Heart On Sleeve – Nicolas Rainmaker

Manchester Songwriter, Nicolas Rainmaker, tells us about his 3 favourite Sleeves.

Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

Springsteen’s 1975 release ‘Born to Run’ is a seminal album that establishes the characters and themes he would go on to trace throughtout his work.
One step away from being dropped by Columbia Records, Springsteen had to make the greatest of the great records and with Born to Run he did.  From start to finish this record never compromises; full of layered sounds and poetic lyrics, American vistas blow out the speakers.
By his own admission Springsteen states this record is all about looking outward, from small town life to the world outside.
At 22 I was doing the same thing and this record became on heavy rotation in my head and on my stereo. Springsteen’s song writing finally found its groove and his voice held the rasp and grit that would grace every future release.
Never alone on this record, The E Street Band always bring their A game; Soprano’s star Steven Van Zandt and Clarence Clements stand out on every track.
The album sleeve is an invitation from Bruce to his fans. An open ticket not only to the record of his career but to the adventures and themes we can all relate too. Simple and elegant, this sleeve holds all the excitement of growing up and getting out, all you have to do is to look on the faces of Clarence and Bruce. Simply, it is an iconic Springsteen shot for any Springsteen fan.

Nirvana – Bleach

About A Girl – best track on the album? Who knows but an awesome first effort and has all the energy and grit a bands first records should have. Taken at a gig, this is one of the few pictures that really captures the essence of grunge; dirty, raw and low budget. Not their most successful album and certainly not their best but a sleeve that sums up Nirvana’s DIY approach to music making.

Metallica – Metallica

The Black Album is to metal fans what the White Album was to Beatles fans – a defining record. The Black Album began the partnership between Metallica and their now long term friend and producer Bob Rock.
Given the choice between producing Richie Sambora’s ‘Stranger In This Town’ and in his own words ‘capturing what Metallica does live’, Rock thankfully opted for the latter.
‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Sad But True’ and ‘The Unforgiven’ became classic Metallica tunes and ‘Enter Sandman’ itself became a classic anthem enjoyed by music fans of all stripes and is on every Metallica iPod playlist I have ever made. In the words of Goldilocks this album is ‘just right’. Rifftastic and sonically perfect, this was a record that the radio loved to play.
The simple black sleeve sums up the relatively simplistic approach to song writing Hetfield and Ulrich adopted that captured metal fans the world over and an approach to recording and producing that has become the blueprint to every metal record produce since. Their best record, their best sleeve.

Many thanks to Nicolas for his words. Stay tuned for plenty more (including Flemming Dalum’s favourite 12″ sleeves)…