We’ve asked plenty of people to contribute their favourite LP covers as part of our Heart On Sleeve feature but, to date, haven’t provided any of our own.

Well, that’s all about to change and first up is my partner-in-crime and North Manchester’s premier amateur electrician, Baggy.

[pullquote author="Baggy on Easy Going"]A mosaic image of what looks like two naked sailors/clones getting involved in a tussle (That, or male rape…) it’s probably a scene regularly demonstrated in the Roman nightclub the group were named after or an image you would have seen on the tiled floors of one of the (Gay) scenes after-hours bath houses. Tops off indeed.
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Loggins & Messina – Full Sail

If there is an album cover that depicts the aptly defined ‘Yacht Rock’ genre, then it has to be Loggins & Messina’s second album ‘Full Sail’. Why is it coined Yacht Rock? Just looking at this album cover tells you why.

• Hawaiian shirts – Check.
• Bearded dudes sailing a boat – Check.
• Coconut trees in the forefront – Check.

This album does exactly what is says on the tin and the gatefold pictures are even more nautical, the only thing missing is Captain Birds Eye. Probably the defining YR album, I defy anyone not want to kick back with a Pina-Colada and drift away to the smooth sounds found on this classic LP.

Pink Floyd – Animals

You can’t mention album cover art without including an example from the genre that brought conceptual art to the mainstream music audience. British Prog Rock legends Pink Floyd released ‘Animals’ in 1977, which is a twist of George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Animal Farm’. The cover art, designed by bassist Roger Waters and produced by British Art collective Hipgnosis (Responsible for other PF albums as well as 10cc, Led Zeppelin, Alan Parsons & Yes cover art to name but a few) shows a bellowing Battersea power station with a pig flying between two of it’s chimneys is typical of Hipgnosis’ style. Photography orientated, the cover perfectly tells the story of the lyrics found within it’s sleeve.

Easy Going – Easy Going

Probably my all time favourite genre of music, it’s impossible to not give some attention to my favourite Disco cover art. I found this particularly difficult as next to Prog Rock, the Disco era featured quite possibly some of the best album cover art ever produced. After changing my mind several times I finally decided to plum for the Claudio Simonetti led; Easy Going and their self titled 1979 album. If there was ever an album that screams homoerotism, it’s this one. A mosaic image of what looks like two naked sailors/clones getting involved in a tussle (That, or male rape…) it’s probably a scene regularly demonstrated in the Roman nightclub the group were named after or an image you would have seen on the tiled floors of one of the (Gay) scenes after-hours bath houses. Tops off indeed.

Baggy