Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for August, 2023

Posted August 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

The Summer season is now in full swing and, in many places, it’s a Summer unlike any we’ve ever had weather-wise. Here in Chicagoland, we’ve had a number of days of record heat, with the added bonus of unhealthy air courtesy of the forest fires now burning up large swaths of land in Canada. Will Mankind ever fess up to what it has done to bring us to this point and do what’s needed to reverse this downward spiral, or will we simply do the minimum and hope that we and the rest of the world can adapt and/or come up with a technological solution that precludes us from having to inconvenience ourselves?

What does this have to do with art, you ask? Throughout history, people working in the arts – writers, musicians, painters, poster and comic book artists, etc. – have used their talents to illustrate what’s been on their minds regarding what’s right and wrong with the world. Even in our little corner of the art world, album covers and posters have featured images designed specifically to express an artist’s take on the status quo, with the hopes that these images serve as a wake-up call to those that see them. From Rage Against The Machine’s cover photo on their self-titled debut album of a Buddhist monk who set himself ablaze in protest against corruption in his country (https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/rage-against-the-machine-political-album-cover/) to the apocalyptic cover image of the U.N. in flames found on Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying and even the simple photo of Marvin Gaye looking up to the skies in the rain while asking “What’s Goin’ On?” (along with many others certainly worth mentioning), musical acts and the art directors they’ve worked with have tried to use their abilities to capture and hold the attention of anyone willing to listen so, if you’re like me, all we can hope is that each of us take the time to review, assess and then act on what we all know must be done to keep everyone alive and thriving. I take the time to do this newsletter since I know that there are several thousands of you that enjoy it, but I know that there are many things more important to our everyday lives, so while I appreciate your ongoing support, if one day everyone decided that, rather than read the newsletter, they’d take the time to clean up a local beach or park, help an elderly person do their shopping or attend a “go green” rally, I’d be very happy with that knowledge and not take it the least bit personally.

For now, for those so inclined, I’ll ask you to spend whatever time you’re willing to devote to reading through the ACHOF monthly newsletter to see what your favorite album cover artists might be doing these days to make the world a bit more beautiful, peaceful and musical. I’ve been making progress on a couple of new articles for you – one, an interview with Kenneth FitzGerald about his career and his new book Progress Music (featured in last month’s newsletter) and the other an article about music industry design education that I hope to post in the near future. While you’re waiting patiently for me to finish this work, I’d once again like to remind you that there are scores of interviews available on the ACHOF site, all which have been neatly categorized and reached via the ACHOF “Interviews” Main page – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/album-cover-hall-of-fame-interviews-main-page/  Why not take a moment to take a look there (there’s a handy search box that will help you find what you need), with interviews going back to 2006 with some of your favorite album art-makers. Also, if you have any suggestions for me – ideas for articles, notices about events or adding/editing sections of the newsletter or web site, please feel free to share those with me. I read every email I get (and reply to them all) and really appreciate the feedback as it’s my hope to make this site/news source as good as it can be. For now, let’s get on with this month’s newsletter…

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for August 2021

Posted August 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Entering the second full month of Summer, I find myself a bit perplexed as to how I’m supposed to approach living Life each day. While my wife and I have enjoyed getting out a bit more, we’re still very wary about spending time around our fellow human beings – particularly, the ones who are insisting that “everything’s back to normal” and, as such, looking at those of us still wearing masks as people who are holding back progress in some way. Having recently graduated into “senior citizenry”, I’m now free to become the COF (crotchety old fart) that I prefer to be so, you do your thing and I’ll do mine and, as part of what I’m choosing to do, I’m going to continue to search out items of interest to album cover art fans and share them with you all in my monthly news summaries, regardless of your vaccination status.

This month’s edition of the ACHOF News Update and Summary includes a nice crop of album cover artist/art updates and not one but two examples of ACHOF original content, those being the two interviews I’ve posted with two pairs of creative execs working for Sony Music Entertainment – Frank and Dave and Meghan and Annie – who were kind enough to share their takes on how they have gone about producing several award-winning box sets and special-edition packages. You’ll find links to both of those articles in the “Artist News and Interviews” section of this month’s summary.

Album Cover Art and Artist News Summary for the Month of February, 2017

ALBUM COVER HALL OF FAME’S ALBUM COVER NEWS RECAP FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUary, 2017

by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings from Chicagoland. It’s “awards season”, what with the Grammy Awards, BAFTAs, Writer’s Guild and Independent Spirit Awards and, to end the month with a bang,  the Oscars (followed, in a few months, by another flurry including the Billboard, Tony and BET Awards shows). I don’t know about you, but I’m growing a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of these shows and am somewhat confused as regards their relevance beyond the steady stream of production-related income enjoyed by the folks that stage them…Of course, people should be proud of what they do and want to praise the best examples of work within their respective fields of artistic endeavor, but I find it somewhat sad that some of the most-talented people – those working behinds the scenes, with their credits listed well-down from the top (you know, the part that’s sped through at an impossible-to-read pace during on-screen credit rolls) – are only mentioned in passing or, as we saw during the Oscar telecast, relegated to their own sparsely-attended and covered award ceremonies. Trust me, I understand why this is the case. I mean, who wouldn’t rather see a popular musician’s acceptance speech than hear from the recording engineer or the music video director (or the team that created the group’s logo and album cover), so that’s what sponsors and fans expect to see during an award show telecast. I guess that we fans of cover art can only take solace in the fact that you’ll probably see many more people wearing Dark Side of the Moon t-shirts than clothing emblazoned with a photo of Katy Perry thanking her fans, the label, her manager and her accountant for their support…

Interview with Isle of Man PO’s Paul Ford on The Islands and Bridges Stamp Set by Roger Dean

Interview with Paul Ford, Stamps & Coins Coordinator, Isle of Man Post Office (UK) about the Islands & Bridges stamp set by Roger Dean

 

by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

This past August, I reported on an art show that was taking place on the Isle of Man built around the works of artist Roger Dean.  With a portfolio that includes not only album cover imagery but (both alone and working with his talented brother Martyn) stage designs, architecture, calendars and a wide variety of merchandise, Dean’s fantastic work continues to impress fans with its ability to transport you to places beyond the imagination. He has worked in many different media, creating designs and illustrations for commercial and fine art customers, including several  architectural designs he’s done of dream-like living spaces and furnishings.

In addition to this show – titled Islands & Bridges – that ran through mid-November at the Manx Museum – a National Heritage organization on the U.K.’s Isle of Man – Dean’s works served as the basis for a collection of postage stamps produced by the Isle’s Postal Service, an organization that has gained a world-wide following of collectors who have been impressed with their previous series of collectibles, including specially-commissioned stamps featuring quintessential U.K. and Isle of Man subjects such as the works of the Aardman animation studio (Morph, Wallace & Gromit and Shaun The Sheep), artist Matt Sewell’s illustrations of birds and, of course, the Isle of Man TT motorcycle races.