English rock musician Peter Frampton recently revealed the cover for his forthcoming album Thank You, Mr. Churchill. The album is scheduled to be released on April 27, 2010 and is currently available for preorder on Amazon.com.

The cover features the unlikely combination of a WWII era fighter plane and a baby. One may at first assume this pairing may have a bad result, that is absolutely not the case. Either element would be seem ordinary seperately. Together, there is an implied story of hope and wonder. I really like it. I would compare it to Nirvana's Nevermind for effective use of an infant on an album cover. And who doesn't like vintage airplanes?

Crystal Bowersox was the obvious winner of the evening following American Idol's Top 16 girls' perfomance show tonight. Bowersox did an amazing version of Tracy Chapman's Give Me One Reason. She is by far the most authentic performer on the show this year.

Chapman released the song in 1995 on her album New Beginning (right). I've included the music video of her performance for those who may not be familiar with it.

Judging by the tweets being generated by Bowersox's performance, she is the one to beat this year. MTV has already released a story stating that she is "dominating" American Idol.

I have uploaded the cover for Bowersox's single as well as those for the other seven performers to the AlbumArtExchange gallery.

Crystal Bowersox - Give Me One Reason (Single)

Below are six album covers that have been preselected from this week's new music releases. The album covers were chosen based on sales ranking at Amazon.com and for noteworthy design. Please vote for the cover that you believe is the best of the bunch.

Broken Bells - Broken Bells		Demon Hunter - The World is a Thorn
Four Year Strong - Enemy of the World		Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach		Pavement - Quarantine The Past Greatest Hits

I've seen several news releases today promoting the debut of Lady Gaga's new music video for Telephone featuring Beyoncé. The video is slated to make an exclusive debut on E! News on Thursday, March 11 at 11:30 PM (which I assume is Eastern Time).

The screenshot accompanying one of the news releases shows Beyoncé looking like a cross between Betty Page and a majorette who was attacked by a maniac whielding a Bedazzler. Even her shoes are covered in plastic gems.

I really lost interest in this Lady Gaga and Beyoncé collaboration when I saw the cover art for the single. It looks like something Beyoncé did a few years ago for that Austin Powers movie she was in. Rather than being camp, the graphics are tacky and poorly executed. The drop shadows on the images and the typography go in every direction. It looks like a high school Photoshop project. It is really a mess and far below the standards of Lady Gaga's previous projects.

According to our AlbumArtExchange Blog poll, the best album cover for the week of March 2, 2010 is Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back. The cover won by a landslide, with 76% of the vote. Jamie Cullum's The Pursuit was a very distant second and Rogue Wave's Permalight and the Almost Alice complilation tied for third.

I am not surprised by this result. The Scratch My Back cover is an impressive image that makes people look twice.

Check back this evening to vote for your favorite cover from among this week's new releases. There isn't such an obvious winner this time.

It has been quite a long time since my last installment of Variations on a Theme. This one is especially timely due to the revival of 3D movies. I'm not really sure if that has anything to do with it, but there have been several recent album covers that use 3D imaging as a special effect.

I don't think the designers expect anyone to put on 3D glasses to view these covers. The red and blue color separation has been used more to create an interesting visual effect. However, the covers do have a 3D look when viewed with the glasses. I tried them all.

The best of the four covers in 3D are Semi Precious Weapons self-titled album and Annie Mac Presents compilation. The other two don't really pop out at you.

Semi Precious Weapons - S/T (2010)

Various Artists - Annie Mac Presents (2009)

The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust (2009)

Los Straitjackets - Supersonic Guitars In 3D (2003)

Posted by: cg39652

Recently, Jeff Crouch at Famous Album Covers invited me to become a regular contributor to the best fake album cover blog on the Internet. Creating parodies of album covers has always been a kick for me, so I gladly accepted the opportunity.

My latest contributions are parodies of the album covers of New York indie rock band Vampire Weekend (right). The photos are old snapshots from my family album. They were taken in 1960 of cousins who I haven't seen for decades.

The trend of using scans of old snapshots for album art is one that has gotten a little cliche. It seems as every indie band has been busy searching through shoeboxes of faded old photos.

Martian Holiday: S/T

Martian Holiday is a Chicago-based American indie rock band, formed in 2008 and signed to SuperSized Recordings. The band members include: Walter Cartwright, lead vocals and guitar; Omar Kahlil, keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals; Tom Christianson, drums and percussion; and Chachi Charles, bass guitar and backing vocals.

The band's name is derived from the film Christmas on Mars by psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips. The band first gained attention via a variety of blogs, such as Stereogum. The members claim to be influenced by both 1960s psychedelic rock and Middle Eastern classical music, describing their genre of music as Bucktown Freak.

The members of the band met as students in the Department of Music at Chicago University where they studied ethnomusicology and composition; after graduation they self-produced their first album while concurrently working full-time jobs. The self-titled album met with immediate critical acclaim.

In 2009, Martian Holiday's song Terrible Terrorist was ranked 42th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of the year. In November 2009, they toured the United Kingdom with Kylie Minogue. They were declared "The Year's Best New Band" by Spin magazine in the March 2010 issue.

The band is also known for their unusually minimalist album cover art. The cover for Martian Holiday featured a Polaroid snapshot that lead singer Cartwright found in a family photo album. Cartwright revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that the people in the snapshot are his mother and her twin brother. The band's sophomore album Green Again is scheduled to be released in June 2010. The band's website was recently replaced with a single image that is believed to be the official album cover.

One of the things I miss about living in Hollywood is having friends who are members of the Motion Picture Academy. The voting members get CDs and DVDs of the nominated scores and movies. Often, they would share them or give them away. I still have have a few around the house from years ago.

The "For Your Consideration" discs typically are marked as such and sometimes have special artwork (right). A few of these have made their way into the AlbumArtExchange gallery. They are perhaps as collectible as promo copies. I suppose that eventually they will be replaced by digital downloads.

This year, I didn't get to attend a Hollywood Oscar party. However, I was correct on most of my picks this year. This includes the winners for Best Original Score and Best Song. I knew that Michael Giacchino had to win for the score of Up. It is simply one of the best scores I've heard in ages. And, Crazy Heart was on just about everyone's list of favorites.

If you don't already own these two albums, I strongly recommend purchasing them. The Up score is available as a digital download. The Crazy Heart soundtrack is available as in standard and deluxe CD format and digital download.

I recently purchased an MP3 download from the online store of Atlantic Records and was very disappointed to find that they are selling digital music files without artwork. I purchased Freak, the new single by Estelle (right), and received high quality 320Kbps MP3s. That's much better quality than you can get from iTunes and Amazon.com.

However, I am one of those people who just can't stand having music without the official album art in my collection. Blank images in the iTunes flow display and on my iPod are unacceptable.

Unfortunately, the standard 600 x 600 pixel cover art for this single isn't available anywhere. This is one of the reasons why AlbumArtExchange is such a valuable asset to music collectors. Eventually, someone will scan the physical cover for this single and I'll be able to ad it to my MP3s.

So, be warned that if you buy digital music from Atlantic Records, you won't get the artwork that normally comes from iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody, and other online retailers. However, you will get a high quality file.

American indie rock band Band of Horses revealed the cover for their forthcoming album Infinite Arms via news release today. The album is scheduled to be released on May 18, 2010.

The cover features a sky of swirling stars and some elaborate script typography. I would probably be a bit more impressed with the typography were it not for the recent album cover for Xiu Xiu's Dear God, I Hate Myself (right).

The Xiu Xiu cover takes the concept of elaborate caligraphy to the extreme and the Band of Horses cover just doesn't compare. This is a good example why it is often a good idea to push the limits when designing an album cover. The Xiu Xiu cover stands out for having some of the most over-the-top flourishes I've ever seen on an album cover. The Band of Horses cover is simply forgettable.

Trammps, originally uploaded by mikepaktinat.

This is the first time I've seen a sleeveface like this. I guess it is really a "sleevefoot" instead. Very clever!

The 82nd Academy Awards presentation will air tomorrow. As usual, the program will feature music from the Best Original Score and Best Song categories. I have ensured that the album art for all of the nominees have been uploaded to the gallery. Thanks to the AlbumArtExchange users who have contributed their scans and edited images.

Best Original Score

Avatar - James Horner

Posted by: jasonjunker

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat

Posted by: jasonjunker

The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders

Posted by: zeefritz

Up - Michael Giacchino

Posted by: coolbud1

Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer

Posted by: Music Hog

Best Song

The Princess Frog
Almost There - Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Posted by: *Mark*

Paris 36
Loin de Paname - Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas

Posted by: zeefritz

Nine
Take It All - Music and Lyric by Maury Teston

Posted by: *Mark*

Crazy Heart
The Weary Kind - Music by Ryan Bingham, Lyric by T Bone Burnett

Posted by: zeefritz

The Sadies - Tales of the Rat Fink Original Soundtrack (2006)

Posted by: zeefritz

I am featuring the cover for Black Light, the sixth studio album by London electronic music duo Groove Armada, because I feat it may represent a trend in minimal album art design. The cover features simple block typography and Photoshop effects that do work with the album title.

However, I have to compare the cover to that of the recent self-titled album by Mudvayne that actually featured blacklight-reactive ink (right). While the Groove Armada cover does convey the concept of a blacklight, it certainly isn't anywhere close to being as cool and artistic as the Mudvayne cover.

Groove Armada collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Fenech-Soler, Jess Larrabee, Nick Littlemore, SaintSaviour and Will Young on the album. It would have nice to have seen a bit more creativity go into designing the album cover.

American Favorite Ballads Vols. 1-5 by Pete Seeger (right) won the award for Best Album Packaging at the Independent Music Awards held in January 2010. The winners were selected from 50 album, song, music video, and design categories that included thousands of submissions. The judging panel comprised 80 influential artists and music industry professionals, including Tom Waits, The Black Keys, Ricky Skaggs, Pete Wentz, Mark Hoppus, Aimee Mann, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins, and Zooey Deschanel.

The packaging was created by Tri-Plex Packaging Corporation for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.