Rolling Stone’s “The 100 Best Album Covers of All Time”

Today, Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-album-covers-1235035232/ published a list of the 100 best album covers of all time, showcasing a broad spectrum of artists and genres. Growing up with vinyl, the artwork on the albums in our house provided me with my first taste of something subversive and edgy.

Among many standouts, the one album that captivated me the most was Talking Heads’ 1980 masterpiece, "Remain in Light." This seminal album excelled both sonically and conceptually. The cover art was as experimental as the music inside, with the band members using Department of Defense and MIT technology to create digital red “masks” that obscured and delightfully distorted their portraits. Complementing this were the sublime and genius typography and art direction choices of Tibor Kalman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibor_Kalman https://www.eleanormayrhofer.com/blog/inspiration-tibor-kalman resulting in something wholly unique and arresting.

Talking Heads were one of my all-time favorite bands, and for me, this album signaled to the world that a new sound was emerging, The Head's were a force to be reckoned with, and things were about to get real.

A perplexing omission from the list was probably one of my favorite album cover designers (Pink Floyd), Storm Thorgerson https://www.stormstudiosdesign.com I think his work is quite stunning, and I would have loved to have seen a few of his masterpieces on the list.