Sleeves

A quick aside -- I never saw mentioned last year was that Microstoria titled one of the tracks on their 1996 .snd record "Endless Summer." Seems an odd coincidence.

I thought the covers of both Rooty and Hot Shots II were weak. Amateurish, but not in a clever or memorable way. And neither seemed to have anything to do with the music.

When I was at the record store last week, the owner told me the distributors had to make their own boxes in order to send it to stores because of it's odd shape.

I like the packaging on his 2 Remixes by AFX 12" as well.

The SFA Rings Around the World cover was great, they haven't let me down yet. I loved Rooty. And Bob Dylan looks so dashing and weird on Love and Theft--as far as personality-oriented album covers go, that's my fave.

Worst? I think the cover of 'Is This It' (UK version) very overrated. Just a bad idea. Was it supposed to be funny? What?
I like 'painted' covers but the covers for 'It's A Wonderful Life', 'All is Dream' and 'No More Shall We Part' looked awful as CD covers, just messy and gaudy. Perhaps they only really work as Vinyl covers.
'Feminist Sweepstakes' = ugh! Too much pink!

I'm in two minds about Tindersticks' 'Can Our Love... '. Beardy man snuggling up to a donkey. Hmmm.

Oh yeah, '10,000hz Legend''s cover was almost as good as the music. It reminded me of all the 'this is how we will live in the year 3310' futurisimo books I read as a youngster. Evocative. Good 'the future of the 1970s' typeface too.

Amnesiac book was good.

Incidentally, I've now caught two Clinic videos on M2, and I find it interesting that they come across and are sold, video-wise, as "electronica" -- "The Second Line" and "Distortions" both have shifting CGI animation videos, which M2 bookends between things like Air, the Chemical Brothers, and Groove Armada. I quite like this, as it brought forth a way of looking at that record that hadn't been as much in the forefront for me.

The Modest Mouse EP has the worst cover AND the worst album title of the year. If the inner sleeve were the actual cover, then it'd be nicer.

Hmmm, I like the Avalanches cover, although it doesn't seem to quite capture the music--nice and glossy, though, so you can wipe it off if it gets dirty (?).

I continue my dislike of cardboard slip cases--Stars of the Lid's "Tired Sounds of..." is too good to shove into a potentially damaging case like that.

BEST

• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/stevefisk.jpg Steve Fisk "999 Levels of Undo" (Nice concept, too. For each song, there's a different card each with a different rendition of the chicken-embryo-in-the-skull by a different artist.. see some of them here)
• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/refrigerator.jpg Refrigerator "Comedy minus One"
• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/newpornographers.jpg New Pornographers "Mass Romantic"

WORST

• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/ryanadams.jpg Ryan Adams "Gold" (THE WORST... I just want to smash that mug)
• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/stephenmalkmus.jpg Stephen Malkmus "Stephen Malkmus"
• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/neworder.jpg New Order "Get Ready" (I love this record, but this cover photo looks like an reject for a Revenge release)

Honorable Mentions (for Best or Worst)

• Any Dirtstyle/Q*Bert or Peanut Butter Wolf related breaks record -- "Sexually Tramsmitted Breaks" and "Hamburger Hater Breaks" being the respective winners.

• http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/covers/cradleoffilth.jpg Cradle of Filth "Bitter Suites To Succubi" (Definitely the best album title of 2002, which somehow enhances the cover)

My vote for worst cover goes to Luke Haines for The Oliver Twist Manifesto. The only thing it was missing from it was a slinky and a pet rock.

For some reason, I really liked the picture on the front of the Kylie album, though I can't for a second imagine why.

My fave was probably the Stereo Total album, least fave probably Pulp

So BEST: the Acid Mothers Temple etc. and Boredoms sleeves both make me want to hear the records within. The Pulp "We Love Life" sleeve is deceptively simple, but makes you ask questions: e.g. why are the letters arranged in that order? what's the significance of the green bits? how does the design relate to the title or the record within (again, I've not heard it)?

WORST: "Miss E ... So Addictive" - a nightmare in blue.

However, we have a winner in Tina Frank's artwork for Ilpo Vaisanen's "Asuma". Lovely greens and blues - and it's 6.5" by 5.5", so it has to go on the Special Shelf.

I'd go along with the votes for Ryan Adams as worst, but it actually screams AVOID in such blaring terms, it really does its job rather well. Bent's "Programmed To Love" (which may not be 2001) has a really off-putting sleeve.

REALLY THE BEST: Rooty. Think of gorilla speaking in chirpy little puppy voice and it works even better.

This would make a cool album cover.

And the Ryan Adams thing reminds me of John (Cougar) Mellencamp about the time he decided to get serious and ditch the "Cougar."