1000 Record Covers

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: A facinating look at the art of album covers. personally i like blondies-parellel lines, it's just funny. but there are a lot of great album covers in this book and i highly recommened it to any artsy person who is into music.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: A tribute to the genius of... album cover art? Yes, of course, album cover art! One of the decieding factors in what album we buy is, sadly cover art. This is a retrospective from the 50s to the 90s on the cleverness and the idiocy of album art. A must have as a kitschy accessory for hipsters who want to look in the know.

Rating:
Summary: But...but...but...Vaughan Oliver?
Review: As soon as I saw this title, I plonked it onto my amazon wish list, as it combines two of my main passions (music and design). But after flipping through a copy, I had to remove it from my list - maybe if rents plummet and I can afford more space for bookshelves it'll make a reappearance, but until then I'll do without it.

The title - "1000 Record Covers" - at least makes no false claims, e.g. "1000 Great Record Covers", or "1000 Essential Record Covers". However, such a claim is made on the back cover, and I must refute it. Too many of the entries are mediocre, and there are too many masterpieces that are ignored. I would blame this less on the author - all the choices come from his collection, which is by its nature limited - and more on the editors, who should have realized the shortcomings of such a scheme. My personal interest would be in covers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and I can't forgive the absence of (for starters) Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Gang of Four, the Slits, Buzzcocks, the Fall, Wire, the Pixies, Eno, Magazine, the Cramps, the Residents, the Pop Group, Pere Ubu, Avengers, Angry Samoans, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Romeo Void, Monochrome Set, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, X-Mal Deutschland, Coil, Chrome, Crass, Delta 5 - all of whom released LPs with compelling cover designs.

Labels such as Z, Dischord, les Disques du Crepescule, Two Tone, Rough Trade, Factory, Postcard, TVT, are virtually or completely ignored, and designers such as Malcolm Garrett (his Duran Duran work doesn't count - not at the expense of "A Different Kind of Tension"), Vaughan Oliver, tomato, Peter Saville (Roxy Music's "Flesh + Blood" gets in, but it's one of Saville's weaker efforts and his name is misspelled!), Barney Bubbles, Neville Brody are similarly slighted.

The book could also use an index of designers.

It may seem like I'm harping on about bands from mainly one genre (punk/new wave/whatever), but the truth of the matter is that much of the really innovative cover design in the last 30 years has come from that area.

To be fair, the book does include covers of LPs by the Dead Kennedys, Clash, XTC, Ramones, Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Public Image, Patti Smith, Altered Images (yay!), so some credit is certainly due.

Also happy to see the a Soft Machine record in there.

And this book did make me recognize what a subtle piece of work TheCure's "...happily ever after" is.

I'm writing this review not to slag the book off, but to inform people with similar expectations to what I had that while there is a lot of good material in here, there are gaping holes as well. Again, I think the weakness lies in limiting the choices to one person's record collection instead of directing the author to choose from the entire gamut of record covers available to him.

Rating:
Summary: Great for remembering!
Review: I don't know if there was a full size "coffee table edition of 1000 Record Covers produced. This is an undersized book but the reproduction of the album covers will bring back the excitement and creativity of each of the eras - 1950's, 60's,70's, 80's and 1990's.
The commentary is left to a minimum, without more than a few words of interest just every so often.
I guess I want my cake and to eat it too. The small size is easy to read in bed or while relaxing. But a full size (12" X 12") edition would be marvelous.
I spend a lot of hours looking through this intriqueing book.
John row

Rating:
Summary: Great for remembering!
Review: I don't know if there was a full size "coffee table edition of 1000 Record Covers produced. This is an undersized book but the reproduction of the album covers will bring back the excitement and creativity of each of the eras - 1950's, 60's,70's, 80's and 1990's.
The commentary is left to a minimum, without more than a few words of interest just every so often.
I guess I want my cake and to eat it too. The small size is easy to read in bed or while relaxing. But a full size (12" X 12") edition would be marvelous.
I spend a lot of hours looking through this intriqueing book.
John row

Rating:
Summary: So Many Great Album Covers!
Review: Just as the title suggests, this book is full of 1,000 record covers. Full color and in all their glory. Page after page of beautiful, quirky, innovative and just about any other adjective you can think of, album covers. Some will bring back memories, some will make you want to search the record stores so that you can own the album again or for the first time. I keep this book handy and find myself thumbing through it all the time. It's also a great conversation starter when it sits on the coffee table.

My only complaint is that it isn't full record size! That would have sent this review into 7 stars!

Rating:
Summary: Cover Me
Review: This book of "just" album covers is put together so brilliantly, it seems to actually have a plot. As Ochs goes through his collection of covers, (some obscure, some not) they tell the story of Rock and Roll from the 50's, forward. His groupings of related covers accurately describe the many stages, styles, and trends that Rock music has gone through. You can pick it up and browse through it, but it really is better to go page by page. This is a work of love. Ochs (for all his success with his Archives) really gets it.

Rating:
Summary: Cover Me
Review: This book of "just" album covers is put together so brilliantly, it seems to actually have a plot. As Ochs goes through his collection of covers, (some obscure, some not) they tell the story of Rock and Roll from the 50's, forward. His groupings of related covers accurately describe the many stages, styles, and trends that Rock music has gone through. You can pick it up and browse through it, but it really is better to go page by page. This is a work of love. Ochs (for all his success with his Archives) really gets it.

Rating:
Summary: Cover Me
Review: This book of "just" album covers is put together so brilliantly, it seems to actually have a plot. As Ochs goes through his collection of covers, (some obscure, some not) they tell the story of Rock and Roll from the 50's, forward. His groupings of related covers accurately describe the many stages, styles, and trends that Rock music has gone through. You can pick it up and browse through it, but it really is better to go page by page. This is a work of love. Ochs (for all his success with his Archives) really gets it.