Brick lane market:

These are my choices from Brick lane market, they have a couple different stalls selling various 7” and 12” vinyls, anything from £1 to £30, and they are probably a bit more recognizable as well as older. Just to recap, it’s only ones that I like the look of on the day and they are only vinyl because they were my favourite, next time it could be c.d. or singles, anything.

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

This was released in 1981 and really launched Grace Jones’s career. It was the first time she appeared with the look that she is now best know for, the high top hair cut, the masculine power suits, it really started the trend for the 80’s disco scene. The look was brought together by Jean-Paul Goude, a French film director with whom Grace Jones has a child, but the cover is well made along with the image, I’ve always noticed the forward slash between the name and title, it’s a really definite mark, much like the aggressive stance, suit and cigarette, it’s a well considered piece of typography, as is the choice of font; tall, lean and sans-serif, the wide kerning and the colour.

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA

The most successful of all Springsteen’s albums and one of the most recognizable images in American popular culture. Released in 1984 born in USA defined American culture that year and gave young men something to identify with. The view of Bruce’s rear end, and the powerful image of the American flag used, but only a very acute close up of it, the white t shirt, blue jeans, red cap, completely encompassing all that is American ‘Cool’. It’s all so simple yet can rarely be done well. Strangely enough, the forward slash is again occurrent, echoing the forceful statement of Grace Jones’ album cover, “This is incredible, it will define you”. The back of Springsteen on the cover beckoning you to follow him forward was photographed by Annie Leibovitz one of the the most famous photographers in the world.

Crosby, Stills and Nash - Allies

A live album from 1983 and one I don’t know very much about. CSN have always been one of those folky groups I just see as a bunch of old grey guys, that Neil Young once played with, But this cover I thought was really cool, the 8 different boxes with their 3 faces in different colour lights, I assume was them trying to copy down different parts of the live set and they are set out in a random order so as to allude to the turbulent nature of a concert. It’s pretty 80’s and I love how distorted the pictures become when they’ve added the colours to the photos. Then there’s the lettering, It’s looks fantastically futuristic, the red “allies” with the shading beneath the box looks like it’s going to take off from the page. It’s a really energetic, appropriate cover for a live album but I also like the juxtaposition that it’s a for a 3 piece acoustic folk act, I think if this cover were for a punk band, I wouldn’t have liked it so much.

David Bowie - David Live

A live album released in 1974, when Bowie was on the “Diamond dogs” tour in America. This cover shows him as the innovator he is, wearing baggy trousers and a shoulder-padded suit long before they were popular. It’s just a live photo, but as with the CSN cover above, the contrast on the picture really appeals to me. The composition of the cover, split down the middle, text one side on top of the photo with the character on the other, is very balanced and pleasing to look at and Bowie’s look of effortless cool is very powerful.

Elvis Costello - This year’s model

Costello’s second album released in 1978 was designed by infamous graphic artist Barney Bubbles. He was an ingenious designer, the mising letters and printers marks on this cover are not a mistake (as was thought when released) and it is a classic Barney Bubbles type of cover, lots of tricks and subtle, subliminal inserts. He did covers for a lot of new wave artists, famously Ian Dury and the blockheads, for whom he did 28 different covers using 28 different wallpapers on the ‘Do it yourself’ LP in 1979. The ‘E’. The ‘T’ go round on to the back cover. The picture of Costello is fantastic in it’s own right, of him turning the camera back on itself and I love the bilateral positioning on the name and title, and the colour taken from the background or perhaps the forehead skin tone.