Yer top 5 album artworks.

all the albums by red house painters. i think the photos are really beautiful.

eric b & rakim - paid in full, infesticons - gun hill road, mr velcro fastener - lucky bastards living up north, bjork - post, the new chem bros.

records i don't own but i have seriously considering buying just for the packaging: momus - stars forever AND folktronic, INCredible sound of dreem teem (2-cd import yow), unkle - the time has come 12" picture disc

de la soul- 3 ft high and rising, air - 10000 hz legend, mobb deep - the infamous.

A Certain Album by MBV, give a guess (and Isn't Anything too).
Cocteau Twins -- Treasure
Autechre -- Tri Repeatae (don't question me)
Kraftwerk -- Radioactivity
New Order -- Technique

Answers subject to change.

[url=http://www.bluenoteprints.com/pages/collectionpg1.html]Blue Note albums covers[/url]

if you like the blue note stuff you should get those books that were published a few years ago, there is a blue note book, an NY and an LA book, alll available at amazon. Great books really.

at least the main blue note book is still in print...

the avalanches - since i left you, aphex twin - i care because you do, mike ladd - vernacular homocide, kid606 - don't sweat the technics, can - tago mago, autechre - ep7.

The Stone Roses (all their artwork) - Something about it being done by John Squire made it seem right, and the fact is that even though it's mostly hideously derivative in style, it just looks fucking cool.

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized - It's like drugs! It's got a leaflet! It details side-effects! Wow!

Loveless by MBV - It looks like it sounds! Which is crazy!

Zaireeka by The Flaming Lips - Firstly, it looks good just on an aesthetic level, there's something pleasing about abstracted CDs and the way it fits together (I wish I could get a fuck-off great fly poster of it, actually), but mainly because it's got warnings on it that it may cause listeners to become disoriented, which is cool.

Surfer Rosa by The Pixies - There's a tit.

A Northern Soul by The Verve - because when you're sixteen you love that kind of iconography. And I still don't understand how or why there are two images laid over each other.

Paul's Boutique by The Beastie Boys - I can never remember which panel is the front one, and New York Street scenes are just too cool.

Off the top of my head, here's five I like:
Apples - Fun Trick Noisemaker
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
Underworld - Second Toughest
Fluke - Risotto
Orb - Orblivion

Probably not the top five, but good enough anyway. I like techy and cartoony artwork.

Everything by Caroliner. Everything pre-92 by New Order.

Maybe not my top five/six, but some I admire (just giving this a couple seconds of thought) -->

* 'The Stone Roses' (even though it's a Pollock rip-off) * Magazine 'The Correct Use of Soap' * Alpha 'The Impossible Thrill' * Massive Attack 'Mezzanine' * The Smiths 'The Queen Is Dead' * Dead Can Dance 'Within the Realm of a Dying Sun'

Just add Keith Rowe's cover for the dark rags duo with evan parker.

Wire's 154.

Dead C= world peace hope et al/ tusk

Most beautiful ever package: Headz 2 (Mo Wax comp) on vinyl. But really my favourite album cover is 'Call of The Wildest!' by Louis Prima. Louis, a plump middle-aged Italian guy, is in brown slacks, a light blue cardigan and a white cap. He is in a forest set knocked up in ten minutes, head back, eyes closed, singing. Dominating the image however is an enormous stuffed moose's head. I defy anyone to look at it without smiling.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
New Order - Low-life (w/exchangeable photos)
XTC - Black Sea or The Big Express
Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box
Shellac - Terraform

Godspeed YBE! - F Sharp A Sharp Infinity (Actually, anything on Constellation.)

Morphine - The Night (Though how much due to Rykodisc's green boxes?)

Earwig - Under My Skin I am Laughing (as for 'Loveless' looks how it sounds and bonus points for being printed on untreated cardboard.)

Electrelane - Rock It To The Moon (Tracing paper in your Cd booklet is so cool.)

Low - Christmas (Cute!)

As a graphic designer and record fanatic, I should have been able to answer this quicker. Anyway, here's my list, but bear in mind it will probably change tomorrow.

1) The Velvet Underground and Nico; original gatefold version with peelable banana. This gorgeous Warhol-designed package says “pop” in ways the music never could.

2)Sticky Fingers–The Rolling Stones. Another Warhol job. A hung guy in tight jeans, fore and aft. Pull down the zipper and see… his underwear. Gimmicky, oh yes. Also brilliant.

3) Roxy Music–Siren. Each of Roxy’s early albums covers puts a spin on sexy that would leave even the best of us queasy, and their portraits inside the first two are amazing. But it’s Jerry Hall on the cover of Siren that takes the prize this time out; sassy, sexy and a little scary.

4) Joni Mitchell–The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Joni designs all her album covers, and this is her best. I remember hearing an interview with her once, and she said something like “it’s got embossing! Even Madonna doesn’t get embossing!” Regardless, the way inside the gatefold matches the mood of the outside is nice too.

5)Frances Faye–In Frenzy! The crazy, multi-colored lettering, the awful, awful portrait of Ms. Faye, the outrageous liner notes (“Francis Faye is always in frenzy” it notes, and then goes on to say her boozy, hard-boiled stage persona is how she is off-stage as well) … I laugh hysterically whenever I look at it.

Special Mention goes to:

6)Nina Hagen–Nunsexmonkrock. Nobody was prepared for what this record sounded like when it came out. Its deranged cover gives you a clue, though.

his name is alive 'livonia'

bows 'blush'

moose 'xyz'(actually lara lockton's collages could make a nice top five)

beaumont 'this is...'

pram 'keep in a dry place and away from children'

a lot of microhouse is gorgeously packaged. Luomo's Vocalcity showed up in my mail, but I'd have probably bought it for the cover alone had it not. I did buy the 2CD Superlongevity comp for its cover--the tag at the record shop saying it was Luomolike helped, but I wasn't leaving without it no matter what

The Band's S/T... that's the only one I like, somebody can have my other four choices.

Plaid's "Rest Proof Clockwork"

Fennesz - Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" (gorgeous photography, neat package. Endless Summer is nice, too.)
Peace Orchestra - Peace Orchestra (the idea of the band aid covering the tiny flesh wound of the booklet is just brilliant)
Schlampeitziger - Augenwischwaldmoppgefloete (pure joy)
Vert - Nine Types of Ambiguity (the cover is a capture of the .wav file of the record, & then there is another nice little twist)
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (very inspiring)

Cat Power - Moon Pix. Does anyone know how to contact Roe Ethridge? Any of y'all NY-ers? Because I would like to buy a print of that.

Herbie Hancock - Thrust. Herbie flying his keyboard-powered space orb-mobile around some lunar Inca city. Yeah!!!!

Scientist vs. Prince Jammy - Big Showdown 1980. They are cartoons faced off in a battle royale of mixdown mayhem in a boxing ring. Scientist has beakers of bubbling goo on his sound board!

Kinski - Be gentle with the warm turtle. Very beautiful and strange photographs.

George Harrison - Wonderwall Music. This is an amazing painting.

Honorable mention: Jesus Lizard-Down Jane's Addiction-Ritual... Original UK cover of Electric Ladyland X- Under the Big Black Sun Big Chief-Mack Avenue Skullgame(for the inside art - does anyone know if Motorbooty still puts out magazines?? I love that stuff.)

What's frustratin' is that most of my favorite records are necessarily my favorite bearers of album art.... so here's a half- assed list of album covers that, ur, stuck out:

• XTC "Go 2"
• Geto Boys "We Can't Be Stopped"
• Land Of The Loops "Bundle Of Joy"
• Meat Beat Manifesto "Subliminal Sandwich"
• Negativland "A Big 10-8 Place"

Don't know about top five, but some of my faves are:

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft: Die Kleinen und die Bösen - - takes me back to the Olympics of my childhood...
Lush: Gala LP -- Probably too opulent to be in entirely good taste, but how can I resist when there's artwork on the inside of the cover?
My Bloody Valentine: You Made Me Realise EP -- I swear, it took me days to even notice the knife... sweet and scary.

but how can I resist when there's artwork on the inside of the cover?

I'm not sure if this is the same effect you're talking about, but Neil Young's "On the Beach" LP has on its front an umbrella with a flower pattern visible on its underside. Printed on the inside of the jacket (i.e. where you slide the record in) is the same pattern. Weird but cool.

The pockets on the inside of the Miles Davis Complete In A Silent Way also have printing on the inside of the sleeves, which is really easy to accomplish, I know, but most people don't bother.

Peter Gabriel 1st Album: Looks like it's been raining mercury. Those silver contact lenses glaring out at you on the other side still make me shiver.

Faust 1st album: Amaze Your Friends With X-Ray Glasses!

Faust 'So Far' album: Black, black, and more black. MATT black too.

The Passage - 1st, 3rd & 4th albums. Beautiful colour theme consistency and cipher quality. (2nd one let down by having photos of the personnel on it.)

OK that's 6 - damn these lists are hard to limit...