Red Mosquito

I question any list that doesn't have Ten and S/T in the bottom 3.

The only reason I rank Ten higher than some of the others is that there's actually an original creative impulse behind it and it's not just cut and paste. There's a real sentiment and thematic effort there. While that doesn't make it good, it's not nothing, and it's easily better than aping someone else's work.

To be clear, the Ten cover isn't good.

Riot Act's definitely the best, in my opinion. It manages to be an evocative image in its own right while expertly capturing how it feels to listen to that record (I feel that many album covers, even good ones, tend to only nail one of these).

Something like...

Riot Act
Yield
Vs.
No Code
Binaural
Vitalogy
Backspacer
Lightning Bolt
Ten
Gigaton
S/T

digster wrote:Riot Act's definitely the best, in my opinion. It manages to be an evocative image in its own right while expertly capturing how it feels to listen to that record (I feel that many album covers, even good ones, tend to only nail one of these).

Something like...

Riot Act
Yield
Vs.
No Code
Binaural
Vitalogy
Backspacer
Lightning Bolt
Ten
Gigaton
S/T

Completely agree about Riot Act's cover.

Yield's cover also captures a feeling, that you can then get in a lot of the music.

Anders wrote:Yield's cover also captures a feeling, that you can then get in a lot of the music.

Also true.

Vitalogy
Vs.
No Code
Riot Act
Gigaton
Binaural
Lightning Bolt
Backspacer
Ten
Yield
Pearl Jam

Monkey_Driven wrote:I question any list that doesn't have Ten and S/T in the bottom 3.

I wish I could find the thread where we added avocados to every album cover in the history of music. Good times!

my artwork on vinyl ranking:

01- Riot Act
02- No Code
03- Yield
04- Vitalogy
05- Gigaton
06- Lost Dogs
07- Backspacer
08- Binaural
09- Vs
10- Lightning Bolt
10- Avocado
11- Ten

Ten and Vs are better on cd. Avocado is way better on vinyl.

RockPusher wrote:1. Vitalogy
2. Riot Act
3. Pearl Jam
4. Yield
5. Binaural
6. Gigaton
7. Vs
8. Ten
9. Backspacer
10. No Code
11. Lightning Bolt

If I were ranking Lost Dogs it would be near the top. Love that image.

If what we've seen of Dark Matter is really the cover, I'd rank it 7th behind Gigaton and ahead of Vs

Would be fairly low for me, but much better than their worst cover in Lightning Bolt.

No Code was the highest high in terms of package design.
Stellar work.

Nothing else touches it.

Love the packaging for Vitalogy and No Code.

Avocado is such a dogshit cover. If it's not dead last, there's something seriously wrong with your eyeballs.

Ello Sailor wrote:Avocado is such a dogshit cover. If it's not dead last, there's something seriously wrong with your eyeballs.

The graphic inside the cover was actually decent. Miles ahead of the actual cover.

lightning bolt has my second favorite overall packaging, but the cover is weak

Ranking just album covers


Riot act
Yield
Vs
No Code
Avocado - i like the absurdity of it
Backspacer
Binaural
Dark Matter
Ten
Gigaton
Lightning Bolt

If that is the Dark Matter cover it loses points for being too similar to Binaural.

epilogue wrote:The only reason I rank Ten higher than some of the others is that there's actually an original creative impulse behind it and it's not just cut and paste. There's a real sentiment and thematic effort there. While that doesn't make it good, it's not nothing, and it's easily better than aping someone else's work.

To be clear, the Ten cover isn't good.

Ok but what if the backdrop wasn’t pink. Like what if it was gold or burgundy or something. How about greyscale?