

Sticky Fingers (1971)

Only The Rolling Stones would be so bad ass as to put the photo of a guy’s groin on the cover. It’s rock and roll; it doesn’t give a fuck. Most importantly, it’s honest. Honesty is the only genre that defies boundaries and becomes timeless. The Stones (and Andy Warhol, who took the photo) really nail it here.

Bruce Springsteen

Born in the USA (1984)

So then Bruce puts his ass on the cover in front of the American flag—kind of different, kind of the same. Bruce would never put his groin, even if he wanted to; it’s not him. But it’s a move nonetheless and perhaps an homage to the tenacious Stones. This album catches Bruce at an all-time high following a series of great albums, where he continues to explore the wide range of the American experience, and dives all the way in on the grandiose cover that introduces the listener behind the scenes of the red, white, and blue curtain.

George Harrison

All Things Must Pass (1970)

This album cover is magic. It captures George in some fully realized state of Shaman, where simplicity and complexity wrestle with one another like iron sharpening iron. There’s an expansive loneliness and peace in George’s posture. The garden gnomes are said by some to reflect that The Beatles that no longer tie him down. Regardless, he’s kind of the master of his own realm now, which he surely proved to be.

Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt (1969)

This is Townes’ third studio album. It’s such a great portrait of him. If you know Townes, he’s kind of the opposite of Dylan in many ways. He was this folk powerhouse, but did not have the same mega success as Dylan. He feels… more attainable than Dylan. More of a down-to-earth, approachable figure. This image of Townes captures that real life feel. Sitting in the kitchen, thinking. Just like the rest of us.