Sqwink Album Art Blog

This is my first in a series of CD Cover Showdowns—a showcase of 50 sleeves from the past few decades, that use a particular word or phase in their album title.

We as a race love to be free—and it is this notion that has transcended into music. So, this post is aptly named the Top 50 ‘Free’ CD Covers Showdown—a post is aimed to be light-hearted, yet informative! Now, I’ll stop my Jibba-Jabba and hit you with these 50 specimens in no particular order, so here goes…

Click Thumbnail Images to enlarge…

1. Tiny Dancers Album Artwork for ‘Free School Milk’—well that’s all well and good, but I wouldn’t want to share it with some kind of yetti…

2. Subseven. Weird…I’m not gonna be able to finish this blog post if that guy is planning a stare-off!

3. Yeah, Bruce Willis back on form in his latest Die Hard feature, which evidently has a soundtrack…of what, shooting?

4. A LaShell Griffin album, with a photo of the lady in question looking away from the camera and er, smiling at someone else.

5. Indie band, Elbow.I’m not sure what that bloke’s doing with a wind-up back, but whatever.

6. StretchArmStrong certainaly look happy—but Free At Last?

7. Fred Hammond from The Potter’s House. Nice suit—just watch those Fire Ants.

8. Lost Cherrees. Never heard of them until today but by the looks of this fella, I’m quite pleased that I never had.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, this is a rather mixed-up title for a kind of strange review…well, more like an album art face-off. The image below shows the new Get Cape Wear Cape Fly CD Cover for Searching for the Hows and Whys.

Hmmm, weird, yes—but I’ve seen something similar before. The album Voices of Animals and Men by The Young Knives has very similar charactaristics, such as the typographic placement and ‘hollow’ photography (below).

So, I’m thinking, is the album art for Searching for the Hows and Whys a direct inspiration from the Young Knives sleeve? I don’t know. If anyone has an insight on this, please leave a comment.

As a side-note, I do like both of these designs—both just ooze with an alternative-music vibe, and even though they’ve been professionally designed, they also look amateurish—as part of the styling.

Like I said, this isn’t really a review, more of an observation of two similarly-styled CD Covers. While i’m on the subject of The Young Knives, you may want to read my review of the artwork for their single Terra Firma.