Paste Magazine Selects 25 Best Album Covers Of The Decade (2000–2009)

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Fonts in Use, Lovely Lettering, My Type of Music | Yves Peters | December 9, 2009

See, I told you this was only the beginning. The end of the decade is giving birth to overviews and lists galore. Because I now keep track of the newly released album covers on FontShop BeNeLux‘s Flickr account the last one to catch my eye was Paste magazine‘s “The 25 Best Album Covers of the Decade (2000–2009)”.

From the simple but striking prism gracing Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon to the naked, submerged, dollar-bill-chasing baby swimming across the front of Nirvana‘s Nevermind, a great album cover captures the imagination and sears itself into the brain, forever fusing its iconic imagery with the music it comes to signify. Here are 25 album covers from the last decade that follow in this hallowed pop-music tradition…

Now I don’t know about you, but electing the 25 best album covers seems to me like a very tricky endeavour. However this list made me want to revisit my CD collection, and I am going to try and find the best CD-cover or packaging I own from the last decade and post it here. If this sounds like a neat idea and you feel like joining in with the fun, send me over yours so we can discuss them in this post.


For the complete gallery see the Paste magazine website.
Now in its eighth year of publication, Paste magazine claims to have become the most celebrated entertainment magazine in the U.S. with two National Magazine Award nominations for general excellence, dozens of Plug, Folio, and Gamma Awards, and endorsements from folks like USA Today, the NY Daily News and The Wall Street Journal, who calls Paste “the finest among American music titles.” In less than a decade, the independent publication has grown to become the third largest rock magazine in the world, thanks to readers hungry for authenticity and creativity. This highly engaged and devoted audience (including more Twitter followers than any other music magazine) goes to Paste magazine and PasteMagazine.com to discover the Best of What’s Next in music, film, books, games and television. As Utne says, “Paste brings together the best elements of the mainstream and indie press.”

And in case you were wondering, besides Bodoni and the bizarre “E” from the not very successful ITC Dyadis, the Paste logo features the typical “a” from Rodrigo X. Cavazos‘ remarkable Eidetic Neo.

Favourite Album Covers of The Decade


M. Alec Lomas chooses “Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest” by As Cities Burn

Chris Hamamoto chooses “Madvillainy” by Madvillain
DJ Kicks by Playgroup
Nitzan chooses the DJ-Kicks compilation by Playgroup

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9 Comments:

  1. I don’t recognize any of these album covers, so they can’t have been too successful. Part of the successful-ness of the pink floyd and nirvana covers were there ubiquity.

    Posted by Melissa on Dec. 9, 2009

  2. albums: from top column down, left to right

    DJ Dangermouse and MF DOOM – Dangerdoom
    Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
    Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
    Bjork – Volta
    Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
    Menomena – Friend and Foe

    they all ranked in the top 10 of best independent musical releases in their respective years

    Posted by alex on Dec. 9, 2009

  3. as cities burn ALWAYS has top-notch covers. Their latest, Hell or High Water, has a great cover. And their debut, Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest, is among my favorite album packaging of all time (it was designed by Invisible Creature, and I’m pretty sure you can view it on their site).

    Posted by M. Alec Lomas on Dec. 9, 2009

  4. Argh. I think my favourite music packaging from my personal CD collection (600+ albums) is the fabulous digipack version of Breakbeat Era‘s Ultra-Obscene. The best part is that the music is just as kick-ass as the packaging. The cover image itself already is great but doesn’t do the full packaging justice, so I’ll have to make a photo and post it here. Yet because it was released in September 1999 it can’t contend. I need to look further for my personal best of the decade.
     

    Posted by Yves Peters on Dec. 10, 2009

  5. (…) their debut, Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest, is among my favorite album packaging of all time

    Now that is one gorgeous cover – it’s fine art! Would you happen to know who is the cover artist? Or did Invisible Creature paint the actual art as well?
     
    The only thing I regret is that they didn’t put any type on the cover. I said it before and I’ll say it again – this feels a bit like cheating. A “true” album cover needs type, because how it is integrated in the overall image is what distinguishes great designers from the good ones.

    Posted by Yves Peters on Dec. 10, 2009

  6. Danger Doom, but no Madvillainy? Weak.

    Posted by Chris Hamamoto on Dec. 10, 2009

  7. I personally really like Playgroup’s DJ Kicks sleeve (designed by Trevor Jackson)

    I also started a little discussion on the Save Vinyl blog.

    Posted by Nitzan on Dec. 11, 2009

  8. Invisible Creature is have been a favourite studio of mine for a long time, even before they were IC, and for standout artwork I think Foo Fighters: Echos, Silence, Patience and Grace is up there.

    Posted by Simon Robertson on Dec. 12, 2009

  9. oh and Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg is great too

    Posted by Simon Robertson on Dec. 12, 2009

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