8 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 8 album covers documented under the "vintage" design theme, spanning the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s. These covers sit within the hip-hop, indie, folk, alternative, rock, electronic tradition and feature work by Tyler, The Creator, Feist, The Smiths, The Smashing Pumpkins and others. 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.
Tyler, The Creator designed his own cover for Flower Boy, creating a vibrant polaroid-style collage that perfectly captured his artistic evolution from dark provocateur to colorful creative.
The gorgeous handmade collage adorning Feist's breakthrough album was created entirely from vintage paper cutouts and magazine clippings by designer Kosta Karakashyan, who spent weeks crafting the delicate bird and floral motifs without any digital manipulation.
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 hand-picked a haunting 1960s photograph of actor Shelagh Delaney for this compilation cover, continuing his obsession with forgotten British cultural figures. The stark black and white portrait became one of The Smiths' most enigmatic sleeves.
Billy Corgan commissioned artist Yelena Yemchuk to create a Victorian-era tableau featuring two mysterious figures in elaborate period dress. The resulting photograph became one of the most hauntingly beautiful album covers of the 1990s, perfectly capturing the band's ambitious double album's themes of melancholy and grandeur.
Pearl Jam's third album featured pages torn from an actual 1920s medical textbook, creating one of the most unique and disturbing covers in rock history. The band found the vintage "Vitalogy" book in a thrift store and used its bizarre medical illustrations to reflect their frustration with fame.
Air's dreamy debut featured a mysterious retro-futuristic cover that perfectly captured the album's space-age bachelor pad aesthetic. The vintage-style illustration became an instant icon of late 90s electronic music design.
Jack White drew inspiration from a 1960s circus poster to create one of rock's most playful covers. The vibrant red and pink elephant against stark white background perfectly captured the band's theatrical garage rock aesthetic while maintaining their strict three-color palette.