Mysteries: Afloat, 2000

I enjoy artists like Kenneth Noland.

I really appreciate anything that is simultaneously very simple and very challenging.

Each of his works challenges something inside me.

He also strikes me as a rule-breaker.

Which I like.

Vintage book cover from grandma’s house.

I love the simplicity and the color.

I think it is fantastic that the title can be so simple… and because of a fabulous Golden Guide brand, the buyer knows exactly what to expect.

During the eighties and nineties, album covers began to lose meaning… what had originally been a visual representation of the body of work contained on the record became just another sales tactic, marketing-driven graphics hoping to convince impulse buyers to purchase the CD.

Now that more people are buying music online and fewer on an impulse based on the album cover, most album art is hardly seen at all.

However, the cool thing is that now that visual marketing has less value in record sales, there seems to be a beginning of resurgence in album cover as art… and more talent is required to create album covers that may only be seen as a thumbnail by most.

Here are a few of my favorites from this year.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

(This also happens to be my favorite album of the year.)

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

St. Vincent – Actor

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

The Swell Season – Strict Joy

The Antlers – Hospice