I hate the summer for two reasons: firstly I turn redder than an embarrassed raspberry and secondly no one releases albums because it’s festival season. Thankfully I found two which met the high bar set by my fussy self. Above is the Benny Andersson Band cover which does a great job with a simple bit of type nicely placed in an attractive photograph. It’s certainly not a wonderful design we’ll be talking about for weeks here but it’s a solid piece of work that does its job well.

The Engineers album cover...

Another poor week in the world of album cover design. La Roux stands out because of Elly’s hair and I quite like the font used. King Tubby similarly works because of the excellent hand drawn type.
King Tubby, Chicks On Speed, Domu artwork after the jump...

Sorry a bit late this week – I have a good excuse. I became Daddy Rich for the second time on Wednesday morning and everything has been a bit hectic since then. That aside this week’s album covers are all a bit on the thin edge of the wedge. The ones I’ve chosen are of course great but I had to dig pretty deep to find them. I’ve already posted about the Mars Volta artwork here, so they don’t get to be the cover shot again. Instead is the fabulous Future of the Left – mixed in the recording studio beneath my office/studio.
Mars Volta, Dinosaur Jr & Spiro

Some truly horrible artwork out tomorrow from some big names. Black Eyed peas artwork is awful, as is the new Placebo album and the chickenfoot albums. That said the few that stand out and crack’a'lacking. The Dirty Projectors artwork above is simple but very striking.
More album artwork from Bjork, Sonic Youth and Datarock...