Just five years ago the UK Postal system introduced a series of ten stamps featuring album art from classic records by British rock bands. Are we behind the times? Yes. Were we around to weigh in on the list when it dropped? No. Now Music Times weighs in on all ten album covers and rank them from 10 to 1 in terms of which serves best as a stamp...both for its aesthetic and its relevance within music culture.
10) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars by David Bowie
There's no question as to the relevance of David Bowie's 1972 album surrounding the iconic Ziggy Stardust character. That said, this is one of Bowie's lamest album covers to date, unless you're a conspiracy theorist who has an idea for the "K. West" sign above the performer's head. Aladdin Sane and Heroes are almost on the same scale from a musical perspective but feature album art far more iconic that that of Ziggy Stardust.
09) Led Zeppelin ("IV") by Led Zeppelin
We'll make the bold statement: No act is as underwhelming in terms of album art in relation to the music that those albums hold than Led Zeppelin. Indeed, IV may be among the most interesting images from the group that the postal service would feel comfortable putting on a stamp—Led Zeppelin's fiery zeppelin and Houses of The Holy's nude figures might push the censorship envelope. In Through The Out Door is easily the band's best album art, but only if you look at both the front and back.
08) Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order
Including New Order among many a more straightforward classic rock band was a bold move on behalf of the Royal Mail and we salute it. The unfortunate fact is that the post-punk classic just features an assemblage of flowers on the front...otherwise known as what stamps tend to have on them anyway when they're not commemorating rock bands. Sad but true.
07) The Division Bell by Pink Floyd
To be honest, the reflecting album art of The Division Bell should be perfect for a postage stamp. We can't, however, in good conscience throw our support behind The Division Bell as the representative for Pink Floyd, the greatest band in progressive rock history and one of the UK's best exports...no Roger Waters means no dice. And was Dark Side of The Moon not available? It's just as well-formatted for a stamp.
06) Parklife by Blur
Oasis may have won the sales battle during the Britpop rivalry but none of its album covers lived up to Blur's greyhound-racing front for 1994's Parklife. Great photo and the rest of the booklet's work lives up to the theme as well. If we hold anything against Blur's classic image...it's just too simple in comparison to the rest of the options listed below. Another critic might rank Parklife at no. 1 for the same reasoning.
05) Screamadelica by Primal Scream
On the other hand, the album art for Primal Scream's Screamadelica, while actually taking more time, is simultaneously almost as simple as Blur's offering. What the dance-rock act had going for it is that this could totally land in MoMa. The medium could be in either acrylic paints or crayons for all we know, and was apparently inspired by a water stain on the ceiling of Creation Records...while under the influence of LSD.
04) Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
Unlike the art for Screamadelica, the art that went into Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells took some time. Trevor Key made the sculpture of a bent tubular bell for the cover, which was then placed to appear as if it's floating in the sky. It may not be the most iconic image among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail but it's certainly one of the most underrated album covers of all time (and Oldfield himself is underrated as a performer of progressive rock).
03) A Rush of Blood to The Head by Coldplay
The artistic process that went into creating the album art for Coldplay's most acclaimed album made the process behind Tubular Bells look like Screamadelica. Artist Sølve Sundsbø covered a model in white makeup and then photgraphed them using a 3D scanner. The resulting 30 cm that the scanner was able to capture provided the incredible image on A Rush of Blood to The Head. That album might not be iconic as of yet but this image should be standard fodder in 20 years from now if justice exists.
02) Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones
Let It Bleed is your correspondent's choice for the best Stones album but there's no arguing the album easily gets the prize for the best album cover in the band's history (okay, someone could argue for Exile On Main Street...but whatever). Another art installment, arranged by graphic designer Robert Brownjohn, features a bizarre cake assembled from a bike tire, mini-pizza, film canister and other circular objects, all about to be placed on a turntable. Totally irreverent and totally beautiful, just like the band.
01) London Calling by The Clash
True, we argued for the sometimes artistic processes that went into the last few albums as a reason as to why they were better for stamps than Park Life. And now we've selected the front of London Calling, just a photo of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his instrument onstage, as the best of the ten iconic images offered by the Royal Mail for postage stamps. It's an album cover that's tough to disagree with. Q magazine named the image the best rock 'n' roll photograph of all time and we're not ones to disagree.
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