The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, yet you never know just what it means…just like their music. 81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)

Record Covers’ (2002) by Michael Ochs – is essentially an interesting photo collection of album covers throughout the decades – but ultimately this amounts to nothing more than a vanity project for its author/curator Michael Ochs. Ochs also provides us with a written preface to each decade of covers, a resume of key developments in popular music which is somewhat cursory and futile to say the least.

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Rolling Stones’ original “Beggars Banquet” Cover is Missing. It was banned for decades and should really have been here. One of the most famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist “White Album” concept to the CD era. You could also see Yeezus as the last celebration of the physical CD before it disappeared. 76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones) Smashing Pumpkins’ album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this cover (created by Billy Corgan’s then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Adore. 31: Ohio Players: Climax (design by Joel Brodsky)

Rush’s greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cerebral sense of humor. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures, which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three different visual plays on the album’s title.The original cover was changed soon after release and a white couple was put on the cover to get the record carried in the South.

Beggars Banquet is a rare case where an album’s two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you’ve got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the time. Listen here: 97: Ol’ Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (design by Alli Truch, photo by Danny Clinch) Why in the world did Humble Pie get a bunch of policemen to form a human pyramid? Because they could, of course. 39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli) RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who’d look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly everyone’s parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of course leads us to… 2: The Clash: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry) The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not only inspired by one of the songs (the phone sex-themed “Don’t Hang Up”) but is full of hidden gags, with the same people turning up in each of the four main photos. 17: XTC: Go 2 (design by Hipgnosis)But I demur. Although I do see the funny irony in celebrating the art of the LP sleeve by reducing the reproductions to about a quarter of the size of a cd cover. The album cover for Hüsker Dü’s final studio album is one of those cases where a cover is exactly like the album: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming way. 44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design by John Crawford)