Jesus Egg That Wept (1984) by Danielle Dax.
Most of the examples here are for singles and albums released by Danielle Dax in the 1980s but British artist Holly Warburton has done a lot more besides. The work from the 80s involved the re-photographing of images projected onto canvas or other materials, effects that are now more easily achieved by digital means. The Pop-Eyes cover was a substitute for the earlier, notorious “Meat Harvest” collage which Ms Dax hacked together from medical photos, and which caused the album to be shunned by shops and distributors for being too disturbing. (It’s here if you need to look.) There is a Holly Warburton website but there’s not much going on there at the moment. You can see more at Pinterest.
Pop-Eyes (1985) by Danielle Dax.
The Firebird (1986), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit.
Big Hollow Man (1987) by Danielle Dax.
Inky Bloaters (1987) by Danielle Dax.
Cat House (1988) by Danielle Dax.
Dark Adapted Eye (1988) by Danielle Dax.
Draconian Times (1995) by Paradise Lost.
The Last Time (1995) by Paradise Lost.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The album covers archive
Always loved those Dax covers!
I think these covers are my favourites from that strange decade that was the Eighties , possibly because they look like they belong to a different era – im reminded of the strange photography on the earliest Tangerine Dream albums by Monique Froese. Way more romantic and dreamlike than the Neville Brody/Face/id constructivism that everyone was aping at the time , and perfectly capture the dark pop the records contained.
It would be easy to create this sort of thing digitally, but i think they have an analogue beauty that would be hard to replicate