Jan 11: Geographical features on Album covers

I remember when albums came on vinyl and inside a large 12" square cardboard sleeve, perhaps with additional liners, booklets and other designs which opened out in different ways. The cover design was important as were all the notes, lyrics and other elements of the packaging. 

CDs don't have the same magic, and of course many people now stream music rather than owning physical products.

Some album covers have geographical features on them, and there used to be a collection of these which I blogged about some time ago on my old Geography and all that Jazz blog. It's an idea that comes back from time to time.

Do you have ideas for examples of album covers which were quite geographical in their imagery. 

This would make a good challenge for students - to find a suitable image and then label it with the feature, although you may need to provide them with some.

Here's an example.

Houses of the Holy (1973) - Led Zeppelin

This was designed by Aubrey Powell, an Old Elean (which means he was a pupil at the school where I currently teach in Ely) and features the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

More on his work with Hipgnosis later on the blog.

Here's one closer to home for me.

The Stranglers had an album in 2004 called 'Norfolk Coast' and the cover photo by Harrison Funk was taken on the Norfolk coast... at Hunstanton. It was mostly written by their bass player who retreated to Holme-next-the-Sea on the coast in 1999 when feeling disillusioned and wrote a lot of music which became the album.

The cover is shot on the carstone boulders revealed when the tide goes out at Hunstanton near to its famous stripy cliffs.

Sadly, the seaweed which used to cloak the boulders has largely disappeared over the years...

Maps also feature on lots of albums of course, and I shall certainly be sharing examples from the wonderful book 'Maps on Vinyl' by cartographer Damien Saunder which I have on the shelves of my GeoLibrary. More on this to come.

Can you share your favourite examples of geographical features on album covers?

Visit the Google Form here to make your suggestions and I'll add some of them in a later update post.