Cover Story: Album Cover Art

Remember when music albums had huge spaces to design with? I do. Boy I miss those things.

I remember as a teen, sitting and listening to music while visually devouring the album cover.

Then came CDs. Micro versions of what I had growing up. But still, at least there was something to hold in my hands, read and appreciate.

What's next? I'm sure it will be in some kind of online, digital form. It just can't be anywhere near the same kind of all encompassing experience when it finally appears. Maybe it will be better? Nah.

Cover Story: Album Cover Art looks like a good book for both those of us who grew up with album cover design and for those who want to know what all the whining's about.

"A coffee-table-ready collection of album covers, from the lewd to the ludicrous. It's perfect." -The Village Voice

Cover Story: Album Cover Art vividly explores an element of music culture that has withered with the advent of MP3s and digital downloading. Records possess a visual as well as an aural capacity for storytelling. The record cover--eye candy for the music lover--speaks a language rooted in the environment and era of the music itself. And, more intimately, a record can create a profound sense of analogy with its owner, and it's this relationship that we share.

Preface by Brian DiGenti and introduction by Dave Tompkins. The Wax Poetics team handpicked twenty albums apiece, 240 albums in all, twelve chapters: editor-in-chief Andre Torres; editor Brian DiGenti; contributing editors Matt Rogers, Andrew "DJ Monk One" Mason, Dante Carfagna, and J. P. Jones; contributing photo editor Brian "B+" Cross; contributing writers Jeff "Chairman" Mao, Oliver Wang, Robbie Busch, and Dave Tompkins; and label head Amir Abdullah.

Available from Wax Poetics Books.