QotD: Art over Music

What are your three favorite album covers of all-time? Any honorable mentions?

Question submitted by Tamara.

While there aren't my favorite three album covers of all time, they're all gorgeous and memorable in their own ways.

Something beautiful by the inimitable Jay Ryan of the Bird Machine. I love the colors, the wavy  air lines, the way the typography flows,  and the tiny bits of character that pop up in his work. The attention to detail is amazing.  He's also done a ton of show posters for Chicago area events, a series of drawings for the last Andrew Bird album, and has a book out, which I highly recommend.

This is the cover of Okkervil River's second album, as done by William Schaff. Schaff will forever be associated with Okkervil River and Will Sheff to me, since that is how I was first exposed to his lovely artwork. Schaff has done pretty much every single Okkervil release since, and taken as a body of work, it's really impressive. His figures tend to be dark, heartbreakin, poignant, and oftentimes frightening; this is one of his more lighthearted drawings. I love the tiny stitched heart on the chest of the shirt, and the broken guitar on the musician's back.

And lastly, Neko Case.

While Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is probably her best work, this album cover is incredibly evocative in the way she's fallen on her hands, her mouth is slightly open, the way her hair falls on her face.