By Carol Green, courtesy of Design Assembly

By Carol Green, courtesy of Design Assembly

When I embarked on this post for NZ Music Month, I posed the question to various musicophiles (?) “What is your favourite NZ album cover and why?”. Expecting one-liners from most people, I was amazed by the depth and detail of the majority of replies I got, which perhaps reflects the passion the respondents have for their music collections.

So here’s the highlights.

Zoë Nash, artist and DA contributor, reckons she has never bought an album based on its cover, unlike books and magazines. Her NZ favourites include the 2011 eponymous release by Pajama Club. “I love the stark colour palette and simple repetition, reflective of music and drum beats, also how the typography is embedded within the imagery.

Zoë also mentions True Colours by Split Enz. This cover came (eventually) in eight different colour combinations, not the only Split Enz album to take advantage of a marketing opportunity.

Silke Hartung, musician, graphic designer and host of bFM’s Freak The Sheep, chose the appropriately high-colour orange and purple version of Spellbound.

While we’re still on Split Enz,Roxanne Hawthorne, graphic designer (and designer of one of my faves, SJD’s 2007Songs from a Dictaphone), chose Waiata (1981) for its “…perfect colour palette combined with simple graphics” as well as Stroke – Songs for Chris Knox fundraiser compilation for its “…simplicity and clever use of materials. A fine example of creativity married with a decent budget."

Let’s not forget Chris Knox is also an artist as well as a musician.

Russell Brown, media commentator and owner of Public Address chose Knox’s cover for The Clean’s Boodle Boodle Boodle (1981). The drawing is “…based on (and thoroughly transcending) a promo photograph of the band in a bath… it conjures the atmosphere of the time—one where records could be made in halls and houses… and sleeves, posters and videos were the work of friends or of the band members themselves. Chris Knox has long insisted that those early Flying Nun records shouldn’t be characterised as “low-fi”, but “low-tech”—and that’s what we see here. It’s a virtuoso drawing with a pen.”

One of the common threads that appeared in responses was cover art by band members. Are these common through financial necessity or successful because only a band member is sufficiently immersed in the music to properly reflect it on the cover?

Jackson Perry, photographer and overseer for Capture blog, chose the 1986 Jean Paul Sartre Experience EP. “This came out while I was working at bFM, and it is still one of my favourite records 27 years later. The cover by Gary Sullivan [the drummer] has always appealed, partly for the front artwork, but also the cheeky back side [shown here], with its cut out heads and cherubs. The band were kind enough to embellish my copy too.”

Robyn Gallagher, she of the mammoth-endurance 5000 Ways To Love You project chose The 3Ds’ The Venus Trail (1993). The cover was hand-drawn by guitarist and vocalist David Mitchell. “It depicts chaotic goings-on in the main street of a town reminiscent of the 3Ds’ home of Dunedin. But that’s not all. Mitchell drew the cover with his left hand as drawing with his right hand has just become too easy, too predictable. I love the colourful yet gothic feeling to the cover, a perfect match to the cool, crazy and crunchy music inside.”

Jonathan Ganley, photographer of all things musical at point that thing chose another cover-by-band-member, Snapper‘s 12" EP from 1988. “…This cover is a simple and effective statement of intent. The title type is big, bold and sans-serif… reversed out from the abstract painting by Christine Voice [keyboards and vocals]. I remember a reviewer saying that the music was a wall of sound to complement the wall of colour on the cover. Exactly right—a shimmering sound meets hard slashes of horizontal paint…”

Peter McLennan, musician, graphic designer and music writer had predictable trouble choosing one favourite and kept sending me extra bits and pieces right up until the last minute. Here are his highlights:

Whats’ Be Happen? by Herbs. “Their 1981 debut album, with a dramatic cover photo of the police evicting protestors off Bastion Point, in 1978… made a bold statement about where Herbs were at politically, at a time when Maori land rights were only just coming to wider attention.”

Pot Pourri by the Howard Morrison Quartet (1960). “I first saw this on the back cover of the book Stranded in Paradise: New Zealand rock’n'roll, 1955-1988 by John Dix. It’s such a great set up for a photo shoot.”

Poi E by the Patea Maori Club (1987). “The album apparently took so long to come out because they were waiting on the cover art, drawings by Joe Wylie, from the animated movie Maui.”

Kingsley Melhuish, musician, chose Quiver by Neill Duncan (1999). “It features a demonic portrait of Neill which reflects the edgy album that it is.”

Martyn Pepperell, music and arts writer, radio host and DJ chose Scratch 22's Distance From View (2011). ”…Bob van der Wal created the artwork in response to the music. In turn, Scratch 22 created their psychedelic spaghetti western beat music… in response to, alongside a lifetime of diverse influences, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s seminal art movie El Topo (1970). I love the way the image finds a space somewhere between painting and photography, and at the same time, the level of referencing is impressive as well. While it speaks directly to Jodorowksy’s visual aesthetic, it also connects with 80s and 90s graffiti culture. When folded together, all of the above is an apt metaphor for the soundworld Scratch 22 explores. … There is an explicit synergy at work here, a synergy between look and sound that sits together in resplendent, yet weird, harmony.”

Ron Mackie, radio producer and past owner of Te Awamutu’s RAM Records chose nostalgia over aesthetics, thinking back to being “a bit of a bleak lad” and idolising Danse Macabre as “a Kiwi equivalent to Joy Division”. He mentions the starkness of the artwork for Between the Lines cover and leaves us with two questions: “I never did find out what the numbers represented… can anyone help? Equally the album was pinched at a party once and I would love to have it back, so if anyone has a signed copy of Danse Macabre’s Between the Lines and don’t know where you got it from, can I have it back please?”

What are your favourites?

Written by Design Assembly contributor, Carol Green who says, "Huge thanks to all my generous contributors, you left me with a surplus of words…"