CoolSleeves : My Favourite Album Covers

	Nirvana – Nevermind One look at this cover and you totally get it. It’s a baby under water, swimming towards a dollar bill on a fish line. It’s an obvious reference to materialism and a capitalist regime. The recording company, Geffen, wanted to blur out the baby’s penis. Cobain put his foot down saying “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile”.
	The Beatles – Revolver This cover was illustrated by the Beatles’ close friend Klaus Voormann. It features excellent sketches of the Fab Four along with a collage of photos in the middle.
	The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band The cover is full of cultural and political references. The band is wearing matador suits in bright colors. They are surrounded by cardboard cutouts of celebrities like Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, William S. Burroughs, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and Lenny Bruce.
	The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico The excellent rendition of a banana on this cover was done by Andy Warhol, the famous American artist who led the pop-art movement. Initial copies of the album featured a flesh coloured banana, visible after peeling off the skin.
	The Beatles – Abbey Road This is one of the most imitated covers of all time. Fans love to have their pictures taken on the shown zebra crossing. The shot was set up and completed in about 10 minutes. Paul McCartney (2nd from left) is barefoot.
	Beirut – Gulag Orkestar The album is beautiful and magnificent, full of rich Turkish/Eastern European sounds. The photograph on the cover is somehow very personal and touching. Legend has it that Zach Condon used a torn photograph he found at a library in Leipzig, Germany.
	Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan The cover features a 21 year old Dylan with his girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo. I like it because of the warmth it conveys, and Bob’s expression.