Posted on January 6th, 2011 in Album Art

The Greatest Album Covers Ever

This is a crosspost from my blog, but since it pertains to this site, I decided to post it here as well.

These are my all-time favorite album covers. Most of them are quite iconic and the majority are accompanied by exceptional records as well, which I think often goes hand in hand with a great cover. There might be a few surprises though.

One thing I had never noticed before, which may be a complete fabrication on my part, is the similarity between Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking cover, and Prince’s Purple Rain. An intentional reference, possibly? It’s pretty subjective, but I think you could definitely argue that there are some strong resemblances.

The list is in no particular order, although I would say that my all-time favorite is Hum’s You’d Prefer An Astronaut. Also, I think we can safely say that The Rolling Stones had the most consistently great covers.

The list:


Throbbing Gristle
20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)


The Cure
Three Imaginary Boys (1979)

Posted on January 3rd, 2011 in Music,Year End

Top 15 Songs of 2010


#15. (Tie) Kurt Vile – Early Dawnin’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Kvile has been on fire this year; ‘Early Dawnin’‘, which appears on Vile’s exceptional In My Time 7″, combines the emotional fragility and acoustic-electropop tendencies of a Benoît Pioulard or Sufjan Stevens with the devil-may-care cool of Adam Green or Evan Dando.


#15. (Tie) Perfume Genius – Mr. Peterson

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

One of the most emotional songs from an incredibly emotionally-charged record; ‘Mr. Peterson‘ details the story of a gay relationship between a student and his teacher that ultimately results in the teacher’s suicide. Mike Hadreas’s delivery is somehow both full of emotion and completely detached, giving this song a white-knuckled tension that is only accentuated by brilliant lyrics like “He made me a tape of Joy Division / He told me there was a part of him missing / When I was sixteen / He jumped off a building”.