OK we’re on a mission. It’s a geeky, music and car obsessed mission. The mission is to find the coolest album cover ever that has a car on the cover. There are of course absolutely thousands of artists over the course of rock music history that have chosen to feature motors on the artwork of their albums. What that means about the relationships between cars and music is anyone’s guess. No matter. For the purposes of this mission we’re looking for a combination of superb motors, superb artwork and superb music.
For hands-down non-negotiable cool, Donald Byrd and his famous Blue Note design has got to be one of the best examples ever. We know it’s the almost carnally-appealing Jaguar E-Type he’s leaning on, but can you tell the exact year and model? Answers from you experts on the comment boards please. The classic design is one of the most well known of the New York label’s groundbreaking art from the sixties and seventies, and set the standard for packaging design in the music industry as well as unbeatably slick sounds in the studio.
In sharp contrast to Donald’s achingly cool stance, check punk industrialists Throbbing Gristle’s jarringly conservative representation of a Morris Oxford. The Gristle have been known variously for the unnerving nature of their transgender front person Genesis P-Orridge and their seamless three hour sets of industrial noise, which make them about as MTV-friendly as a kick in the arse. The Gristle rock, and so does this album art.
