ALBUM COVERS: THE DIVAS

November 22nd, 2011

Culture

Our last ALBUM COVER POST was such a hit, we decided to do another one. We LOVE a good album cover here at JC NY, and there truly are too many great ones to keep track of. We decided that for this round we would focus on our women who rock from the past through the present. Keep in mind, these are just SOME of our favorites, and we know going into this that we are missing a ton of amazing album covers from our favorite songstresses. We hope you like these posts, as we will most likely be doing many more like this in the future.

Madonna True Blue 1987. The hair, the color palette, the fact that this folds out into a wall poster. Everything about this is both 80s and timeless in the same breath. Madonna has released more records than most people on this list combined, but this is by far our favorite album cover of hers (although 2006′s Confessions On A Dancefloor is a close runner-up).

Mariah  Carey Emotions 1991. Looks like this was a popular pose back in the day, huh? Mariah escaped the sophomore slump with this hit album and some smooth sepia tone. This is on some 90s glamour tip and we want in!

Katy Perry Teenage Dream 2010. Stay with us. We didn’t always love us some Katy Perry. In fact, our minds didn’t start changing about Mrs. Brand until we saw this piece of cotton candy-airbrushed-flawlessness. It reminds us of something Prince, Madonna or Michael Jackson would’ve done back in the mid-80s, but only something Katy Perry could pull off today I mean, BROOKE HOGAN anyone? Speaking of MJ, this album tied the King of Pop’s Bad for producing the most #1 singles from an album ever (five).

Fiona Apple Tidal 1996. She’s ready for her close-up. Whenever we see a new Rihanna album cover, we always immediately think of Tidal because let’s face it (get it??), Fiona mastered the extreme close-up first. Sure it’s a bit in-your-face (okay, we’re done, we promise!) but that’s what makes it so visceral and effective. Not to mention, this is one record we never get sick of listening to.

Tina Turner Private Dancer 1984. Talk about nine lives! This was Tina’s big comeback album, and what a cover to come back with. It’s very 80s, but like True Blue it’s 80s in all the best ways. Is that Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch? And we thought the album cover couldn’t get any better!

Lady Gaga The Fame Monster 2009. You all know we love Gaga, but what we love most about Gaga is when she reigns it in a bit and gives us something like this. It’s simple, black and white, Helvetica type-face, but it’s still all Gaga. We wouldn’t be surprised if out of all three of her records, this is the one she is most remembered for and not her over-the-top human-motorcycle hybrid BORN THIS WAY. This image is iconic and classic. We loved this era Gaga and we wouldn’t mind if she revisited some of these themes in the future.

TLC CrazySexyCool 1994. Gosh, we just love the 1990s. It was our decade of youth. The decade in which we were first really acquainted with popular music. The decade that was owned by powerhouse girl-groups like TLC. This cover, in all it’s red-light-special glory, somehow perfectly sums up our nostalgia for the decade. The 90s hip-hop font, the washed out red photo, the “don’t step to this” attitude in their eyes. And the tracklist? Oh boy, we know this one front to back and we routinely thank LaFace records for giving us that chance.

Hole Live Through This 1994. And then we have Courtney Love and Hole. The other end of the music spectrum for 1994. What a diverse Grammy’s that must’ve been. This is our only cover of the bunch not featuring the artist, but that’s what makes this even more polarizing. A beauty queen, captured in that moment of glory, that moment where all the pain and hard work pays off. And in a moment it’s all over. And was it all worth it in the end? Muy introspective. Muy iconic.

Nicki Minaj Pink Friday 2010. The elongated legs, the missing arms, the Barbie font, the bubble-gum pink gradient. We love it all. What we love most about Nicki is that she could easily sex-up her image aka play it safe as a woman in the hip-hop game. But she goes with herself. She follows the crazy and she landed on top. We can’t wait to see how she follows this one up.