{"id":2609,"date":"2020-12-30T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/top-15-album-covers\/"},"modified":"2022-05-16T09:12:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T13:12:39","slug":"top-15-album-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/inspiration\/collections\/top-15-album-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Classic Album Covers Featuring Iconic Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Architects: Showcase your next project through\u00a0Architizer<\/a>\u00a0and sign up for our\u00a0inspirational newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A popular saying, widely but not definitively attributed to Elvis Costello, holds that \u201cwriting about music is like dancing about architecture.\u201d In addition to skewering music critics \u2014 a perennial punching bag \u2014 this joke asserts the ultimate integrity of each individual art form. What is expressed in one medium, the logic goes, you cannot translate into another.<\/p>\n

Album art presents an interesting challenge to Costello\u2019s formalist maxim. While a sleeve design cannot really tell you what the music inside sounds like, it can become a part of the total work, bringing a visual component to the listening experience. In cases when architecture finds its way onto an album cover, these buildings also get bound up with the music. When this is pulled off effectively, music and architecture can speak to each other in intriguing ways.<\/p>\n

As we put together this list, we did a good amount of dancing about architecture, or at least tapping our feet while considering the subtle, sometimes ingenious ways musicians have played with architectural iconography over the years. What follows are just 15 examples of memorable album covers featuring architecture. This is far from a complete list, so please share your own examples in the comments.<\/p>\n

Spotify users: click here<\/a> to listen to the full playlist!<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Stars: The North (2012)<\/b><\/p>\n

Regular readers of Architizer know how much we love Moshe Safdie\u2019s<\/a> Habitat 67 housing complex. When it was unveiled at Expo 67 in Montreal, Safdie\u2019s arrangement of 354 identical prefabricated concrete housing units presented a challenging and original vision for the future of urban living. In one way, Habitat 67 represents an attempt to use principles of musical composition in architectural design. Like a great musician, Safdie creates a sense of liveliness and vitality within a framework built on repetition.<\/p>\n

The photograph of Habitat 67 the indie pop band Stars selected for the cover of their 2012 album \u201cThe North\u201d is washed out and saturated to create a nostalgic, technicolor effect, which differs in important ways from how the raw concrete of Safdie\u2019s building appears in person. The aerial point of view highlights umbrellas and other indications of domestic life on the roof terraces, making the cover more of a mise-<\/i>en-sc\u00e8ne<\/i>than an architectural portrait. Overall, the sunny utopianism of this album cover perfectly matches the wistful pop music inside. A bit saccharine, perhaps, but it hits the spot on a bright summer day.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

The Velvet Underground: Squeeze (1973)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSqueeze\u201d is a footnote in the annals of music history. Although it was released under the legendary imprimatur of the Velvet Underground, it only features one member of the actual group: Doug Yule, a multi-instrumentalist who didn\u2019t join the group until after the release of their second album. The resulting work, \u201cSqueeze,\u201d found little commercial or critical success. Unlike the canonical Velvet Underground albums, this one is largely free of conflict, irony or venom, as if someone had squeezed <\/i>the life out of the band.<\/p>\n

One high point of \u201cSqueeze\u201d is the album cover. The illustration is similar, stylistically, to the cover of the Velvets\u2019 1970 album, \u201cLoaded,<\/a>\u201d which depicted pink smoke emanating from a New York City subway stairwell. Symbolically, though, the imagery could not be any more different. No longer an emanation from \u201cunderground,\u201d \u201cSqueeze\u201d announces itself as a beacon from the heavens, grabbing New York City by the neck, i.e., the Empire State Building. The hand pictured could belong to Yule, as if, against all odds, he has taken hold of the band \u2014 and he isn\u2019t letting go.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Architizer<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

In 2011, the Canadian band Azari & III riffed on the imagery of \u201cSqueeze\u201d for their self-titled debut album. The giant disembodied hand in their illustration grasps the Burj Khalifa<\/a>, an icon of power and prosperity in the era of globalization. Referencing \u201cSqueeze\u201d in a debut was an interesting choice on the part of Azari & III, given the album\u2019s ambivalent reputation. Good design, however, is good design, and this album cover is every bit as striking as its predecessor. There is something eerie about the manicured hand in this image: Its loose grip somehow seems more menacing than the squeezed fist on the Velvets\u2019 cover.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993)<\/b><\/p>\n

To love Meat Loaf \u2014 the food or the recording artist \u2014 is to embrace maximalism. Guitars scream, pianos whirl and Meat Loaf howls throughout his sixth album, \u201cBat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell,\u201d which consists almost entirely of neo-Wagnerian ballads that reach for all the highs of popular music while stubbornly refusing any of the lows. Like a well-salted homemade foodstuff, the album leaves listeners feeling exhausted, oddly greasy and craving a glass of water. It\u2019s much more American than apple pie; it\u2019s as American as Oreos.<\/p>\n

The cover image, created by the sci-fi\/fantasy illustrator Michael Whelan, features a gigantic bat perched atop the Chrysler Building holding an innocent Valkyrie hostage. Luckily, the monster is about to meet his match in the form of a flaxen-haired hero who rides a flying motorcycle and clutches a ball of light. Like the album itself, the charm of this image lies in its emancipatory shirking of restraint. There is some kinship between Meat Loaf\u2019s aesthetic and that of the Chrysler Building, that jewel of the Manhattan skyline that embraces decoration for its own sake. In architecture, like life, we often look for balance, restraint and utility. Other times, however, it\u2019s best to \u201cjust pray to the Gods of Sex and Drums and Rock and Roll,\u201d as Meat Loaf understands so well.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Drake: Views (2016)<\/b><\/p>\n

Canada loves Drake, even more than the rest of the world. It was not surprising, then, that the melancholic rapper featured the CN Tower<\/a>, a fellow Toronto icon, on the cover of his fourth studio album, \u201cViews.\u201d In this image, Drake can be seen sitting atop the CN Tower, legs dangling perilously off the edge. The clouds, like Drake\u2019s troubled thoughts, are dark and gray, and like the lukewarm reviews that would follow the album\u2019s release, they loom closely behind him. Indeed, many of the album\u2019s lyrics seem to anticipate the rapper’s imminent fall from critical grace. In the single \u201cHotline Bling,\u201d Drake grasps nostalgically, even pathetically, at a memory of adoration lost, haranguing a woman who \u201cused to call [him] on [her] cell phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you listen closely, it becomes apparent that what Drake is really getting at with this record is an understanding that change, even banal change, is painful for human beings. The cover\u2019s juxtaposition of his own tiny, fragile corpus with the mighty tower that supports it is an expression of human impermanence, a feeling that is familiar to anyone who spends time contemplating iconic architecture.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Unknown Mortal Orchestra (2011) <\/b><\/p>\n

The Petrova Gora Monument<\/a>, which appears on the cover of Unknown Mortal Orchestra\u2019s debut album, commemorates 300 Serbs who died resisting the Axis-aligned Usta\u0161e militia during World War II. It stands at the highest peak of Petrova Gora, a mountain range in present-day Croatia. The monument, which was designed by Vojin Baki\u0107<\/a> and completed in 1981, now stands in a state of disrepair. The museum inside is no longer operational, and many of the planks that make up the stainless steel fa\u00e7ade have been stolen. Nevertheless, there is a kind of quiet, albeit awkward dignity to this futuristic Soviet-era structure that no amount of vandalism can strip away. Standing alone in the countryside, the monument does not immediately announce its purpose, lending it an otherworldly air.<\/p>\n

The alien quality of the structure is what recommended it to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, an American and New Zealand psychedelic rock band that likes to cultivate a sense of mystery itself. \u201cI liked the idea of this mysterious building that you don\u2019t know what it is or where it is, but it\u2019s from the past, built for the future, and is now in disrepair,\u201d explained band member Ruban Nielson. \u201cIt seemed to match the music, so we used an image of that that looked like a tourist photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)<\/b><\/p>\n

Modest Mouse are America\u2019s answer to Radiohead: a witty, observant, sometimes paranoid group who chronicle the emptiness and dissatisfaction people face in our highly commodified, media-saturated societies. \u201cThe Lonesome Crowded West,\u201d the band\u2019s second full length, is darker and in some ways less polished than the better-selling albums that would follow, but in this reporter\u2019s humble view, it is by far their greatest achievement. More than any other artwork I know of, this album captures the sense of openness one finds on long drives through rural America, a feeling that is paradoxically both exhilarating and crushing.<\/p>\n

The photographs on the album sleeve, fittingly, are taken from the low vantage point of a car window. The buildings captured in these images are the towers of the Westin Seattle<\/a>: cylindrical, international style affairs erected in 1969. Posed against a purple evening sky and nestled within a black frame, these towers take on an effect of impossible distance on the album cover. We relate to them in the same way a truck driver<\/a> relates to the many cities he passes through before arriving at his destination.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Nas: Illmatic (1994)<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the most iconic album covers of all time, the sleeve for Nas\u2019s \u201cIllmatic\u201d features a semi-transparent childhood portrait of the rapper superimposed over an image of a New York City block. The child and the social environment that formed him are thus depicted as totally entwined, a fact with important resonance given the harrowing vision of urban life Nas presents in his songs.<\/p>\n

For the album cover, Nas was very deliberate in choosing a photo of himself at age seven. \u201cThat was the year I started to acknowledge everything [around me],\u201d he explained in a 1994 interview. \u201cThat\u2019s the year everything set off. That\u2019s the year I started seeing the future for myself and doing what was right. The ghetto makes you think. The world is ours. I used to think I couldn\u2019t leave my projects. I used to think if I left, if anything happened to me, I thought it would be no justice or I would be just a dead slave or something. The projects used to be my world until I educated myself to see there\u2019s more out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since its release, this album cover concept has been subject to numerous parodies and appropriations<\/a>. None of this, however, has blunted the power of the original. Like any iconic image, this one has seeped into the very fabric of our culture.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Mazzy Star: She Hangs Brightly (1990)<\/b><\/p>\n

In addition to having one of the most memorable architectural album covers of all time, Mazzy Star\u2019s debut album, \u201cShe Hangs Brightly,\u201d is distinguished by being one of the best albums ever recorded. The first two tracks, \u201cHalah<\/a>\u201d and \u201cBlue Flower<\/a>\u201d rank with the most poignant, perfectly balanced love songs in history, mixing the incomparable, languid vocals of Hope Sandoval with the psychedelic guitar work of Dave Roback. Even Kurt Cobain listed this as one of his top 50 albums of all time.<\/p>\n

The album cover is almost as elegant as the music inside, featuring a photograph of the interior of the Art Nouveau Hotel Tassel<\/a> in Brussels. There is something about the 1990s that seems to gel with Art Nouveau aesthetics. Perhaps it was our own Belle \u00c9poque. Seriously, though, if you have not heard this album yet, please head to your nearest Spotify immediately to rectify that situation. Better yet, do what I did and purchase it on 180 gram vinyl.<\/a> You will not be disappointed, but you might cry. A lot.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Yes: Going for the One (1977)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Century Plaza Towers in Los Angeles were designed by Minoru Yamasaki<\/a>, the architect best known for designing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Like the Twin Towers, the Century Plaza Towers follow Yamasaki\u2019s \u201cNew Formalist\u201d principles and are thus marked by strict symmetry and an understated, classical sense of grandeur. Unlike the Twin Towers, these buildings have a unique, triangular footprint, a fact that can be somewhat unsettling to visitors accustomed to rectangular buildings.<\/p>\n

The slightly jarring, angular effect of these buildings is exaggerated in the cubist rendition of the towers featured on the cover of Yes\u2019s eighth studio album, \u201cGoing for the One.\u201d The nude man in the foreground of this image is facing an impossible scene, a mess of jutting, intersecting planes that feels like something out of Rem Koolhaas\u2019s \u201cDelirious New York.<\/a>\u201d The image almost seems to echo Yes\u2019s songwriting method, which some critics at the time compared to a \u201ckitchen sink\u201d in which multiple elements were thrown together haphazardly, without being successfully integrated. Perhaps Yes intended this cover to be a commentary on this criticism of the band. In any case, the image is appealing in itself, a winning composition of blue, orange and white that even Yamasaki could appreciate.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Weezer: Pinkerton (1996) <\/b><\/p>\n

Westerners tend to see Japan through a romanticized lens, a tradition that stretches from Puccini\u2019s 1904 opera \u201cMadame Butterfly\u201d to the most recent season of HBO\u2019s \u201cGirls,\u201d in which Shoshana, a character played by Zosia Mamet working abroad in Japan, mentions to a friend that she loves the country so much she sometimes worries that she \u201cmade it up.\u201d Weezer picked up this theme in their 1996 album \u201cPinkerton,\u201d a loose concept album based on \u201cMadame Butterfly\u201d that focuses on the way idealism leads to despair. In songs like \u201cWhy Bother?\u201d and \u201cPink Triangle,\u201d singer Rivers Cuomo confronts the fact that he finds himself heartbroken every time he gets his hopes up.<\/p>\n

Laced throughout this album, dark by Weezer\u2019s standards, is an idea of Japan as the home of innocence, imagination and idealized, inaccessible fangirls. The album cover features a 19th-century woodblock illustration by Hiroshige<\/a> called \u201cNight Snow at Kambara.\u201d The traditional Japanese houses in the background, roofs blanketed by snow, present a picturesque image of a Japanese village. The contrast between the serenity of this image and the noisy opening to the album\u2019s first track, \u201cTired of Sex,\u201d echoes the gulf between fantasy and reality that the album explores so memorably.<\/p>\n

For a critical take on the Western tendency to romanticize Asian cultures, check out Edward Said\u2019s landmark 1978 book \u201cOrientalism,<\/a>\u201d in which he explores how these types of attitudes are connected to the legacy of colonialism.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

The Magnetic Fields: The House of Tomorrow (1992)<\/b><\/p>\n

This is the only entry on the list with a title better suited to an architecture exhibit than an album. An EP, this record clocks in at only 12:21 but contains some of the Magnetic Fields\u2019 best songs, including \u201cLove Goes Home to Paris in the Spring.\u201d Both the title of this EP and its cover art \u2014 a colorized photograph of the 1904 St. Louis World\u2019s Fair<\/a> \u2014 reference the utopianism of the early 20th century, a time when the future was contemplated with hope rather than dread and an architectural exhibition could keep the press busy for weeks.<\/p>\n

The subtitle of the EP is \u201cfive loop songs,\u201d pointing to the fact that each of the tracks consists of a single, repeated loop. Like a designer of modular homes, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stephin Merritt is keen to show off how much he can do with absolutely minimal component parts. The utopianism in the title stands in ironic contrast to the sardonic, frankly depressed content of the songs. Sample lyric: \u201cEvery time you feel wonderful, baby, I feel bad \/ Either I don\u2019t love you or you don\u2019t love me, oh yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Sufjan Stevens: Illinois (2005) <\/b><\/p>\n

The second entry in Sufjan Stevens\u2019 quixotic, possibly ironic \u201c50 states\u201d series, in which Stevens promised to create a concept album for each united state, \u201cIllinois\u201d is one of the most ambitious works of the aughts. In nearly every song, Stevens walks a razor-thin line between whimsy and heartbreak, nestling devastating songs like \u201cCasimir Pulaski Day\u201d and \u201cJohn Wayne Gacy\u201d within an overall conceptual framework that involves children\u2019s choirs and song titles like \u201cThey Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhh!\u201d During the tour for the album, Stevens would wear a boy scout uniform and butterfly wings onstage. Stevens\u2019 ambition to fuse an appreciation for kitsch Americana with a respectful interest in the lives of ordinary Americans is something few others would have thought of and even fewer could have pulled off with any sort of success.<\/p>\n

The cover art for this album matches its sensibility perfectly. A crowded, mural-like portrait featuring the Chicago skyline, UFOs, Al Capone and a goat, this image reflects an image of Illinois as a land suffused with folklore. One of the strongest aspects of the illustration is the irregular, felt-tip rendition of Chicago\u2019s skyscrapers. Rendering these awesome towers in an amateurish hand makes them appear folksy and familiar, reminding us that these buildings form the backdrop of Chicagoans\u2019 lives. \u201cI was in love with the place,\u201d Sufjan sings of America\u2019s first city of architecture, \u201cin my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fun fact: The original album sleeve featured an image of Superman. This was removed in subsequent printings after Stevens’ label, Asthmatic Kitty, became aware that using Superman’s image in this way constituted copyright infringement.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Pink Floyd: Animals (1977)<\/b><\/p>\n

Loosely based on George Orwell\u2019s classic novella Animal Farm<\/i>, Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cAnimals\u201d depicts class society as various types of animals: sheep, dogs, pigs and \u201cPigs on the Wing<\/a>.\u201d At turns dreamy and depressing, \u201cAnimals\u201d is the product of a band with nothing left to prove, who are able to put aside distractions and focus on crafting a work that perfectly matches their vision. The photograph on the cover features the Battersea Power Station<\/a> in West London. Something about the composition makes it look impossibly enormous, an impenetrable fortress of industrialism reminiscent of the Ministry buildings in Michael Radford\u2019s film adaptation of \u201c1984.\u201d The icy structure is offset a bit by the whimsical image of a flying pig.<\/p>\n

Fun fact: The original plan for the album art included a giant, pig-shaped helium balloon. The idea was to take a photograph of the power station with the pig floating in front of it. Unfortunately, on the day of shooting, the helium balloon escaped. The pig flew through Heathrow airspace, forcing the cancellation of flights and eventually landed in a nearby farm, ironically frightening a flock of sheep. Because the balloon plan failed, the image of the pig that appears on the album sleeve was simply superimposed on a photo of the factory.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Pitchfork<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Baio: The Names (2015) <\/b><\/p>\n

Baio is the stage name of Chris Baio, the bassist of Vampire Weekend, a band comprised of Columbia University alumni that stormed into the public consciousness in 2007 with a set of catchy, Afrobeat-inflected songs about Cape Cod and Oxford commas. Baio\u2019s debut solo album, \u201cThe Names,\u201d takes its title from a Don DeLillo novel, following in the proud Vampire Weekend tradition of having good taste. Baio\u2019s sophistication is seen most markedly in the sleeve for \u201cThe Names,\u201d which features a photograph by Matthias Heinrich<\/a> of a building in Hamburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came across him on design blog about five years ago,\u201d Baio said of Heinrich in an interview with The Spaces.<\/a> \u201cTo return to that idea of estrangement, Matthias takes pictures in Berlin and Hamburg \u2014 where the one I used for the album artwork was shot \u2014 and my experiences of those cities have always been extremely grey, so to see insanely colorful photos taken there fascinated me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the interview continued, Baio came around to the subject of the font featured on the sleeve. \u201c[This] is from the opening sequence of the Ingmar Bergman film, \u2018Persona,\u2019\u201d<\/i>he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s probably my favorite five minutes of any movie ever.\u201d Design fans should be happy to learn that Chris Baio is one of their own. It doesn\u2019t hurt that the songs on this tastefully appointed debut are as infectious as the album art. \u201cSister of Pearl<\/a>\u201d was stuck in my head for a good week when it was released last summer.<\/p>\n

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Via <\/i>Wikipedia<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)<\/b><\/p>\n

The story of Wilco\u2019s fourth album, \u201cYankee Hotel Foxtrot,\u201d is told time and again. Completed in early 2001, Wilco\u2019s label, Reprise Records of Warner Music Group, originally refused to release it, believing the art rock production was too experimental to appeal to a mainstream audience. In response, Wilco pulled out of their contract and decided to stream the album on their website for free, a pioneering move in these early days of file sharing. Eventually, Wilco was able to arrange for the official release of their album through Nonesuch Records, a different Warner imprint, in April 2002.<\/p>\n

Streaming of \u201cYankee Hotel Foxtrot\u201d began on September 18, 2001, just one week after the attacks of September 11, which happened to have been the original scheduled release date of the album. Fans immediately made connections between the album\u2019s artwork \u2014 which features the two towers of Marina City<\/a> in Wilco\u2019s hometown of Chicago \u2014 and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Furthermore, lyrics such as \u201cTall buildings shake \/ Voices escape\u201d<\/a> and song titles like \u201cWar on War\u201d reminded listeners of the attacks. While coincidental, these connections were all felt as poignant to listeners, who interpreted the album as a meditation on life in uncertain times.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s sparse production \u2014 which features a generous amount of radio static \u2014 and abstract lyrics all contribute a mood of vulnerability almost anyone can relate to. In this context, the elegant towers on the cover take on a more intimate meaning. Like us, they look lost, framed only by a blank insensate sky. \u201cOh distance has no way,\u201d Jeff Tweedy sings, \u201cof making love understandable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Architects: Showcase your next project through\u00a0Architizer<\/a>\u00a0and sign up for our\u00a0inspirational newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When architecture finds its way onto an album cover, buildings get bound up with the music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":66700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"architizer_featured_type":"insert","architizer_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[29],"architizer_project":[],"architizer_brand":[],"architizer_firm":[],"architizer_product":[],"class_list":["post-2609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collections","category-inspiration","tag-play"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n15 Classic Album Covers Featuring Iconic Architecture - Architizer Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/inspiration\/collections\/top-15-album-covers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"15 Classic Album Covers Featuring Iconic Architecture - 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