L.A. Boppers ‘Bop Time’ (1981) Art Direction by Art Sims/Eleven Twenty-Four Design, PTL. Design by Barry Grimes. Photography by Elliot Gilbert/Dave Randle. Model by Art Sims. Watch sculpture by Nick Fasciano. Special effects by Daniel. I agree this sleeve is a delicate balance between amazing and awful, some of you might hate it but it falls into the former category for me, it’s insanely amazing!! It’s also got some of the longest credits I’ve ever seen for cover art. It’s Bop Time! (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Martin Briley ‘One Night With A Stranger’ (1983) Art Direction by Bill Levy and Murray Whiteman. Design by Lumel Whiteman Studio. Illustration by Stan Watts. This is an incredible sleeve, a great piece of photographic-illustration by Stan Watts. Without reading the credits I would have sworn it was by Hipgnosis, it reminds me their work on Scorpions ‘Lovedrive’ sleeve from 1979. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Heatwave ‘Candles’ (1980) Art Direction by Tom Drennon Design. Illustration by Steve Wright.  

Van Morrison ‘Beautiful Vision’ (1982) Cover concept, photography and design by Rudi Legname. I kind of hate the title of this record, it weakens the cover art a bit, being so literal in it’s interpretation but I love the image which is very unexpected for an artist like Morrison, I could easily imagine it being used on a poster for the film ‘Starman’ or ‘Star Trek’. I wish it was full bleed, although this layout does have a kind of classical feel to it which is nice. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Rockets ‘Galaxy’ (1980) Painting by Wojtek Siudmak. Graphics by Jean-Jacques Mahuteau. Sorry for the silence, I’ve been on holiday for 3 weeks. Found this one on my travels. I try to stay away from the obvious fantasy stuff on this blog (Yes, Asia etc) but sometimes it’s amazing, especially when combined with some cool typography. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream) 

Jackson Browne “Lawyers In Love’ (1983) Art Direction & Design by Jimmy Wachtel/Dawn Patrol. Photography by Matti Klatt. Not sure who did the montage on this, there’s only a photography credit. This could be a film poster for an 80’s Chevy Chase movie. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Weather Report ‘Heavy Weather’ (1977) Illustration by Lou Beach. Design by Nancy Donald. Love the autumnal colouring to this sleeve, it’s like a collage I would have done maybe 10 years ago but actually this was done 6 years after I was born and I never even saw it till a few weeks ago. This was created by the same team that did the ‘Mr. Gone’ cover I posted a while back. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Mazarati ‘Mazarati’ (1986) Photography by Nancy Brandt. Design by Laura Li Puma. Logo design by Margo Chase. This is a lesser known Prince side project from the Parade era. I amost didn’t post it thinking it was a bit naff but now I’ve decided that I love it. It’s like an 80’s version of Grace Jones’s ‘Bulletproof Heart’ which can’t be a bad thing. Designed by Prince’s erstwhile sleeve designer Laura Li Puma, I’ve always loved that name, along with the late Clare Fischer his often used string arranger, they could both be characters from a Prince song. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Kraftwerk ‘Autobahn’ (1974) Sleeve by Kling Klang Studio. This is the UK sleeve (the original being a painting) for Autobahn and like their music, way ahead of it’s time. A piercingly simple and graphically brutal sleeve echoing the precision and clarity of their music and the efficiency of the Autobahn itself. I always thought this was the original sleeve but it’s actually the painted version that came first. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

There’s a great article (thanks to Eric Kleptones) about the origins of the cover here

Stomu Yamashta ‘Go Live From Paris’ (1976) Cover by Tony Wright & Stomu Yamashta.

Omega ‘Gammapolis’ (1978) Design and illustration by István Nyári. Another sleeve from 1978! It’s so weird how many sleeves I have from this year. This is great, almost like an old film poster. Reminds me of The Jacksons ‘Victory’ album sleeve (posted here last year). Luckily for you I’m not showing the back cover, which is awful. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Pages (1978) Photography by Richard Dunkley. Design by Rod Dyer Inc. You can almost see the 80’s coming in this sleeve, with it’s paint effect background/border, which is reminiscent of Luther Vandross’s ‘Give Me The Reason’ album cover. The typography however, is pure 70’s. I can forgive the clunky concept of the image because of the quality of the photography - the use of deep pink satin in the dress - the blue background - the glass furniture - the great crop. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream) 

Elephant’s Memory (1972) Photography by Peter Beard. Design by Michael Gross. This cover uses imagery from the photographer, artist, diarist and sometime Manhattan socialite Peter Beard, who’s haunting documentation of Elephant hunting in Africa form quite a large part of his work. I’ve always been fond of his collaged work, where he combined diaries written in blood and photographs of African game, sometimes juxtaposed with fashion models. He’s an interesting character. My wife and I actually met him a few years ago in the South of France, where he has a house. 

Prince ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’ (1987) (Design/Photography uncredited but probably…) Art Direction by Laura LiPuma. Photography by Jeff Katz. When this came out everyone thought it was Prince on the cover but in actual fact it was his new dancer/rapper Cat. I love how he continually blurred the divide between gender, race and musical genres. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Osibisa ‘Osibirock’ (1974) Cover painting ‘Negro Attacked by a Jaguar’ by Henri Rousseau. Art Direction by Ed Thrasher. Design by Gribbitt. A sleeve featuring a painting by one of my favourite artists who influenced the cover art for one of my favourite albums - Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tango In The Night’. He’s been the inspiration for some of my latest collage work as well. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)