Customer Reviews

1000 Record Covers (Taschen 25)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't know if there was a full size "coffee table edition of 1000 Record Covers produced. This is an undersized book but the reproduction of the album covers will bring back the excitement and creativity of each of the eras - 1950's, 60's,70's, 80's and 1990's.
The commentary is left to a minimum, without more than a few words of interest just every so often.
I guess I want my cake and to eat it too. The small size is easy to read in bed or while relaxing. But a full size (12" X 12") edition would be marvelous.
I spend a lot of hours looking through this intriqueing book.
John row

This book of "just" album covers is put together so brilliantly, it seems to actually have a plot. As Ochs goes through his collection of covers, (some obscure, some not) they tell the story of Rock and Roll from the 50's, forward. His groupings of related covers accurately describe the many stages, styles, and trends that Rock music has gone through. You can pick it up and browse through it, but it really is better to go page by page. This is a work of love. Ochs (for all his success with his Archives) really gets it.

As soon as I saw this title, I plonked it onto my amazon wish list, as it combines two of my main passions (music and design). But after flipping through a copy, I had to remove it from my list - maybe if rents plummet and I can afford more space for bookshelves it'll make a reappearance, but until then I'll do without it.

The title - "1000 Record Covers" - at least makes no false claims, e.g. "1000 Great Record Covers", or "1000 Essential Record Covers". However, such a claim is made on the back cover, and I must refute it. Too many of the entries are mediocre, and there are too many masterpieces that are ignored. I would blame this less on the author - all the choices come from his collection, which is by its nature limited - and more on the editors, who should have realized the shortcomings of such a scheme. My personal interest would be in covers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and I can't forgive the absence of (for starters) Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Gang of Four, the Slits, Buzzcocks, the Fall, Wire, the Pixies, Eno, Magazine, the Cramps, the Residents, the Pop Group, Pere Ubu, Avengers, Angry Samoans, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Romeo Void, Monochrome Set, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, X-Mal Deutschland, Coil, Chrome, Crass, Delta 5 - all of whom released LPs with compelling cover designs.

Labels such as Z, Dischord, les Disques du Crepescule, Two Tone, Rough Trade, Factory, Postcard, TVT, are virtually or completely ignored, and designers such as Malcolm Garrett (his Duran Duran work doesn't count - not at the expense of "A Different Kind of Tension"), Vaughan Oliver, tomato, Peter Saville (Roxy Music's "Flesh + Blood" gets in, but it's one of Saville's weaker efforts and his name is misspelled!), Barney Bubbles, Neville Brody are similarly slighted.

The book could also use an index of designers.

It may seem like I'm harping on about bands from mainly one genre (punk/new wave/whatever), but the truth of the matter is that much of the really innovative cover design in the last 30 years has come from that area.

To be fair, the book does include covers of LPs by the Dead Kennedys, Clash, XTC, Ramones, Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Public Image, Patti Smith, Altered Images (yay!), so some credit is certainly due.

Also happy to see the a Soft Machine record in there.

And this book did make me recognize what a subtle piece of work TheCure's "...happily ever after" is.

I'm writing this review not to slag the book off, but to inform people with similar expectations to what I had that while there is a lot of good material in here, there are gaping holes as well. Again, I think the weakness lies in limiting the choices to one person's record collection instead of directing the author to choose from the entire gamut of record covers available to him.

This is really a great book for those who miss the great art we used to get with vinyl albums. Unfortunately, I just purchased this book on vacation, at the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas for $40! And my book wasn't hardcover! I should have come home and looked for it on Amazon. Now I know that Amazon is the place for great deals.

This was portrayed as a coffee table book with high quality images. It is not. It is very small 5.5" x 8", and the images are so small that you cannot fully appreciate the artwork.
Disappointing :(

As an absolute lover of music, I have come to miss that era of the vinyl album cover, when we rushed to the record store and purchased someone's long awaited first or follow up album. We then rushed home and played it on the old component set while reading the liner notes on the back of the album. This book reminded me of that time and many pages were a nice walk down memory lane for this music lover. I guess if I had a complaint, perhaps the authors could have divided the book up into genres as opposed to time period. It would have been nice to see various R&B, Country, Blues, Rock, Disco albums.

I will say this, when I saw it in the store- I bought all five copies and then used them for eventual gifts to people. Everytime, I have given one away, it was a hit because everyone is some form of a music lover and everyone can appreciate the vinyl era. Buy this and then buy it again.... for someone else.

Like all Taschen books, this one does not disappoint. Taschen is famous for their great curation, and this is no exception. This book has a lot of classic covers, and is beautifully put together. If you have not purchased a Taschen book before, you will really enjoy this!

As the son of an Old School Disc Jockey my family received Albums in the mail every month from all the major labels. Between that and digging thru record bins at shops as a kid I think I've seen 60 to 75% of the art in this book. I really miss the size of those albums.

It makes me think of my first trip to Europe. Seeing the scale the masters used when creating art that we only saw in text books. It can be overwhelming. Maybe thats why most CD art "under-whelms me to this day. 4 and 3/4 square does not an impression make.

I would hope that they would create a volume two. As opposed to purchasing a competing book with some of the same artwork. Its no accident that I design covers for a living now. And yes, I design on a 12 inch spec and shrink down. The art demands it.

If you are a music or vinyl fan, you MUST have this book. Lots of common covers make it in but lots of far less popular ones do also. Seems everytime I look at this book, I can't ever just look at a few pages, I have to look at the whole thing. And I always seem to discover something new in it each time! Well worth the money, the full color reproductions don't disappoint either.

I wish it were more descriptive but the images of the covers make the purchase worthwile for the collector. It have does have some great images of hard to find covers from the 40's 50's and 60's.