3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "film still" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 1980s. These covers sit within the rock, alternative, electronic, indie tradition and feature work by David Bowie, The Smiths. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
The stark orange and black profile on Bowie's Low came from a film still of the artist in The Man Who Fell to Earth, creating one of rock's most minimalist and emotionally devastating covers through pure color saturation and negative space.
Morrissey's obsession with 1960s French New Wave cinema birthed one of indie rock's most mysterious covers. The frontman personally selected this enigmatic still from Jean Cocteau's 1946 film Beauty and the Beast, featuring actor Jean Marais in romantic profile.
Morrissey selected a still from the 1964 French film L'Insoumis showing Alain Delon — placing a symbol of Continental glamour on an album attacking the British monarchy was characteristically provocative, a snub to Thatcher-era British institutions.