In these days of digital music I wonder if some young whippersnappers even realise that albums have cover art. For there was a time, younglings, when the album cover, along with the sleevenotes, was part of an overall package to be cherished. Now? Not so much.

However there are plenty of folk out there who have gained inspiration from classic album covers, and, the internet being the internet, there's a rather good site dedicated to appraising cover art over the years.

Take this page, for instance, which looks at the cover to Duran Duran's Rio album. If you're a design nerd, you'll love the detail about how the iconic image was created, and how it has influenced the artwork of, for example, the Grand Theft Auto video games. Me? I liked the revelation that the designer of Rio died from a "heart-attack after a celebrity aerobathon". How perfectly '80s.

More recent covers are examined as well, with the front page at the time of writing featuring Roisin Murphy's delightfully odd Overpoweredcover.

Have a looksie at Sleevage here

[image: Sleevage]

[via BBC Chartblog]