My Top 25 Best Album Covers

...decided by me (naturally).

Originally thought of an exercise in personal nostalgia, pretentious, self-serving narcissism and, ultimately, futility, I reconsidered when I realized that many (of you, dear reader) who know me and my artwork/photography (or perhaps no nothing like that about me) might be interested in seeing what very few people have seen. While While I'm certain that nobody but me has heard/endured my entire back catalogue, I'm also pretty sure I can count on one hand those who have seen all of the accompanying "artwork." I've shared my very late albums with friends over the years while hiding the older more embarrassing ones from most everyone else (unless they were involved with it, of course). In many cases, though, the artwork was slightly less embarrassing than the music that went with it, and in some cases quite good, that I thought perhaps a few of you (okay, maybe just one) would be ticked to look at these and not roll your eyes too far back upon reading my accompanying comments. Essentially I was hoping enough of you were curious enough to know what I had done, or if you had been following what I've done, what I've been up to since to warrant this effort. (Sadly, since 2008, not much has happened, at least musically. I've a few recordings that would go towards a new album: a live piece and an electo-acoustic one - both 10 minutes long - and a few piano-pieces-which-may-become-songs, two movements of a planned three-movement piano piece - unperformed - as well as several other never-performed pieces, the most substantial being my doctoral essay orchestral piece, not likely to be recorded any time soon, or ever. Thus, this is the longest musical hiatus I've had in terms of writing, playing and recording music since I began. Tragic, I know.

Between the years of 1985 and 2008 I created 101 album covers. Actually, make that 99, since a friend of mine, Alec Pettifer, with whom I collaborated on a few, did deign to design two of my covers without my assistance. In addition, there were three other images using the Omega (Ω) logo which I never used as covers. Many of these I created in batches before the music was written or recorded, and so oftentimes had little or nothing visually to do with the music. So this is not a ranking of my best albums; I am looking at only the front cover art. (Once again, several late albums featured unique back cover art and disc label art, and none of these are being considered in the ranking, regardless how good they are.)

Obviously most of my covers (76!) did not make the cut here, so what were my standards? Who cares! I'm voting for my own favorite cover art here! I notice I did tend to favor the more recent ones, I tried to include examples from other periods of my output as well. Sometimes there were better ideas than represented here, but fell flat in terms of execution. Some were well-done but uninteresting. And so, for what it is worth, are the top 25. But first, an honorable mention! Because I was going cross-eyed with the Roman Numerals in my album titles, I mistakenly chose this one as #22 (when I did not), but upon seeing it I did not bat an eye, which means it COULD have been in 22nd place. I think it made the top 30-or-so before I weeded them out. Probably several other covers could have been contenders or better for this spot.

And so, without further comment on it, is my HONORABLE MENTION:

This album is from 1987, on par with several of my decent covers at that time. I probably did cut up a cutout of the omega template to make this fragmented version. The title (if you can read it) states that it is a collection of older material, but not a "greatest hits" collection - oh no. It is so-titled to differentiate it from that breed of collection. Rather, this is the second compilation that attempts to distill even further the best cuts from the previous three "hits" albums, the effect being that I am casting a wider net over my output to cull my best material; if I had true hits, this would be a more accurate representation, occurring every nine "studio" albums, at least initially. But, moving on.....

THE LIST OF MY TOP 25 ALBUM COVERS:

#25: Ω I - "beginnings" (1985)

I will admit that this cover was a strategic choice, but it would not seem right NOT to include the very first appearance of the logo I chose to adorn my album cover in some way or another (though as you will see I broke this trend a few times years later). Here it is in as basic and unadorned a presentation as it will ever get (aside from what I did 10 years later on my 77th album: "Decade," in which my first album cover appears as a negative image, drawn in crayon again, of course). Nothing special, really, except trying to establish something as iconic as an 8th-grader could muster. Stylistically it is most similar to Chicago's monochromatic beige 4th album "Live at Carnegie Hall" - an album that left quite an impact at the time when I learned there was more to the band (jazz? long solos?) than the Cetera-sung power ballads then popular on the radio. In that case this was the 3rd incarnation of their "famous" logo, which I would learn decades later - and perhaps you are learning now - was meant to capture the look and feel of the ubiquitous Coke logo. Drawn in pencil and colored in crayon (from a cardboard cutout stencil I had made to keep the logo identical on subsequent album covers), it never got more basic than this. The music, too, was very basic (and poorly performed/recorded) with only drums and vocals. Ugh, I know. Hey, we all had to start somewhere. Although a year or two previously I had "composed" a piece on my uncle's piano in Waco, TX (which would later surface as "Tune No. 1"), it would be another year before I would be presented with a piano of my own. Thanks, mom and dad!

Sadly, this was NOT my first album. There was actually a previous one which for some reason I felt needed to be redone completely (what were the standards?!?!?) so I ended up RECORDING OVER IT! Prior to that I recorded three parodies in the vein of "Weird" Al Yankovic that I did myself or with my sisters: a song each by Michael Jackson, Van Halen, and... wait for it... Barry Manilow. I'll let you wonder what the songs were or how I parodied them. Oh well - such a loss to the music world. There was no cover, for that album, so no lost artwork.

#24: Ω LX - MOISTURE (1992)

I'm not sure why this cover always stood out in my mind as a good one, so I made sure it just squeezed in this top 25 list. Perhaps because of its whimsical simplicity and change from the original logo (which was not the first time this happened), the zen-like brush strokes and minimal color palate. Strange title, I know. Features a lot of early "serious" music and assignments performed "live" at Rowan University, then still called Glassboro State College.

#23: Ω II: "stories" (1985)

Dipping once again back at the very beginning is my 2nd album in 23rd place. It shows my very first alternate setting of the original omega symbol featured on the first album. Simple yet effective, it would only get stranger from here (sometimes better, many times WORSE!). Since I like comparing to album covers by other bands, I can't help but note the similarity between this and Gentle Giant's "The Missing Piece" from 1977, I think, although this is over a decade before I even heard of them or saw that cover. Musically, however, it is still extremely elementary and low quality, the only sounds heard being drum and vocals. Can you imagine?

#22: Ω XVI - (comeback) (1986)

Another early cover, probably my most ornate at the time. Perhaps because of the gaudy, baroque detail and time it took to draw and color (again, in crayon!) that I chose this one for 22nd place. The title refers to the fact that this album was my "big return" after the previous album which I imagined, for some bizarre reason, would be my last (did I expect that much of a change upon entering high school, the preceding summer during which this album is placed?), even though only a few months had intervened!

#21: Ω XXVIII - "Just listen to it." (1987)

The last of my "very early" covers to make this list, with a rather commanding but dopey title. Perhaps because this cover was considered by many who saw it to be influenced by Eddie van Halen's guitar, though I don't remember this being the case. In my mind I was just looking for more abstract ways to depict the omega symbol.

#20: Ω LXXII - STAGES (1994)

And now into the top 20! Yes, I know we've all drawn this shape before, as have I several times. I guess it was how I garnished it that give it that classic high-school cheesy coolness charm. This is one of my first post Hygh Risque (pronounced "risk," not "risqué") - a band I played with briefly - albums.

#19: Ω XXXV - stilll (1988)

My 35th cover I consider one of my more interesting hand-drawn creations. Quite fantastical and, dare I say, "surreal," in the wrap-around morphing manner you see, with little verbal oddities here and there. Yes, there are three L's in the title (why? - who knows! Maybe I meant it to be said with a lingering on that consonant). Although this ranking is not about by best titles (which this album is not anyway), it is interesting to note that Tony Banks from Genesis, both of whom I followed, released a solo album with the same title. But with just two L's.

#18: Ω LXXV - GREATEST HITS VOL. XVII (1995)

Why? Because it has PAISLEYS! (with an eyeball) Enough said.

#17: Ω LXXIII - ECHOES (1995)

At 17th place is album number 73. What you will notice is that this cover appears to be NEEDLEPOINTED. And you know what? You'd be right! It also happens to be my first and only attempt at such an endeavor. The musical milestone here is technological: the introduction of my Tascam 4-track. Here come the drums and vocals again (for better or worse).

#16: Ω LIV - "Rendtion" (1991)

The 54th album cover is definitely a bit silly, and my attempt at one of those "negative space" shapes, of you-know-what, naturally. Clumsily drawn in pencil and marker (probably old-fashioned CARBON PAPER to get an identical mirror shape) it represents some of the better efforts of my late adolescence. Probably drawn years before the music was made for it, the recording eventually was my 2nd all-Korg-M1 keyboard effort while at Penn State. A hot keyboard at the time, I made this using the second such keyboard I borrowed from someone as I hadn't yet bought my own. The innovation was the direct-line recording which eliminated the nasty his and signal degradation that plagued my "acoustic" recordings any sort of overdubbing, but this was at the expense of no longer having "real" instruments, and the most missed (for me at least) was the drums, not to return until I purchased a 4-track. Wait, I thought this was supposed to be about the cover art.....

#15: Ω LXXXVIII - Unauthorized Entry Only (2000)

In the 15th spot is one of my final hand-drawn-on-paper (with pencil and marker) covers, crating a slight 3-D effect. I think this album has the distinction of having the longest Roman Numeral, and the shortest number of tracks: three. No, wait, that would be a tie with my "Scary Stuff" album (with a brick wall and Ω as graffiti, that didn't make this list). But this one DOES have the longest track, a mostly unedited hour-long jam with me, Phil Schuessler and Tim Stutts, the first of many we did. I say "largely" unedited because it was actually 10 minutes longer and I faded in and out to make room for the other two pieces! But more on the art: recall that the idea for my cover art, including the Roman Numerals, came from the band Chicago? Imagine my surprise then upon experiencing the coincidence of having just reviewed this album that I received in the mail my purchase of Chicago's most recent album, with a very similar cover, stylistically (in B&W), 14 years after I did mine. I guess it was bound to happen.