I’m still very interested in Music CD’s and their designs in general - not to mention designing them, but my posts may be few and far between. When…Er, if I have time, I may write a slurry of posts in one month, like on my MacBook on holidays, etc.

So is the CD Cover Design Dead? I don’t think so, but this blog is winding down. When I see something interesting to blog about in the CD-World, I do my best to get my opinion out, but months may roll by with no-post in sight! We’ll see….

To get around this, and have all your wonderful albums paired-up with the original CD cover art (see above, Left), just do one simple thing…Right-Click, go into the pop-up menu and select ‘Get Album Artwork‘. Providing you have a free iTunes account, some, hopefully, stunning graphics should replace the musical-note emblem (which is currently the default image, until maybe iTunes 8 or 9).

Fuelled by curiosity, I sped to the iTunes Store (er, online that is) to find out more about this seemingly-unthoughtful album art. Then, and what may be obvious by now, I saw the artwork for the Guillemots new album Red (pictured below). Now, this CD design makes no sense to me either, but I could see the reasoning behind the photography used in the Get Over it single.

I’m not sure what this huge red ball sitting in a dark tunnel supposed to be, but I do like it. Let’s face it, that image is both memorable and elegant. I’m kinda into the Guillemots anyway, so I have a fair idea of what they’re all about—and this album art certainly ‘fits the bill’.

On a negative note, though, I don’t like the Guillemots logo. It’s just terrible, drab and uninspiring, for me anyway. I’m unsure of what it may be representing, nor the reason why it has survived previous album releases and re-surfaced for Red.

Be all this as it may, I think this artwork is fitting for band’s music that it represents. At the beginning of this post I was ranting on about the single taken from it when viewed out of context. Now I have seen the big picture, I have upgraded my opinion of Get Over It from ‘what is this supposed to be’, to ‘clever concept, but only works as part of a whole’. Overall, I rate the CD single design 4/10, but the album 7/10. Any comments, feel free to leave one…

I use it on a daily basis and would recommend it to anyone, seriously. For me, apart from [obviously] listening to my music, I like to keep track of new music album releases so I can review them here on my blog. We’re bearly onto version 8 of itunes at the moment, so it’s a program with most of the bugs sorted out. That’s it for this post, I just want you to know that it’s available for nothing (like 99% of you do)…

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.

9. Well, if ‘Some Girl‘ feels it, then so can I. Rebel against the Pink!

10. This album artwork for Emily Haines (released by Last Gang Records) gets straight to the point—if not totally false in this day and age.

11. Carolyn Mark’s very weird album image, depicting some kind of savage badger eying-up the girl, guitar…or both!

12. Jimi Hendrix…er, in case you didn’t know. I’m sure he would have liked the design of this LP?

13. This Music Single was taken from the film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, and apparently, Neil Young thinks it’s confidential, so I’ll say no more.

14. ‘Free at Last’ by DC Talk. Not the most imaginative sleeve, but would probably make a great print for a Camper-Van table cloth!

15. Dan Fogelberg’s Home Free Album. He chose this image for the sleeve? Seriously, come on now, the whole point of an LP Cover is so someone may buy it!

16. Trish Murphy - ‘Girls Get In Free‘. Oh, that’s why it cost me a bucket-load to get into that U2 concert…I’m a man.

17. High School Musical CD Cover. This Album Artwork does exactly what it says on the tin.

18. Ted Nugent—well, these blokes are either doing some really rockin’ dance, or just smelling their armpits in some kind of Nugent-frenzy.

19. Free Forever or vice versa? I don’t know, there’s little insight from this cover design…

20. Shout Praises Kids—I Am Free. Reminds me of those Now CD Covers here in the UK.

21. Ah! Rick Astley, and he’s doing the whole bouncy hair thing like, er, Prince charming from the Shrek films.

22. Smoosh. I don’t quite know what’s going on here, but the couple walking into the ‘fog’ look like they’re gonna get clobbered with a cricket ball.

23. Chico Debarge CD Sleeve ‘Free’. You’d think that before this photo shoot he’d mop up that sweaty brow? Obviously not.

24. Marion Raven standing on, what looks like Bloc Party’s Weekend in the City album.

25. Looking like some king of British football riot stand-off, this Pennywise Album Artwork is the perfect example of what a child can do with Photoshop.

26. Kano Feel Free Album Art Image. Yeah, I’ve cropped the edges of the image.

27. Free as Air presented by Linnit and Dunfree.Wait, incase you weren’t going to go out and buy this 50’s album…It has AN ORIGINAL LONDON CAST!

28. The Blue October image of a clapped-out-banger…I don’t get the connection…

29. Jane Powell and her album ‘A Heart That’s Free’—well, that may be, but you’re gonna have to pay for this Vintage LP

30. Amnesty LP image. This Illustration of flying stars, Jackson-Five wannabes, darts and eagles looks like it comes straight off a circus-truck, but I suppose it suits its purpose.

31. Strike that pose—photography for a Fire and Water album, and I’m sure the ladies were going wild, um…

32. Airto LP for ‘Free’. This geezer either couldn’t be bothered to invest in some great album art, or got his kid to do this in school!

33. Andy Fraser posing with a smashing PhotoShop filter applied for his album ‘Naked and Finally Free’.

33. In David Garrett’s album free, you’d think he’d be playing that-there violin? No, he seems to be hoarding it.

33. Jonathan Livingston Seagull eat your heart-out. This Bliss bird is surely on his way to freedom.

34. The infamous Ash Free All Angels album. Since I’m a fan, I’m not going to poke fun, but this CD image isn’t square, I had to add black bars…

35. Ray Parker Jr’s I’m Free CD Design. I think I can just see Losts’ Jack and Locke trying to shoot each other in the background.

36. 3G (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen, er, yeah) are certainly Rockin’ the Free World, as it appears on this CD sleeve anyway.

37. Looking like Pete Doherty on even a good day, Rod Stewart is, as always, Foot Loose & Fancy Free!

38. The Bees Free Album. As an unusual break from my sarcastic ramblings…this CD Cover’s quite good.

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.

Firstly, I saw the sleeve for I want you to know that there is always hope by I Was A Cub Scout (below), and remembered thinking how unimaginative and boring it was—yet I do like some of their creative music!

Second, I stumbled across the album artwork for The Feelings’ Join With US album, despite the fact I’m not a fan of their music (below), I was still rather impressed with their album cover (I’m not saying that I should like the music of a band to like their album art—I’m just merely pointing out the irony here, lol). There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into this artwork; it’s commendable that some bands clearly acknowledge the importance of this visual medium.

The feeling and I Was A Cub Scout are relatively new bands, and, as can be seen in the images, have vastly different aspirations when it comes to marketing their music. Well done to The Feeling, woe to the Scouts!

The music for this album is based around love and hurt. They approached me with a basic idea of what they wanted—with the ‘upside-down’ heart being the centre-piece of the entire design.

You can also view the complete design of the CD album artwork on my portfolio on the main Sqwink site. If you like this album art, or have a positive/negetive opinion on it, please feel free to leave a comment.

Post by Andrew Kelsall BA, Sqwink Music CD Design

Firstly, I don’t know what it actually is - apart from the typography, obviously. Secondly, with the Accelerate being so good (look out for my future posts)…why is this a shambles?
To give this piece of album art 4/10 is a gift. It’s not totally rubbish, but being a sleeve for R.E.M—it could have been so much better. It may be supernatural, it may be Superserious…but it’s definitely not Sleevealicious!