Customer Reviews

100 Best Album Covers

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...Had reservations initially paging through this survey of album covers - mainly because I was not familiar with a lot of the music of early rock-n-roll (I'm more of an `electronic music' kind of guy). But after perusing through this extremely detailed and interesting book, I was totally impressed (and sold).

The reasons are simple - `100 Best Album Covers' is indeed very representative of all types of musics (including electronic!) from many eras and all types of graphic styles. The authors (experts and very experienced) approached the subject matter from not only a historical perspective (lots of really cool facts!) but from a graphic design perspective. If your interested in music and/or graphic design, this book is for you.......

At least half of the featured album covers were familiar to me, and the book did contain interesting and informative snippets of information. However I was a bit dismayed that some album covers were overlooked, memorable covers by such popular bands as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Meatloaf, ELO, Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, and Iron Maiden (for their frightening Eddie character that graced so many of their albums).

As an art book, this book is a joke. I have many coffee-table and art books, and "100 Best Album Covers" is the only one I have that centers some featured graphics in the CENTER of the book. By that, I mean that a picture is centered in a two page spread, which runs the spine of the book right down the middle of the picture. All of the other art books I have put a graphic on one page so that you can see it (unless it's oversized). The pictures here aren't oversized and would easily fit on one page. It's hard to appreciate even a nifty album cover when you can only see the outer edges of it clearly. Far too many of the album covers are centered on the spine this way. The emphasis in this book is on the commentary it seems, and not so much the picture. Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" (an impressive work by the famous artist Giger) isn't quite as breathtaking when you have to pry and bend the book open and crack the spine to see it.

The publishers should revise this book and reissue it.

I have owned this book for several years and I finally decided to write a review on it now. Why did I wait so long? Well, this is not the kind of book that you'll likely pick up right away and read all the way through. In fact, I constantly find myself going back to this book whenever I'm bored. It's fun, even after many years, to flip to an album cover and read all of the interesting details on the concept, artist, design, and history. The book is laid out in such a fashion that each time you look at a represented cover, you discover new details and gain a new perspective.

As to the question of whether or not these are truly the best 100 album covers of all time, I really can't say. In fact, in that regard I think the title is misleading because it forces the reader into thinking this is some type of a ranking or countdown. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. This is simply a really cool collection of 100 great album covers and their history. And, in that respect, this book really delivers.

Buy it today. I promise you, it will never get dull.

How did Andy Warhol design the Sticky Fingers zipper cover for the Rolling Stones, and what is the mop-like figure on Beck's ODELAY album cover? These and more questions are answered in a lively survey of album covers which includes interviews with photographers, designers, and recording artists. A fun guide, 100 Best Album Covers examines the creative process involved in producing album covers.

folks lie alot.but the music isn't the only thing that is important to them.an Album cover can be a seller as well.you really appreciate that if you grew up on Vinyl.Album covers in some cases reflect what an Artist is going thru in there current state of mind.it also is a Springboard for the Vanity Factor of an Artist.this book covers so much&more.very well Concieved.all forms &Styles get full Treatment here.

100 Best Album Covers is a great book that details the stories behind some of the best album covers of all time. Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell formed the duo Hipgnosis and they designed most of Pink Floyd's albums and others as well, so their opinions on what makes a great album cover carry alot of weight. Some of the albums you'll recognize, some you've never seen or even heard of the artist, but they are all visually interesting and the tidbits of information about them are highly interesting.

Few times a graphical artist the size of Thorgerson sits down to write about his work and that of other people. For those who don't know him, he's the person behind each of the album covers for Pink Floyd.

Yes! That cool black cover with prisms (Dark Side of the Moon), or the famous flaming businessman shaking hands with another man in the cover of "Wish you were here."

It's very nice the way he outlines the covers' details, the reason for each component of the cover, etc.

A must for both, music fans and graphical artists.

Although the information about each album cover is intriguing, I'd be hard pressed to agree that these are the top 100 best (or creative) album covers of all time. As a graphic designer, I feel that some of covers are downright dull - definately not worthy of the title bestowed upon them.

There are so many albums out there, but I have to question some of the album covers that were chosen.
I think that part of the problem with this book is that it tries to catagorize the covers, which is the downfall. For some of the catagories, it seems that they are reaching on covers just so they have enough album covers to sustain that catagory.
I also think there were albums, too numerous to miss.
That all being said, the information was very interesting and it was good to see that one time period or genre was not dwelled upon.

I can't say anything more than this book rules. It has definitely the best 100 album covers.