| Author | Message | ||
     Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 323 Registered: 04-2005 |
Have we done this before? Don't think so, so here goes (leaving out compilations, the "lost album," and the live albums): 1. Before Hollywood 2. Spring Hill Fair 3. Tallulah 4. Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express 5. Oceans Apart 6. Send Me a Lullaby 7. The Friends of Rachel Worth 8. Bright Yellow Bright Orange 9. 16 Lovers Lane | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 399 Registered: 05-2005 |
Isnt it strange how the best albums have the best covers? B4 H'wood is my fave GO-Bs album and is your(and my) fave cover. Sorry to go over old ground, but I hate most things about 16LL, including that monstrosity of a cover | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 324 Registered: 04-2005 |
I thought you might be glad to see 16LL trailing the pack in at least one category, Kevin! It is an ugly, ugly package. You really can't go wrong with the Dylan "Bringing It All Back Home"/"Highway 61 Revisted" style of cover, can you? "BIABH" is probably my favorite album cover ever. It will be cool until the end of time. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 285 Registered: 08-2004 |
I read somewhere recently that Triumph are selling the Highway 61 cover t-shirts again. Spring Hill Fair's the best for me, warm colours = warm glow. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 389 Registered: 03-2006 |
I like both Tallulah and Liberty Belle's covers, as they are of the type that make you feel you're spying on some moment the band had - those two covers draw you in, make you curious about what was going on when the photo was snapped, and makes you wonder what kind of people the band are... Yes, 16LL's cover, at least, is an abortion - what were they thinking? Of course, over time I've developed affection for it, the way you would for a homely puppy... Not so sure about the BH cover - appreciate the homage they're trying to pay, but it falls flat for me: too nerdy, too pretentious, too studied... Looking at your list Kurt, me brain too tired to think about rest, but agree bout BYBO...looks like a design intern did it in about 5 minutes... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 387 Registered: 05-2005 |
the back of the jewelcase cardboard sleeve in my opinion would have made a better 16LL cover, Robert and Amanda look so much better. I always thought however great John W is a musician he always remonded me of a weasel, therefore unless part of a 'Pets corner' guide, his picture would struggle to flatter... PS I have a secret crush on Amanda too! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 287 Registered: 08-2004 |
Well it's not a secret anymore. John Wilsteed looks a bit too much like Timmy Mallet, a touch of the Butlin's redcoat about him. | ||
| kuba a Member Username: Kuba Post Number: 46 Registered: 05-2005 |
1. Tallulah 2. Before Hollywood 3. Spring Hill Fair 4. Send Me A Lullaby 5. Oceans Apart 6. Liberty Belle 7. Bright Yellow Bright Orange 8. Friends Of Rachel Worth 9. 16 Lovers Lane | ||
| Per Stam Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 16 Registered: 10-2005 |
There was an alternative Rachel sleeve at the Baby you know website once upon a time (with title and group name): Grant & Robert in winter clothing, brown colors etc., Robert with glasses; a photo from Portland where the album was recorded (I think). That would have fit the music well. (And would have been a top 5 GBs sleeve for me.) But I really think that the whole band should be on the sleeves (on the other hand: at that time the band was only G & R, wasn't it? Although Adele played on the album). | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 388 Registered: 05-2005 |
Fave sleeves, Spring Hill Fair, colourful like the album. Liberty Belle, the music even sounds black and white. I love the McLennan get up, the motorcycle boots etc, slick pseudo goth in many ways. Ocenas Apart, cover I found a bit disappointing. Dunno why really, but it would have been better with some of the other pics I have seen from that shoot. Danger in the Past is probably one of my favourite sleeve designs of all time, even the typography though, Beggars/4AD esque, and very 90's somehow reflects the music and has a timelessness. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 317 Registered: 10-2004 |
1. before hollywood 2. liberty belle 3. spring hill fair 4. tallulah 5. bellavista terrace 6. 1978 - 1990 7. oceans apart 8. send me a lullaby 9. 16LL 10. BYBO 11. FORW | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 318 Registered: 10-2004 |
and now for a brief explanation for some of my choices: i've always loved before hollywood's cover. something about the overall tone and the colors really evoke a certain mood, which not only fits the music perfectly, but suggests a kind of warmth that i for some reason find pleasing. i'm not explaining this very well at all... i even like the back, the way the lyrics are spread out all over the cover, with the three individual portraits. it all just works. the simple font is perfect too. i also love the labels on the LP itself, with the shells. liberty belle is just a classic album cover. it's absolutely bursting with personality. it's so expressive, exuberant, as well as perfectly balanced and well-composed. and it's great to see the band smiling. they exude confidence, energy, and a kind of contagious happiness, as if they *know* the album they just finished making is totally amazing. i love the baroque theatre setting of spring hill fair, and it's funny how intense forster looks in the photo. i also like the typography on the back. the inner sleeve is nice too. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 369 Registered: 03-2005 |
I am at a disadvantage because I never had any of the vinyl versions where I'm sure the cover art takes on a whole different feel. Because of that, the cover to the wonderful "Liberty Belle" doesn't do much for me. "Before Hollywood" has always been my favorite cover. It looks like the setting for "Dusty in Here" or "The Clarke Sisters." And because of my obvious preference for these ersatz bohemian backgrounds, "Tallulah" is my next choice. Number three is "Spring Hill Fair" which has the look of a cover for a 1960s LP that you've always been looking for but haven't found yet because it totally failed commercially and copies, when you find them, go for about $300 apiece. In other words, "Spring Hill Fair" looks nearly exactly like what it is. "The Lost Album" comes up next for its geeky honesty. "Oceans Apart" would be great if Glenn and Adele were each placed down that same gallery behind Robert and Grant. I should like "Send Me a Lullaby" more than I do considering that it's a painting. It's a great earnest Uni student cover. If the back of the LP jacket is the black-background live shot, that is a classic cover for the punk era, which SMAL just misses. The covers to 16LL, "Rachel Worth" and BYBO are non-events for me. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 121 Registered: 05-2005 |
Has anyone noticed that the cover for Liberty Belle looks like an out take from that book "Who farted?". By the looks of it, it was Grant! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 290 Registered: 08-2004 |
Geoff, although you have lowered the tone a notch or 3, I can see your point. Im judging this on a "who smelt it dealt it" system. So RF is the culprit. | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 42 Registered: 05-2005 |
I really like the "Oceans Apart" cover, but can't say I like any of the others at all. All of the 80s covers have bad photos on them. Interesting (to me, at least!) it was a Go-Betweens cover that made me buy my first Go-Betweens record before I'd ever heard them: I saw the cover to 1978-1990 in the record shop on a lovely spring morning, and bought the record (well, tape, so I could play it in the car) on impulse. Just as well it wasn't like any of the other 80s covers, as they are all pretty bad. | ||
| Hamish Walke Member Username: Hamish Post Number: 10 Registered: 05-2005 |
Duncan, I agree. The cover to 1978-1990 was at least partially responsible for me buying it and I think it is the best one. I'm generally not too keen on photos of a band as an album cover - seems a bit lazy somehow. If I had to go with one of the 'real' albums it would probably be for the warmth of Spring Hill Fair. Looking at the first six albums now though, they seem of much more interest to us obsessives trying to read meaning into who is looking at who etc than I suspect they ever were to the record buying public - perhaps another reason they weren't huge. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 122 Registered: 05-2005 |
Has anyone noticed thast Grant has a blackeye on Tallulah. What's the story?? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 333 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm obviously the only one who like the Lovers Lane cover. Possibly because it's the only one I have on vinyl. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 321 Registered: 10-2004 |
geoff - yeah, i always thought grant's black eye -featured prominently on that photo on the inner-sleeve - was some sort of twisted joke. a bit of irony, you know. but given that grant and robert went ahead and filmed the acoustic livingroom section for their Striped Sunlight Sound DVD despite grant having pretty much lost his voice (leaving him with a rather strained singing voice), maybe grant had a little accident the night before the tallulah photo session but the band decided to go ahead with it anyway? ;) | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 394 Registered: 05-2005 |
The thing about the GB's record covers, although people knock 80's covers, (its not fair to bracket every music in the way we dis everything from Phil Collins to Level 42), they were distinguished enough from the mainstream that they stood out like a sore thumb on the record racks. You knew you were buying into something differenet, which was surely what we were all looking for way back when. The 80's were bad for lots of reasons, but there wasw a hell of a lot of good music that came out in the 80's. people always refer to the 80's as being the age of New Romantics, (but as it happens that was late 70's, it was kinda dying by 1983. ) Granted there were some shite music and some awful fashions, but we should never forget, the 80's, music wise gave us Postcard Records, therefore The Go Betweens in many ways, It gave us REM, it gave us The Smiths, it gave us Cherry Red and El records (much influential labels many years later), C86, again there were some great bands that appeared around this time, and so on. Oh and Adam and Tthe Ants! | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 396 Registered: 03-2006 |
Fart? The Go-Betweens don't fart...no way, man. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 398 Registered: 05-2005 |
well if they do its perfume!!!!!!!!!!! Adele definately doesn't fart, she's way too beautiful too indulge in such disgusting habits!!!!!!!!!!!!! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 295 Registered: 08-2004 |
The '70's are a lot worse for LP covers. The prog bands are notorious for tasteless album art. Every decade has it's shite as well as glorious, stunning, beautiful music. Most of my collection is from the '80's. Fashion is usually the problem, trends are even worse, genre's are also detrimental to taste & don't get me started on taste. The stuff that can rise above is what it's all about. | ||
| Todd Slater Member Username: Todd_slater Post Number: 50 Registered: 01-2005 |
Bright Yellow Bright Orange It's a timeless graphic/cover. Before Hollywood Of it's time & timeless at the same time (if that makes sense ) Libery Belle & The Black Diamond Express It's a black & white thing;simple, direct and a very confident band peering back at you, knowing that they have made a fucking great record ! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 402 Registered: 05-2005 |
LB&TBDE is probably the closet GB's ever got to becoming my generation's Velvets, sound wise and look wise, superb in every way. After Edwyn Collins and Roddy Frame, they were the oneshelped me (and countless others) shape the way I wanted to appear, shame I've taken to looking like Beck nowadays!! | ||
| Irishcornboy Member Username: Irishcornboy Post Number: 3 Registered: 07-2005 |
I'd have to vote for "78-90" The logo/type font up against that glorious blue and green. One of my favorite album covers of the 90's. |