Plenty of musicians love to pay tribute to their hometowns in song lyrics, but these artists took these tributes a step further, by using album covers that depicted images of their hometowns.
1. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)
Though hardcore pioneers Bad Brains had relocated to New York City by 1979, the cover of their 1982 debut still pays tribute to their hometown of Washington, DC, with an image of the Capitol building being struck by lightning.
2. R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
R.E.M. were just one of many alternative rock bands to come out of Athens, Georgia, which was depicted in the artwork of their debut album Murmur. The back cover features a photograph of an old wooden railroad track that ran through the town, while the front cover features a field in Athens covered in kudzu, a weed that runs rampant all across the south.
3 & 4. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique/To The 5 Boroughs (1989/2004)
The Beastie Boys paid tribute to their hometown of New York City on two of their album covers: 1989's Paul's Boutique and 2004's To The 5 Boroughs. The Paul's Boutique cover features a photograph of Ludlow Street in Manhattan (the building in the photo is now a great gourmet wrap place called Wolfnights, if you're ever in the neighborhood), while the cover of To The 5 Boroughs is an illustration of the New York skyline.
5. Nas - Illmatic (1994)
Though the main focus of the Illmatic cover is the photograph of a young Nas, this image is superimposed over a photograph of a street in the Queensbridge Projects in Queens, where Nas was born and raised.
6. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Since Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released less than a year after the 9/11 attacks (but completed beforehand), its album cover was subject to a minor controversy, as it featured a photograph of two identical towers. The towers photographed for the cover are the Marina City towers in downtown Chicago, Wilco's hometown.
7. William Basinksi - The Disintegration Loops (2002)
Though the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was an inadvertent reminder of 9/11, the cover of William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops series was a direct reference to the attacks. The cover features a still image of a video taken by Basinski of the New York City skyline as the sun set on 9/11, which was the same day that he finished the Disintegration Loops project.
8. Death - ...For the Whole World to See (2009)
Though they didn't achieve as much fame (or rather, notoriety) as the Stooges or the MC5, punk trio Death were another integral part of Detroit's protopunk scene in the 1970s, and for the cover of their unfinished album ...For the Whole World to See, they used an illustration of the Detroit skyline.
9. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (2013)
Philadelphia has more murals than any other U.S. city, and for the cover of his fifth album Wakin On A Pretty Daze, Philly's own Kurt Vile got his own mural, painted by street artist Steve Powers.
What are some other album covers that depict the artist's hometown? Let us know down in the comments section!
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