It's official - the cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures has been voted the most iconic album cover of all time.
The poll was hosted over at MusicMagpie.co.uk, whose readers chose the album art above others from The Stone Roses and The Beatles.
The cover, pictured above, was created by Peter Saville in 1979 after guitarist Bernard Sumner found the original image in an astronomy encyclopedia. It represents, apparently, 100 pulses from the remnant of a collapsed star.
Here's the top ten:
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
The Beatles - Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Paul Weller - Stanley Road
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the B*****ks
Reckon they got it right? If not, how wrong were they on a scale of 1-10? DiScuss.
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Oh dear
Can we have a feature on genuinely good album covers? Like Different Class, or Hawkwind gatefold sleeve ones?
Incidentally, I really like the lyrics book in the new Nick Cave album (and the album itself) but the cover itself is a bit meh.
Or just resurrect this:
http://drownedinsound.com/articles/2681633
wot no
london calling?
etc
^^
and why on earth is stanley road there
wtf?
houses of the holy is one of the worst zep covers
that joy division
cover looks crap.
well not crap
but not the most iconic cover of all time for chucks sake
wrong
its amazing. i wouldn't say its the most iconic though. Sgt Peppers has got to be the winner. or maybe Velvet underground and Nico, which isn't even in that top 10. proving the perennial truth, top 10s aren't worth the html their written in
nnnngggg
*they're
what!
No Sticky Fingers?
No Velvet Underground and Nico?
and what about What's Going On?
or Electric Ladyland?
Stanley Road, LOL
liveon35mm.com
Is this just about British acts?
I believe Velvet Undergroun and Nico should be in.
http://liveon35mm.wordpress.com
iLOVELiSTS
Another yawnsome poll.
Huzzah.
"General public creates another unimaginative consensus"
They should launch the poll again...this time not allowing the always obvious rotating top 20 to be included in the vote. Then see what happens.
where's Tin Planet?
Where's 'Once Upon A Time in the West?'
Ha ha ha...
I remember a massive feature in Q on Kula Shaker's 'K' artwork, oh how times swiftly change!
isn't the sex pistols one a bit
pish?
what about that ian dury cover aswell
cant remember what it was the cover of - so this post isnt really going anywhere.
oh well
Paul Weller- Stanley Road
LOL.
Agree re: Joy Division
sadly my fave album cover is Modern Life is Rubbish.
What no 'The Others'?
LOOOL
Nirvana, Nevermind
anyone?
no Daydream Nation?
anyway, what about the WORST album cover? How about 'Whatever People Say I am That's What I am'?
WORST album cover?
Hard Fi, Once upon a time in the west.
what the hell
does ICONIC mean here anyway? I don't think it means anything - what really makes Ziggy Stardust more 'iconic' than Hunky Dory or Low or Heroes or Alladin Sane?
Yet another meaningless angle on a poll to find "ten albums that we all like".
What about London Calling?
As soon as I saw this story
I thought Nevermind and Daydream Nation... where are they?
I mean Daydream Nation's made it onto The Simpsons ffs! like 8 years after its release
iconoclasm
being iconic certainly means something, it doesnt always mean that its the best. Marilyn Monroe is an icon but that does not make her a better actress than Dudie Dench. Sid Viscious is an icon but he was not a more talented bassist than andy rourke of the smiths. I suppose it comes down to the image having some kind of cultural significance.
I think that all these album covers have a certain iconic nature, whether they are the most iconic or the best album covers ever is obviously very subjective.
Its just a fucking list, the point is so that people discuss it... which you all are.
Oh well whatever nevermind
Wow I am actually genuinely suprised that Nirvana Nevermind was not in there, pretty sure most people who listen to music of any genus would instantly recognise that.
The only two I wouldn't agree with are Paul Weller and the Smiths, I couldn't really tell you what either look like but would know them perhaps if I saw them.
only Brit albums
purleeeease