More of my fave CD sleeves

Another design classic? Go on then.

Beth Orton "Trailer Park"

Beth Orton's "first" ever album (PR conveniently forgets about the 1993 "Superpinkymandy" album she did with William Orbit) from 1996 is a brilliant electronic/folk hybrid, and was fave of mine back in those heady Britpop days. It's got a simple clean cover layout from designers Negativespace (nice Arial font) with beautiful photography from Ellen Nolan on the cover and throughout, giving a flavour of the music through the cover image, as all good designs should do. Orton continued the "theme" from the first album through to her following two albums "Central Reservation" & "Daybreaker" (below), but it's the "Trailer Park" image that defines her for me.

And another one?

I always liked The Orb's first few albums before they went a bit "up their own arses" to use a technical term, and the cover for "Live 93" is a personal fave, to the extent of me cajoling Cobweb records in Poulton-le-Fylde into selling me their massive window display for this release (now you try getting this home on a Stagecoach bus). It then took pride of place impractically in the corner of my bedroom for a year. Great days.

The cover is by MadArk of London, and features their pastiche of Pink Floyd's "Animals" album sleeve (The Orb being fans of the Floyd), instead of Hipgnosis's famous image of a flying pig floating over Battersea Power Station, The Orb stage mascot Fluffy the Sheep takes over the pig role. I never did manage to find that sheep in a shop - I wanted it badly! I was never confused.

Another group I love are The Chemical Brothers, as does Celia - they were one of the groups we first connected over. I've bought all their albums, and a lot of their singles, and have always admired the distinctive artwork of their most of their releases. Their first album "Exit Planet Dust" is possibly the most distinctive of their sleeves, and is by Negativespace again:

The cover of the album was from a '70's fashion shoot reject box, according to the duo's Ed Simons. In a 1995 interview with the much missed "Select" Magazine, Ed said: "We wanted something that just looked nice. A lot of techno albums just have fractals on them, and we wanted something a bit more romantic and otherworldly with soft, nice colours. It's the wrong way round as well - intentionally. If me and Tom are in that picture we're in the car going "Oh she's alright, I wish I had a guitar on my back with her." That would rank as one of the good things in life. Originally we had this pregnant woman in a field wearing this white see-though dress, like a flake advert gone wrong. But we couldn't use it because the unborn child could have sued us". Another image from the same fashion photoshoot was used as one of the images on the interior of the "Dig Your Own Hole" sleeve. Some other covers from their releases of around the 1995/96 era are below: