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Baker's Dozen

Nice And Sleevy: Andrew Liles' Favourite Album Covers
The Quietus , November 25th, 2015 11:06

The prolific multi-instrumentalist, Nurse With Wound and Current 93 collaborator and vinyl art devotee picks his top 13 LP covers, tipping his hat to Coil, Cabaret Voltaire and a quintet of dancing banjos among others

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Scorpions - Lovedrive
A cover from arguably the best record sleeve designers ever - Hipgnosis.

Scorpions have a lot of great covers and some very spurious ones. Ever seen the original cover of Virgin Killer? Don't look it up online, it could all go very Gary Glitter for you. I could have chosen Animal Magnetism, but maybe it's a little edgy, as it intimates a Dobermann is sucking off the guy on the cover. I also love In Trance, which features a young lady getting hot with a Fender Strat. I could have also gone for Blackout, which many people think is a portrait of guitarist Rudolf Schenker. It is in fact a self portrait by Gottfried Helnwein, who went on to work with Rammstein and Marilyn Manson.

So why do I like this cover? For one reason and one reason alone - it's bizarre. What does it all mean? Who cares. It is just very odd, the woman looking straight ahead, oblivious to the huge amount of bubblegum on her tits, the weird bloke for sticking it on her in the first place. It's great - I wish it was one of my album covers.