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)

Passport ‘Iguacu’ (1977) Photography and painting by Inge Doldinger. I can quite figure out whether this cover is part photo, part painting, part montage or just that the image is of bad quality so it appears soft and slightly out of focus making it play tricks with my mind, the landscape looks like it’s turned upside down. Either way it’s great. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

‘Mickie D’s Unicorn’ (1979) Cover painting by Arnd Maibaum. There’s a nice quote on the back of this, concerning the cover art: “The front cover shows the work of Arnd Maibaum, a painter who - like Mickie D - lives in Berlin, too. The painting is titled “The Two Elements: Air And Rock”. There are a lot of parallels between the painting and the music: the space, the combination of rock and sky, and the gentle oriental touch.” Klaus Schulze. For me it’s the surreal composition of the image and the colours - there’s something beautiful about the yellow and blue together. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

Zodiac ‘Music In The Universe’ (1982) Cover design by M. Argalis/J. Truls. Love the painting style on this, reminds me of a mural my dad once painted on my wall as a child, I always found him inspiring creatively. (Mat Maitland, Leopard Tree Dream)

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)