sometimes you can tell a music style based on the album cover. for example, there is a good chance that this is a rap album:


and there is a good chance that this album is metal, and most can catch the 80's vibe:


but lets say you were browsing through someones personal music colleciton, so there are no 'genre' category sections splitting stuff up, and you never heard of the band whose album you pull off the rack, could you guess the style of it based on this album artwork?--->


any others that you can think of, make a list here....

I think the Meatloaf cover should be obvious to the trained eye. I mean that in the sense of let's assume I don't know that album OR who Meatloaf is: The style of the painting points to either something epic, long and probably less heavy than the singer thinks it actually is. Though Meatloaf is a bit more poppy than say Manowar, they still have a similar thing going on. Long and epic songs, lots of times with some lesson to be learned, it's just the Meat has a piano. I'd guess, again assuming I didn't KNOW, it'd be a bit more like Manowar, which isn't totally accurate, but not that far off.

Anyway, the style of that painting TOTALLY gives it away if you know what's up, but I worked in a record store for 4 years. A fun game we used to play is looking at the press release or album insert pic's of a band, w/o knowing anything about them, and trying to figure out who played what instrument.

Interesting thread idea that might sprout some 'classic' and utterly amazing/bizarre artwork. I'll have to do some thinking about this...

Here's a couple of non definable covers.
LP on the left is killer Jazz/Funk - Jazz-Rock, one on the right is heavy prog rock.

i would have never guessed calexico sounds like they do from seeing this album cover

i'm going through my ipod here

crooked fingers - crooked fingers

when i was a kid I thought this was going to be the most brutal album ever.

its still entertaining after all these years at least.

ok, i have one. I thought this would be pop music, or maybe a girl group, or garage rock. I bought it knowing nothing but, that it had a cute cover.



I was wrong. haha

Samples anyone...


Metal (Louisville style) with a kick ass Pus cover!

always found this a bit sarcastic

Good example. That band has always copped a lot of Mexican and Chicano pop culture imagery but their sound is far afield from the imagery. On the other hand when they toured as the backup band for Los Super Seven they showed that they knew their Tex-Mex and Latino musical chops very well indeed. Strange band.

With the possible exception of the color chips at the upper right, this detail of a baroque-era still life by Fantin-Latour doesn't exactly connote hard-hitting electro-pop.

Along the same lines as Missy with the Melvins cover.

Awesome, my buddy Victor does most of Calexico' album artwork! I wish more people discovered his original work out there...

such a great album, and this is actually one of my favorite album covers too!
especially since it totally stands apart from all the other helmet albums, just like that melvins one. artwork on that melvins album looks like something from a early 90's sub pop group...

Helmet is one of my all time favorite bands. One of my favorite album covers too (Betty).
Page Hamilton (singer/guitar) is still performing new/old Helmet songs on tour now...though the entire rest of the band is all new members.

i love most of the helmet albums, but i couldn't get into monochrome...

Have been clueless to all of New Order cover art ever since.

Peter Savile=genius

This one's mine...

Speaking of Helmet...this 45 cover could be a little confusing...

I wonder if a band member was actually a fan of Inazuman?


Back...


Best band cover ever for kaiju fans!

talk about deceptive album covers, you'd never guess that this is the most necro, satanic, nsbm, church-burning, nihilistic, christ-crushing, gut-wrenching lo-fi black metal you've ever heard. serious. these guys should be behind bars.

Totally. Some of his work for New Order was better than the music inside the slipcover. Oh go ahead and bash me, fanbois.

Here's the original Australian artwork for "Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap." When you think about AC/DC artwork do you think about a pencil drawing made in 8th grade art class?

This would look awesome on my MEAD notebook. Not on the album.

Thank you Hipgnosis (and Storm Thorgerson) for setting things straight with this: