Top 10 Greatest Album Covers of the ’90s

From Nirvana to Pearl Jam: Top 10 Greatest Album Covers of the ’90s

With the breakthrough of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden in the 1990s, grunge and alternative rock arrived at the musical mainstream in a way that ’80s underground acts such as Dinosaur Jr. had never enjoyed. Along with the new, raw musical approach came album art that clearly contrasted the covers of ’80s hair metal gems. Love or hate grunge, it’s impossible to refute the influence of these benchmark album covers.
What ’90s album art do you think rocks most? Let us know in the comments section, below. If you want to reminisce a bit more, and check out the Top 10 Music Videos of the ’90s, here.
10. Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream

Who are those girls on the cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, anyway? According to Billy Corgan, one of them is current bass slinger Nicole Fiorentino. But, you can’t really believe everything Corgan Tweets, right? Regardless, the photograph of two girls, giddily smiling on the face of Siamese Dream is one of the most recognized images of alternative rock and, by now, an emblem for all that is the Pumpkins.

9. Outkast, Aquemini

Even with the onset of grunge and alternative rock in the ’90s, there was certainly still room for hip-hop. Enter Outkast, a hip-hop duo with a talent for mixing grainy, Southern soul, ’70s-leaning psychedelic funk and natural rapping, with a surefire mainstream appeal. The album’s renowned, cartoony cover art has the duo paying respect to Sly and the Family Stone.

8. Metallica, Metallica (“The Black Album”)

Metallica’s “Black Album” was one of the lone heavy metal mainstream successes of the early ’90s, and the band went with a modest design for the sole reason of keeping it simple. “The Black Album” art presents the illustrious Metallica logo, slanted alongside the upper left corner and a twisted snake (stemming from the Gadsden flag) on the bottom right side, both splattered in gray against a black background. The interior booklet includes the faces of each band member, with lyrics and liner notes creepily printed across a gray backdrop.

7. Sublime, Sublime

Sublime’s music was always lively and hot-tempered, and the cover art for their third and final release conveys that in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it character. The cover’s border packs a black and white drawing of tattoo-like flowers surrounding the photo of a man’s bare back with the band name, Sublime, boldly tattooed across it. Following lead singer Bradley Nowell’s death prior to the album’s release, the record became the symbol of Sublime, one the greatest and most tragic musical stories of the ’90s.

6. Hole, Live Through This

Hole, certainly, was one of the more controversial rock acts of the ’90s. On the Courtney Love-fronted band’s sophomore release, Live Through This, the cover depicts a twisted take on the classic Mattel Barbie doll, with bombshell model Leilani Bishop dressed for a beauty pageant, complete with a tiara and flowers in hand, with jet black mascara running down her eyes. The album, and art, articulated Love’s feminist consciousness at the time. Juxtaposed on the back cover is a childhood photo of Love.

5. Pearl Jam, Ten

There’s a spot in this top 10 for simple album artwork, and Pearl Jam’s Ten is a testimony to the power of minimalism. The vinyl edition of the debut studio album from one of Seattle’s finest features a simple image of the band members in a group stance, standing in front of the band’s name, “Pearl Jam,” with a maroon-colored backing. While the cover is simple, the tracks inside, of course, are innovative and still rule the rock charts today.

4. U2, Achtung Baby

The colorful mélange of images on the cover of Achtung Baby is the creation of Steve Averill, who also designed the cover art for U2’s The Joshua Tree and other U2 classics. To reflect their quickly evolving musical style, Bono and the crew broke free from their usual homochromous designs with a colorful mix of photos of band members and other randomness. At first, they planned to rest on one bright image as the main art, but in the end, they utilized an assorted image scheme, since U2 and their camp couldn’t agree on just one.

3. Soundgarden, Bad Motorfinger

The pointy, whirlwind design on the cover of Soundsgarden’s Bad Motorfinger LP is as psychedelic and free-spirited as grunge rock itself. Guitarist Mark Dancey of indie band Big Chief is to thank for the cover art design, and the drawing impeccably matches the colorful album’s title. Soundgarden reportedly liked the title because is invoked a lot of different images to the listener, and they thought the album cover looked the way Bad Motorfinger sounded.

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik

The sketched black, white and red cover art for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the work of indie filmmaker Gus Van Sant. The artwork of the LP showcases the four band members’ mugs, their tongues stretching to the middle of the frame, centered around a red rose. The eye-catching image became iconic, as the album spawned mass hits for the Peppers, from the plaintive “Under the Bridge” to the rockin’ “Give It Away.”

1. Nirvana, Nevermind

Nirvana’s Nevermind album art is the universal symbol for grunge and a generation of sounds that transformed the face of rock music. The now-iconic baby gracing the cover, swimming in an aqua paradise, was a sharp contrast to the ’80s metal albums of the day, which largely glorified band members. With the 20th anniversary of Nevermind on September 24, it’s the perfect time to recognize the music – and the album art – behind this grunge-rock masterpiece.
By Anne Erickson
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