As I’ve mentioned here once before, I love album cover-art. From CDs to Vinyl, photography to illustrations, Rock to Hip Hop, if the design is dope, I’m on it! Sadly, I don’t see much creative cover-art coming out of the hip hop world these days, but that’s an entirely different post (one for another day, I suppose). As I made my blog ‘rounds earlier this morning, I came across this book, “Cover Story: Album Cover Art”, and was stopped dead in my tracks. Not only is the booked styled to look like an actual record sleeve (they got it all right, down to the ring wear), but it’s apparently authored by one of my favorite music magazines/journals, Wax Poetics.

Cover Story: Album Cover Art, the second book by esteemed music journal Wax Poetics, graphically narrates the vibrant subculture of record collecting through the art of the album cover. It’s a must-have for record connoisseurs and art aficionados alike.

Illustrated as a visual essay, Cover Story exhibits the diverse art forms and design styles of the record cover, each telling its own story.

The Book vividly explores an element of music culture that has withered with the advent of MP3s and digital downloading. Records possess a visual as well as an aural capacity for storytelling. The record cover-eye candy for the music lover-speaks a language rooted in the environment and era of the music itself. And, more intimately, a record can create a profound sense of analogy with its owner, and it’s this relationship that we share.

(via HB)