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.

#14: Ω 99 - Greatest Hits Vol. 22 (2007)

Though the lowest-ranked of my final batch of "photograph/Photoshop" covers, I still like this image. Accomplished by keeping the shutter open while "writing" on a bush (lit by a red flashlight) with a green laser pointer (the strong kind astronomers use that you aren't supposed to aim at aircraft - or anyone's eyes!). Taken during a long road trip (for astronomy and sight-seeing) in Seligman, Arizona, just off old route 66 by a rail line as dawn approached. And no, the "vol. 22" is not some joke - it really is my 22nd "regular" collection of what I considered my "best" (usually with a commercial leaning) material, which usually happened every three albums, but by this point I did every four albums, which actually was tricky because also at this point the material was so much better that I was leaving good stuff out when once I was including some questionable tracks just to make a complete album. Silliness. Note that the usual Roman Numeral is replaced by the more common Arabic. Sometimes I wondered if I was doing the Roman Numerals correctly, but in the case of the last several albums it was a stylistic choice and not wanting to appear too highfalutin.

#13: Ω LIX - NOTHING ORCHESTRAL INTENDED (1992)

This is obviously my homage to M. C. Escher, and though it is done in humble pencil, crayon and marker, I did have to design the shapes to worked interlocked! Needs more color, though, and I think they are already enhanced here from the original. (The "irony" of the title is that there were very much indeed orchestral intentions - albeit electronically realized with new sound cards for my Korg M-1 - as heard in a couple tracks.)

#12: Ω LXXXVII - Millennium Madness (The Extent Of Mine Is The Title Of This Album) (2000)

Excusing the long title, this cover is the first of a brief return to hand-drawn images on paper (after some lame and clumsy computer-generated images using software I completely forget, while on break from student-teaching in a computer lab in Lindenwold, NJ - I actually remember this stuff), which lasted for only five covers before changing completely to computerized images (using Photoshop), one of which you've recently seen and the rest of which you will see soon. This one always struck me as a quite handily drawn (using black and gold pens and pencil) abstract rendering of an obscured Ω. The music is a hodge-podge of pieces I had been working on and recording while in Miami, including an orchestral piece (my Master's Thesis!), some live group improvisations and the humorous "How Do Udu®?" which implores the line: "Aigg Sa-laaaaaaahd!!!" As far from a "pop" album as you can get, folks.

#11: Ω LXI - Greatest Hits, Vol. XIV (1992)

A fantastical "drawing" created using the "scratch off" technique on an appropriate material. As far as I know this is the only such image I've done in this exact manner (I did something similar using Cray-Pas in overlaid colors, which didn't make the top-25 cut). The Ω symbol appears in duplicate in a new guise as an OBVIOUS (ha!) portal of some kind through which a rather bizarre character is moving. Hmm.....

#10: Ω xcii - microscape (2001)

In 10th place is my second Photoshop cover, and my first collaboration with Alec Pettifer (whose computer we created this on, and I the previous and higher-ranking 91st album) while visiting him in South Korea (!) - since he was more familiar with the software he helped me realize this unusual cover as well as contribute ideas of his own. I believe the large splotch is a very manipulated photograph of a patch of mold/mildew on his wall! The other photo used, believe it or not, is of the Omega symbol on one of my previous albums (58 or 65 - I can't remember) which is barely recognizable as the "raised" shape that covers most of the right side of the image (and only part of the Ω shape is visible).

#9: Ω LXXVIII - bampowsnapcracklepopcrash (trendy title) (1996)

This cover is one of the few "sand art" pictures I've done - the kind where you cut and remove a surface material to reveal an adhesive upon which you then pour colored sand. Unique in materials used as well as the image itself which I've always thought highly of, which is simply a clumsy block omega symbol in a repeating tiled design. I guess it represented a more mature planning and careful execution than earlier covers. Another "breakthrough" album, musically, being the first FULLY realized set of songs using my then-new Tascam 4-track cassette recorder.

#8: Ω XCVII - More (Meaning Less) (2004)

For those keeping track, this is the cover of the album that features the "infamous" song "Cheese on Fire." It is another collaboration with Alec Pettifer (see below) although in this case he helped by providing the raw materials, location and preparation of the Ω logo in metal, made from a torch-heated and bent rod. The tiles are these corroded and dirty metal plates we found at his grandfather's garage, and the nuts and bolts were there as well. There was some welding going on, which is featured on the back cover, and includes a photo of me (in full coveralls and welding mask) apparently (but not really) welding my snare drum with a guitar and trumpet (!) hidden among the "artfully" unkempt tools and debris. Unique among my covers in that it is one of the last to prominently feature the Omega symbol rather than my face.

#7: Ω C - half-life anthology (2007)

Here it is in 7th place, my 100th album (a compilation) so-named because its grasp extends halfway back (in time) over my recording "career," even thought it in no way includes examples from half of my actual recordings simply because I produced so many albums the first few years. The name was a rebranding of my "Collections of the Past" compilations. Enough of that, what about the cover? If you look carefully, you will see all 100 of my covers included here (including this one, in the bottom-right corner, in one of those "infinite regresses"), but they are not in order chronologically, since I attempted, I hope you can see, to create the Ω symbol from these images in the manner of so many popular images that use hundreds of tiny photos to create a larger image. It is a bit clunky, but it is visible if you stand back a little. What do you want? I eye-balled it! (Back cover also pretty interesting, using the same images, my face and logo to artistic effect.

#6: Ω LXXVI - RHYTHM (1995)

Ah yes, my only "oil painting" cover. Bob Ross, anyone? His style of scenery, I suppose, and what shape have those clouds taken? The image has nothing to do with the music, like most of the older covers created before any music was written for it - it was just next in line when I decided to do my "all percussion" (well, mostly) album. Another one of my Tascam 4-track recording days. For what it is worth, this is my highest-ranking non-computer generated image. There you have it.

#5: Ω xci - growth (2000)

This 91st album cover is the first one I created using Photoshop (on Alec's computer while visiting in South Korea); there were a series of previous computer generated album covers, but none of them made the top-25 list because they are for the most part so... DATED and sometimes lame, I suppose. But not this one, as far as I'm concerned. From this cover onward, no cover was ever hand-drawn again on paper - only created using Photoshop. It features a new version of the Omega symbol using the smudge tool (my secret revealed!), and looks rather root-like, an effect I've tried a couple times previously with less success. I try to avoid discussing the music here, but it should be noted (by fans of trivia) that this album is of a single performance - cut up into shorter "edits" - from a "live jam" by me (on drums, Phil Schuessler (on piano) and Tim Stutts (on bass), thus making this album the shortest recording session I've ever done: about one hour! (compared to the more typical weeks or months). Note also that the top five covers are all taken from my final ten albums, so obviously I am biased towards the newer material! But I think you'll agree that they are better executed, more mature, sophisticated and, well, interesting.

#4: Ω XCVI - OMEGABYTE (2003)

My 96th album cover is my darkest, whereas the majority have a lot of gleaming white (usually from the paper it was drawn on!). Some, including myself, have called this my "Face Value" (Phil Collins) cover for obvious reasons, but I really just wanted to see how ominously I could photograph myself, as if coming out of the shadows. The self-photo shoot had me covering my face with gel so the light would glisten on my skin, and a red astronomical flashlight was the only light source used in this photo taken.....in a BATHROOM! This is my second cover to feature my face. An alternate - and better lit - photo from this session appears on the back cover. A unique red and black logo appears on the CD and inner CD tray.

#3: 100.5 - EP (or: eponymous pseudonym) (2008)

Yes, I have a 100-and-a-half album! Call me superstitious (I'm not), but I did not want this to be my 101st album, although by default it IS my 101st cover - AND the last one I've made. My reasoning was: it is an EP, containing a few new tracks and some remixes of other recent material (to justify burning the disc). As it turns out this is one of my favorite covers. The back cover is equally good, but that does not count in this ranking. In the large photo (and the small insert) you can see me seated at my drum set - basically the same one used since my first recordings! - and holding one of my acoustic guitars (fingering a D Major 7th barre chord, I think). Yes, this is in my parent's basement! (The back cover, incidentally, features me seated at the only piano I've ever owned, also located at my parent's home, though upstairs in the FOYER.) Too bad this final image of me (on a CD) lacks my now distinctive handlebar mustache, which I probably started growing very soon after this photo.

#2: Ω XCV - REMAIN NAMELESS (2002)

In second place is the cover of a watershed album, my 95th - the first to be recorded entirely and directly with Digital Performer and onto CD with no intervening hissy tape, analog or DAT (but this is trivia not relating to the art!). This is actually a joint work between me and Alec Pettifer, who I was visiting in London where he was living. I had three completed tracks we listened to repeatedly for inspiration, and ultimately used two photos of me he took and altered them as you see here. The window is actually a window in a door in his apartment. Notice the eyes on my shirt! The eyes feature heavily on the back of the CD and also on the CD sticker itself. If memory serves, this CD is also the first to have original artwork for the back cover. Oh! - and I believe it is also the first to actually feature my face! - though not the first to lack the distinctive "Ω" symbol.

#1: Ω 98: æsthetic by association (2006)

And finally, my personal favorite, and perhaps the most complicated and expensive work of visual art, is the one that adorns my last "full-length" original studio album. Sometimes referred to as "Self-Portrait in Stardust," this photo is exactly that: a photo of me. Well, I used a photo of me as a template and superimposed galaxies, planets, star clusters and nebulae over all of my features to create a likeness - okay, a vaguely human face - with a background of similar construction. I took my cue from the Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo whose trippy work is similarly composed of unusual, but related, elements. The point about this work is that EVERY astronomical image was individually photographed BY ME (not stock images) and compiled in Photoshop as you see here. To be fair, Alec Pettifer was also involved in one of the photo shoots, sitting at the "helm," as it were, of the telescope and computer for a few of the included galaxy and nebula images (I forget which, as we took turns) taken while at New Mexico Skies, even though I managed all of the post-processing of the images (you won't believe how much of that is required in astrophotography!) Many of the images were also taken with my own Canon Digital Rebel camera - some with, some without my Celestron telescope - from various locations throughout the USA, including NJ, PA, NM and I think TX. So, even though it doesn't prominently feature the Omega logo, I still consider it my best.

So what do you think? Do you agree with my choices? Was this nothing more than a pointless exercise? Perhaps. Does it warrant a 25 WORST album covers list? Obviously the majority of them (51) would still lie in the middle. At least I hope you enjoyed perusing these often silly and adolescent images that, for better or worse, complimented my musical creations for three decades....