Customer Reviews

This Ain't No Disco: New Wave Album Covers

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

 

 

This is a great little time capsule of 80s album graphics from the sublime to the silly. I was happy to see my illustration for Yello's "Claro Que Si" included but dismayed that the book's credit line reads "artist unknown" when my signature is clearly visible.

Just in time for designers looking for research material on the 80's and a good coffeetable book for serious vinyl collectors. Comprehensive reproductions of album covers that were the vanguard of the new wave style. Also for those, like me, who think MTV misrepresents the 80's. This book is proof that our teenage past was full of innovation and shocking imagery. Proof that there was something before rave culture. Had a blast going over the book with others in their late 30's.

Great format -good quality - rare covers in this book of new wave period - nice layout, rigorous curation , bravo , love it. Found myself trying to buy these records again but on cd!
I wish there was a 70's version too.

This is the sort of book I could have cranked out in my sleep. As a graphic designer who collects this period, my knowledge of the field would no doubt eclipse the authors. The scant copy would have been better written, researched and more substantial. But there would have been no surprises in it for me. As such, I appreciate the effort to have done it by Ms. McKnight-Trontz. The formatting of the tome is good with thick, coated paper and a substantial number of pages.

Repro is acceptable, but I don't know why for the life of me, that album covers are usually photographed, and not scanned, for this sort of project. The copy stand approach has serious pitfalls. There is no contest between a scanned and photographed sleeve for sharpness and fidelity. The best thing about this book, beyond the large number of entries, is the thematic organization of the work. The visual tropes inherent in the covers are grouped together, making a nice, logical flow of design images that crosses music genres and styles with no regard for the musical component of the package. Yes, I would have done it better, but with this tome so heavily remaindered, just be glad that someone did it first, since there probably won't be a volume 2 any time soon.

Whoever threw this collection of albumcovers together, obviously wanted to make a book showing a few albumcovers, but had no clue what new wave was. Neither a classic like Roxy Music belongs in this book, nor all the unimportant american power pop bands a la photos,heaters etc, that nobody listened to and that didnt contribute anything new or of value to the music scene.
Even worse, adding idols for 12 year olds, such as Wham, Taco, Men without hats and similar crap to this collection, is an iinsult to the genre. Those we the ones we hated and never wanted t see again, if you had been born then already, you know?