Quiz: Can you guess the Lego album artwork?

Armed with a fist full of Lego, 21-year-old Aaron Savage has recreated his favourite album covers. Can you guess which artworks have had a Lego-over?

Take the quiz on the Guardian site ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/quiz/2011/feb/03/lego-album-artwork

A bonus for the Lego fans Michel Gondry's classic video for The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl.

The making of is also neat (don't tell anyone but I think they cheated)

Non-Lego news you might have missed The White Stripes have called it a day full statement on http://www.whitestripes.com/

Bawley (Hearts) 2010: Bottom 5 album covers of the Year

So many bad album covers this year, Devo and Brian Ferry went for glamor mag gloss, Yeasayer had some kind of brain seizure, Kings of Leon explored phallic island and Kanye West showed us way more than we ever wanted to see. Still nothing was worse than these my Bottom 5 album covers of the year.

5. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)

The CD sleeve notes state that the album cover is a photo of X Tecumseh Clark taken by his father, avant-garde composer and poet Todd Tamanend Clark.

Yep about as interesting as it sounds.

4. Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Sadly this is not the soundtrack to Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

3. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2. MGMT - Congratulations

MGMT do what Nintendon't - pitchfork media

This scratch and sniff disaster was my early favourite for worst album cover of the year. Who could of thought that worse was still to come.

1. M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\

The cover art on M.I.A.'s /\/\ /\ Y /\ is a bigger disaster than the album itself. The YouTube progress bars had been outdated before this album was released, the Tetris brick walls are horrible and can anybody tell me why MIA has spelt her name out in gold bullion?

One part hilarious ten parts hideous , congratulations to M.I.A.; runaway winner for 2010's worst cover album art.

Bawley (Hearts) 2010: Top 5 album covers of the Year

Most of world may have moved to digital downloads, that doesn't mean we can't continue to enjoy good album cover art. Here are five of my favorites from 2010.

5. Kele - The Boxer

Kele Okereke the muscled prize fighter. I dare you to tell him that you preferred him when he was in Bloc Party.

4. Massive Attack - Heligoland

Designed by band member (and former graffiti artist) Robert Del Naja who poured over 100s of photos, stencils and original art works before coming up with the street art inspired cover.

The London underground then banned Massive Attack from advertising the album in any of the city's Tube stations, because the art work looks too much like graffiti.

3. Grinderman - Grinderman 2

"Like a wolf showing its teeth in the front room"

Is there any better way to describe Grinderman's second album?

2. Klaxons - Surfing the Void

When a band uses an internet meme as their album art the result is usually uncreative, uninteresting and entirely lame. On the front cover of Surfing the Void, Klaxons have used the greatest meme of them all the lolcat, but somehow it works.

I think it is the dull stair in the cat's eyes; where is he going what adventures will he have when he gets there, will he make it home safely - we will never know.

1. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (re-issue)

The new artwork is little more than an update of the original album's cover but it is the story of lost originals, double blind searches and high-res drawings and 1989-like filters that makes this my favourite album cover art of 2010.

Slevage has the full story, http://sleevage.com/nin-pretty-hate-machine/

Surfs Up

MGMT's new album, Congratulations is not released for another month but already it would have to be early contender for worst album art of 2010?

Here is the story behind this totally radical album sleeve.

Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Bottom 5 album covers of the year

Yesterday I posted my list of the best album art of 2009, now for some of the worst.

5. Morrissey – Years of Refusal

The cover of Morrissey’s latest album does nothing to dispel rumours that he eats small children for breakfast.

4. MSTRKRFT – Fist of God

A mish-mash of butts and thighs in the shape of a fist: the fist of God. God is angry, fear his wrath.

3. U2 – No Line On the Horizon

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2. Weezer - Raditude

As lame as it is, the jumping dog on the cover is the rad-est thing about this appalling album.

1. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

Apparently the universe is a cosmic egg that cycles between expansion and total collapse. It expanded from a concentrated form —a point called a Bindu. The universe, as a living entity, is bound to the perpetual cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

Wolfmother are an Australian rock band with a bent for 70s rock riffs, fantasy world lyrics and horrible cover art. This is one rotten egg.

Also: What is that skinny naked boy doing in the bushes?

Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Top 5 album covers of the year

Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Top 5 album covers of the year

Album art just about managed to survive the shift from record to CD (from 12 inches of cover space down to 5) but the move to digital downloads and ever shrinking mp3 player screens are proving difficult for many of today’s artists.

Not all hope is lost. Here are five of the best examples of album cover art circa 2009.

5. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Neko Case crouched on the bonnet of a muscle car, sword in hard ready to pounce...enjoy the album, just don’t get in her way.

4. The Xx – The Xx

The CD version of this album comes in a black cardboard sleeve with the ‘X’ cut out revealing the white inner booklet. A great idea that translates to a great image when shrunk down to 100x100 pixels.

3. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers

The cover of Journal for Plague Lovers, an oil painting by Jenny Saville, was judged to be too offensive for public display.

Apparently the heavy red and brown brush strokes can be interpreted a blood on the boy’s face – of course, this is a subjective view.

Commenting on the controversy, singer James Bradfield said:

"You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out ... We're not going to censor it or anything ... It is what it is."

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz

This action shot of a lady’s hand, chipped nail polish crushing an egg, perfectly captures the bands dangerous energy and, like many of the great album covers, it works no matter the size.

1. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Soul

The cover art for a blank CD-R. The release of the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch collaboration was scuppered by legal issues, but rather than bury the project the recordings were leaked to the internet and collaborators released a limited edition 100 page booklet with an accompanying blank CD-R. The packages sold out in near record time, proving that modern music fans will pay for quality album art.

Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Bottom 5 album covers of the year

Bawley (Hearts) 2008: Bottom 5 album covers of the year

5. Santogold - Santogold

Santi White’s debut album may have blurred the lines between genres, unfortunately the cover art blurred the lines of good taste. Burp...

4. Razorlight – Slipway Fires

Who are the three guys hogging Johnny Borrell’s lime light

3. The Presets - Apocalypso

The album’s title came from the idea of the apocalypse and a calypso together. I think the art work came from a primary school diorama competition.

2. Empire of the sun – Walking On A Dream

Star Wars fans, much?

1. Lambchop – (Oh) Ohio

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I wish Lambchop had the decency to stop writing after the first paragraph.