Yes ‘Time And A Word’ (1970) Design Graphreaks. Illustration unknown. I promise my next post will not have a naked woman on it, this is 4 in a row now. I can’t seem to find who illustrated this one and my copy doesn’t have any credits on it being a Russian pressing. Most editions of this record used a black and white version of this image but the colour one is so much better. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Cerrone ‘Brigade Mondaine’ OST (1979) Design/Photography Unknown. Great collage and colour palette on this. Another film soundtrack cover which I just came across and had to buy, I’d never seen it before. The film was known as Vice Squad outside of France which explains the double title on the cover. I like a bit of mis-matched font action, looks cool. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Mark Almond ‘Other Peoples Rooms’ (1978) Art Concept and Design by Jon Mark, Chuck Beeson and Jeff Ayeroff. Photography by Mark Hanauer. I really love these kind of voyeuristic scenes. This sleeve reminds me (although predates it dramatically) of a Chloé campaign from about 10 years ago which I adored (I think it was shot by Taryn Simon), not to mention Hitchcock’s Rear Window, one of my favourite movies. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Théorème / Musique Du Film (1968) Design Unknown. I could do a blog solely on film soundtrack covers, there’s so many amazing ones. Most simply re-use the film poster imagery but this one is a little more creative in the way it uses film stills set against black. It has an almost silk-screened/collaged feel to it. This blog isn’t about the music but I have to mention that this soundtrack is partly by Ennio Morricone. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Elton John ‘Blue Moves’ (1976) Art Direction by David Costa. Cover painting ‘The Guardian Readers’ by Patrick Procktor. Sometimes it’s easy to forget some great covers from artists who have had long careers, especially if the album in question isn’t one often referred to. Anyway, this cover, using a painting by Procktor is great and reminiscent of David Hockney who was a contemporary. Funnily enough we have just been working on sleeves at Big Active for a new Elton John project which is exciting. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Prince ‘Sexuality/Controversy’ (1981) Design/Photography unknown. This reminds me of the sleeves from the ‘Parade’ campaign where all the shots were black and white against a white background, although the theme of that album was much more sophisticated, infused with the spirit of the French Riviera in the 1930’s. This image is much more raw and sleazy which was key to his look in the early 80’s. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Grace Jones ‘Warm Leatherette’ (1980) Photography and design by Jean Paul Goude. Before this blog comes to an end I’m sure I’ll have posted all of Grace Jones’ covers, they’re all great (apart from maybe her latest album) - the perfect union of art v pop. This particular sleeve by Goude is less ubiquitous than some of his other classic sleeves for her but I love the grain and spontaneity of the shot. I recently saw the Jean Paul Goude retrospective in Paris which was incredible and confirmed how special he is to me. He seems to have an insatiable appetite for new ideas, all explored across a wide range of visual worlds - photography, film, sculpture, art, fashion, music, advertising. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream) 

Les Supers Jaguars De La Martinique ‘Cracher Difé’ Sleeve by Yrag. I bought this sleeve in Paris. I say sleeve because there was no record with it. It was lying, abandoned on the floor of a record store and I asked if I could buy it, it cost 1€. It’s a beautiful sleeve and I love the primal nature of the drawing style, combined with the leopards (actually maybe they’re Jaguars). (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

R.A.F. ‘The Heat’s On’ (1981) Art Direction by Michael Ross. Cover image by René Magritte. Obviously I am only posting this cover because it features a painting by Magritte, whom I love and find very inspiring. I’m amazed that they were able to get permission but maybe things were easier in ‘81. This particular painting is called ‘The Pleasure Principle’ (named after Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory) which is also the title of a great Jam & Lewis track for Janet Jackson and a Gary Numan album (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)  

Clover ‘Unavailable’ (1977) Cover Design and Art by Barney Bubbles. This is a lesser known sleeve by Barney Bubbles, designer of many classic sleeves for The Damned, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury. It’s beautiful, albeit in a graphically brutal way with it’s limited, precise use of colour and subject matter. The typography alone is fantastic. You can see more about Bubbles here  (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Lea Roberts ‘Lady Lea’ (1975) Art Direction by Bob Cato. Photography by Doug Metzler. Design by Beverly Parker. I’m always hooked on a cover featuring a cat, although most of the time they are not very good sleeves. This is great though, quite surreal and really simple. It almost beats Amon Düül’s Only Human sleeve (which I posted last year) but not quite - well, on that one a cat is lighting a cigarette, it can’t really be bettered! (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

R.A.F. ‘R.A.F.’ (1980) Art Direction by Chuck Beeson. Illustration by Charles White III. Design by Willardson & White. I came across this one from a guy called Ed Vince, actually this is what’s great about having the blog, that people show me great sleeves I may not have seen before. It took a while to track it down. This is illustrated by master airbrush artist Charlie White III. Love the speckled background and for those of you who know my work, you’ll know I love the sky. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

George Duke ‘Rendezvous’ (1984) Cover painting (‘The Great Pyramid’) by Mati Klarwein. Art Direction by Lane/Donald. Victor, a very good friend from Paris, sent me this sleeve a while ago, thinking I would like it. He was right. It’s an incredible painting with an intense level of detail which could only really be effective on an LP sleeve. It has a textile quality to it almost like it’s been embroidered. You could get lost in it’s beauty. Thanks Victor! (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree dream)

Weather Report ‘Mr. Gone’ (1978) Illustrations by Lou Beach. Design by Nancy Donald. It’s been a while since I posted a front and back cover but both are great on this record. Done years before Jeff Koons, or me for that matter, were creating collage images. The colours are beautiful. Some of the cut-outs on the cover are pretty seemless and smooth and in the 70’s this must have been a very intricate process of hand retouching. This is from 1978 again, weird. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Leonard Feather Presents Encyclopedia Of Jazz On Records - Vol. 5 (1974) Art Direction by George Osaki. Design by Roger Dyer. Illustration by Mick Haggerty. This is from a series of records, all of which show different home environments through 2 windows. I love the diagramatic style and shading quality of the image. Haggerty also illustrated the cover for Supertramp’s ‘Breakfast In America’.