Album artwork is there for one reason, and for one reason only, to get you to buy the bloody record. Plain and simple. If they happen to be a work of art, or funny or memorable then that’s just a little bonus on the part of the record company. Though I should probably stop talking about this industry like its int he present day because, frankly, album covers mean a whole lot less than they used to in this digital world, and their power to influence pop culture has more or less vanished.

On the podcast there is a bit of a running joke that I have a habit of forgetting to analyse the album artwork during my album reviews, and that is a running gag that’s well earned. However, this has come to an end in recent months, and to make amens for a couple of cock-ups I thought it might be fun to take a look at the entire collection of artisanal designs that adorn all of his releases.

The Beatles, as with everything in their career, had some of the best album artwork of all time, ranging from the delightfully simplistic to some of the most gorgeously detailed frescos ever to grace the cardboard format. They are all equally iconic, except for maybe Beatles for Sale and Let It Be, by comparison no one really gives a shit about those ones, but yeah Paul had, like every other element of his career, set the bar extremely high for himself before he started his solo career. Fortunately for me McCartney has been churning out a hilariously large number of albums over the last 48 years so that means that a. there is more than enough for me to make into a list (though in all honesty I could have made two articles out of this to fudge the numbers but oh well) and b. it gives me a great breadth of quality to critique.

So yeah, I’m pretty sure you know how this is going to work. I am going to go through every release from Paul from McCartney to NEW and I am going to give my two cents on which of these album overs are the best, the worst and the rest. What do I mean by the best? Well, it’s going to be a mixture of what I think is both an effective album cover, and what album covers I see as having artistic value. It’s all going to be veeery subjective, but also my opinion is also fact so there’s that…

48. “Amoeba Secret” (2007)/”Paul McCartney Live in Los Angeles” (2010)

Coming across like bad early YouTube thumbnails, both of these obscure promotional albums are the same show, and will therefore take up the same dismal spot on this list. Whilst we will get onto the more tasteful side of blurred McCartney snaps, this covers complete lack of an interesting or unique image gives the whole thing an unfortunate “anybody with an iPhone could have done” atmosphere. Whats worse about this shot is that the environment (as well as Paul’s attire) makes it look like he is playing some sort of low quality, budget hotel, or a spare room in a pub. Unless they were trying to evoke the feeling of a knockoff, European bootleg there is simply no excuse for these rushed mock ups.

47. “iTunes Festival: London” (2007)

What annoys me about this photo is that it feels like McCartney is trying to look like one of the fucking Arctic Monkeys or something, and the end result is anything but cool. The image itself is indeed quite the step up from the last one (aka Macca is actually doing something) but it’s blurry, at an awkward angle and Paul’s signature that adorn the bottom of the image is just jarringly awkward with its pink colouring. I mean don’t even get me started on the horrendously hideous iTunes Festival London logo in the corner, it actually makes me nauseous just thinking about its vulgarity. This whole thing looks like a poorly paid intern at MPL did it on a lunch break on Microsoft Paint.

46. “Standing Stones” (1997)

The fact that Paul signed off on this thing is one of the biggest marks against his character as this thing looks like one of those bargain-basement debut Christian Rock albums that people sell at church events and at town markets. I mean fuck me does that look cheap. I mean at least the other two look like mock ups on a Mac, this one instead makes the mistake of looking professionally cheap. Okay, maybe the image itself, if presented slightly differently, and with a more reserved and nuanced typography/font, could defiantly be much more credible, but as it stands it looks like something McCartney got on a discount to compensate for the fact that no fucker was ever going to buy the album.

45. “Never Stop Doing What You Love” (2005)

The photo quality is really starting to improve but the subject matter is sending me to sleep. Look Paul we get it, you have a really sexy Hofner bass. You know it, we know it, now can we please move on and create some new imagery rather than relying on the established iconography over and over and over again? The minimalist colour palette and monochrome photo should, by all rights, be well up my hipster street, but the whole thing, again, feels poorly laid out and hastily put together. Also, apparently filling in the holes in the lettering and colouring it in was enough to count as a unique font type for this album. Christ I hope no one tells the designer of this cover to never stop doing what they love…ba dum tsssh.

44. “Good Evening New York City” (2010)

Whilst Paul is certainly the king of pop-rock, this adoption of the iconic “I’m King of the world” pose from Titanic just rubs me the wrong way as it pushes the image of McCartney as this iconic rock God that he just isn’t. I understand that he is that thing for a lot of people, and it much more suitable for a live album like this than a studio release, but the fact of the matter is, is that this whole image is derivative, unoriginal and fails to capture my imagination in any way. I wouldn’t say it’s poor, it’s just a very predictably safe and generically boring product. Yawn.

43. “Back in the U.S./World” (2002/3)

When you realise that this rear image of Paul may in fact be a callback to the rear cover of Sgt. Pepper, all it does is remind you of how colourful and vibrant and engaging that cover was, and by proxy, just how tired and factory produced this cover really is. Some of the design choices make sense conceptually, such as only using the iconic red, white and blue of the US flag, end up being executed very poorly and the whole thing just ends up being mind numbingly forgettable. Yeah its cute that Paulie is giving us the thumbs up, but I feel that the team that put this together were really giving us the finger.

42. “Give My Regards to Broadstreet” (1984)

It’s only fitting that a truly terrible film should have a truly terrible album, and that that album should have a truly terrible album cover, and McCartney doesn’t disappoint. Instead he offers us a cornucopia of strange design decisions (that you just know Paul was 100% in control of) including, but not limited to the awkward pairing of live action and hand drawn artwork, Paul’s cataracts inducing shirt, and the strangely rendered robber in the background. Then we come to perplexing look on Macca’s face. This is the face that four years earlier was fresh, youthful and full of life, and now in only four years he is dangerously close to looking like a confused old man who doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing. You know…kind of like the making of ‘Give My Regards to Broadstreet’.

41. “All the Best” (1987)

Right off the bat I can see how this one started out as a pretty bog standard McCartney “posing for the camera” type of album cover, and yeah it probably wouldn’t have been much higher than its spot now, but still, it would be better than the result we got which seems to be an album cover after McCarney’s kids covered it in some stickers they found in their dad’s office. I mean yuck, this thing is just ghastly isn’t it? The horrendous array of ugly, garish, and cheesy styles that are haphazardly copy-and-pasted illustrations creates this unbearably inconsistent pastiche of McCartney’s career that borders on self parody. If this is all the best, I’d hate to see the worst.

40. “Ocean’s Kingdom” (2011)

I like the idea behind this one, and the execution is executed quite uniquely as it eschews the usual underwater motif in lieu of a literal underwater kingdom. Now whilst I get the feeling the artists captured exactly what Macca had in mind, I guess the final product is just a little too dull and a little too empty to really resonate with anyone on any level. There just needs to either be a greater influx of style and detail in the artwork, or more going on visually to capture the imagination a little better.

39. “Off the Ground” (1992)

Before you start scrolling down, let me just say that I was not aware that I am not the biggest fan of Paul’s 90’s albums until I finished the final list, but yeah, whilst we are technically getting better, we are still in the doldrums folks. ‘Off the Ground’ should win an award for “The Most On-the-Nose and Creatively Obvious Album Cover” as this thing is just so offensively duuuuuuh. You know McCartney was excited when he thought of this concept, and was excited at executing such a quote unquote brilliant visual pun, and I’m glad at least one person was. What I will say is that I am a fan of the wonderfully bucolic landscape that adorns the bottom of the piece and I wish more of the piece focused more on that element, rather than Macca’s manky feet. Overall it’s just another blandly serene and tranquil album cover that does anything but excite you about the music within.

38. “Unplugged: The Official Bootleg” (1991)

Having never been a fan of Paul’s overall look in the nineties I was destined to never be a fan of this very bog standard album cover. It’s really nothing special. In fact is so non-special that I am finding it easier to write about it in terms of how non-special it is, than it is to come up with anything interesting to say about it. It’s literally just Paul with a guitar, with some putrid green guitar body just thrown on there carelessly. I’m not mad, just disappointed.

37. “Working Classical” (1999)

Here we have another case of an album cover not being particularly bad, but simply falling to the even greater folly of being a little bit too obvious and a little but too unoriginal. Yes, the use of clockwork cogs and gears against Macca’s face conveys the analogue workings of creating classic music, and it sells both the theme and contents of the album with visual brevity…but I can’t help but feel that there is clearly a better design waiting to be made out of these two solid design elements.

36. “Paul is Live” (1993)

Making meta, self-referential jokes is a risky venture as you risk alienating your core fan base who may perceive you as irreverently pissing on some established property that they already love. Don’t worry, I don’t think McCartney ruins the legacy of Abbey Road or anything, I even appreciate the nod to Martha the sheepdog, but the problem with this homage to The Beatles final album is that it is simply not distinct, or different enough to really justify its use in the first place. So even though it spawn a kitsch little chuckle from me the first time I saw it, it relies too heavily on the pre-established Beatles iconography and feels like a shameless cash grab more than anything.

35. “Memory Almost Full” (2007)

Honestly, I just look at this one and think…”I don’t get it”. This is just another obvious attempt of chic minimalism that just comes across as painfully low on fresh ideas. That garish pink has made a frightful return once more to blight this blog post, and the rest of the negative space is filled with a blacked out arm chair. Hey, do you know what isn’t cool? Being compared to a fucking armchair! I mean for heavens sake Paul has had enough flak in his career for making safe, family, fireside music and now that he is actually entering his greyer years you put him in a fucking armchair. Way to make the guy look hip and relevant assholes!

34. “Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio” (1991)

I get what this one was going for, I really do. Like it’s vintage, its high concept, and I get that. But it’s also a little bit silly right? Don’t get me wrong, I love ubermensch, propaganda art as much as the next guy, but what takes away from the power of the proletariat and the everyman/woman is their ridiculous expressions on their faces. Like I feel like I should be inspired to plough my field for the benevolent leader, but instead I just keep looking at those awkward fish mouths and I can’t help but snicker. Also, if your album cover unintentionally looks like a couple fleeing a burning building, something has gone wrong somewhere.

33. “Liverpool Sound Collage” (2000)

For an album called ‘Liverpool Sound Collage’ there is a surprisingly lack of collage on the cover, and whilst this may be intentionally ironic or making a comment about my expectations or something, it all goes over my head. To me it’s just an interesting little collection of random images devoid of meaning that allows you to bring to it what meaning you want to. In that regard it makes it rather difficult to place it on a list that categorises quality as this one may be on of the most subjective on this list. I would have put it lower as it kind of reminds me of some of the worst university posters of my youth, but I really do like that image of the screaming man in the centre (and it almost could be the sole image of a full album cover.

32. “Kisses From the Bottom”/“iTunes Live from Capitol Studios” (2012)

The motif of the two picture frames is an interesting one, again if they did something more with it. The positives. I like McCartney’s continued playfulness with typography as the lettering goes through one of the frames, and I like that one of the frames (on Kisses From the Bottom) is empty as it plays against what you think would be there and makes you ask more questions than it answers. The negatives. Both have a lot of dull negative white space that has been done to death by this point in Paul’s career (which is mitigated somewhat on the live album version), and on of that the primary black-and-white photos just lack any real charm or warmth. In one he is holding a bunch of flowers so corny they make Richard Curtis blush and the other looks like a brooding headshot for Macca’s burgeoning acting career. I know Paul was head over heels for his new missus, but these two covers are resting on the cute factor far too much to carry them through.

31.“Ecce Cor Meum” (2006)

As a fan of podcast thumbnails and having a best friend who does similar designs to this, it was always going to get a little bias boost from me up this list. The intricate way the E, the C and the M are interwoven into this druid calligraphy version art nouveau is a marvel of design and I find it a very satisfying minimalistic image. Unlike the other two classical album we have already seen, there is simply no cheese to be found, and along with it’s wonderfully simple presentation makes this foray by McCartney into the world of classical music seem the most ancient, epic and credible of the bunch.

30. “Tripping the Live Fantastic” (1990)

Aaand the Hofner bass is back with a vengeance, but like you’ve never seen it before. Straight off the bat, what I do like about this one is that the visual pun is executed with fair greater poise and effect than in the case of ‘Off the Ground”. This time around the phrase actually has something to do with show business itself as well as Paul’s own illustrious history with drug culture. Whilst I am sure the live show is nowhere near as psychedelic as this cover implies, I must admit that this one actually has a genuine pull to it and I am wanting to see what lies within.

29. “Press to Play” (1986)

The cover for Press to Play is the perfect example of me and McCartney simply having different tastes. With this he was obviously trying to evoke that classic Hollywood feel of the 30’s and 40’s, but for me this is just a look that I personally don’t feel as if he and Linda pull it off at all. I think the positioning is awkward, and the overly sentimental touch to the album does nothing in terms of making McCartney look like an contemporary recording artist. I mean if he was on top of his game like during a Band on the Run or a Flowers in the Dirt period, then maybe he could be so backwards looking, but when he was already starting to look owrryingly irrelevant he puts out an image of him looking more outmoded than ever. Oh yeah, maybes thats a the joke and it went over my head. Maybe, but probably not. The worst thing about this album cover is that when you see the alternative cover that was used for the Press to Play Sessions bootleg, you will actually come across a much more charming, tender, and loving photo of the McCartney’s that gets rid of all that melodrama and just gives us what we want.

28. “Flowers in the Dirt” (1989)

Ignoring the fact that this is clearly attempting to challenge Off the Ground for that coveted (and totally real) award for “The Most On-the-Nose and Creatively Obvious Album Cover”, the artwork on display here isn’t totally without charm or stylistic merit. I mean maybe I am just grateful to see an actually painting by this point, but I can’t ignore the fact that every time I see it there is something slightly off putting within the whole composition that just comes across as ugly and makes me feel uneasy.

27. “Pipes of Peace” (1983)

We got the pipes sure, but where is the peace? By it very nature this cover will be compared to Tug of War and unfortunately (and very much like the content therein) it doesn’t match up at all. Now firstly what is cool is the fact that this image is not the result of many composited images but a series of giant “Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ sized pipes on a real set. but beyond the respect for the craft, what is this image meant to be doing for me? The pipes are not an poignant enough image in their own right, and outside of the sheer novelty of the affair, it offers very little in terms of captivating content.

26. “Run Devil Run” (1999)

I wanted Run Devil Run to be somewhere near the centre of this list as it is one of the songs that I am most unsure about overall. There are many elements of the composition that I like, for example the incorporation of the title into the ‘world’ of the image (ala Apocalypse Now) but on the other hand I think the whole thing is just too busy and awfully cluttered for what it is. Is it poor execution and a great concept or a poor concept with great execution?

25. “Wings at the Speed of Sound” (1976)

Finally, the first Wings record of the bunch, and the only one in the lower half of the list. To put it simply, the cover for Wings at the Speed of Sound either fails for it fails to stir any notion of intrigue or excitement in the potential buyer, or it succeeds as its band, uninteresting facade is the perfect reflection of the lukewarm music within. Quaint as it is, the whole “ye olde” box office/Broadway look is completely inappropriate, not just for the album, but for the band in general as this album “in theory” is being released at their peak of popularity, so logically it should reflect that to the fullest. Instead what we get is something an uninspired art student could have done on a sheet of lined paper.

24. “CHOBA B CCCP” (1988)

I have always been fascinated by Soviet Russia, even going so far as to do an art module on Soviet propaganda whilst I was at school so when I found out Macca had done an album specifically to give an injection of rock’n’roll to the USSR I was excited to see what would adorn the packaging as I knew Paul would not let such a fertile design opportunity slip through his fingers. Right? Well, he does and he doesn’t. Don’t worry it’s mostly in the does category, as the red star, mixed with the classic, blocky typography, as well as the decision to keep the title in Russian, all fit the theme wonderfully, but I guess I would have preferred something more along the lines of Weird Al Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun, even if that style is a little more on the nose, and may not have sent the best political message. The cover that we are left with certainly fit the bill, but unfortunately it plays it far too safe to make an impact.

23. “Flaming Pie” (1997)

In stark contrast to the opinions I expressed earlier, Flaming Pie is possibly the one example where I would have preferred an album cover that was completely on the nose. Am I the only one that thinks that the image of a literal flaming pie in the style of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, would have been better than what we got. Not that what we got was bad at all, again it sits rather comfortably in the middle of this list, and the worn, aged image of Paul, that almost seems to be peeling off the very record itself, has a fantastic nostalgic feeling to it, all whilst makings Paul look wonderfully young thanks to the blurry photo!

22. “Wingspan: Hits and History” (2001)

The Wings hand symbol never quite caught on as a universal symbol for the band in the way that I am sure McCartney would have wanted, but in a way I have always had a soft spot for its dorky cuteness. Now the use of it hear to represent the literal Wingspan of Wings’ career is absolutely genius, both in its neon, pop art design work that contrasts brilliantly with that bold blue, and in the way that it is a warm Easter egg/nod to the fans. Regardless of the fans though the image itself is fun, lively, and it captures the tone of Wings wonderfully; conveying a fun, light hearted, colourful musical experience within. Fuck I just that blue.

21. “London Town” (1978)

Most people spend most of their time talking about the cover fro London Town they focus on the politics of the removal of Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English, but not me. In all honesty I think the single element that stands out here London Town boasts the single best photo of Linda McCartney to date, and the album cover, if nothing else, sells her charm and role within the band perfectly. Of course, there is much more going on than just the lovely Linda’s lovely grin. We have Paul looking very suave, and Denny looking very stoned, and the whole trio come across as very windswept and interesting (as Billy Connolly would put it). This albums cover only really works in conjunction with it’s rear cover as the juxtaposition of the monochromatic, greyscale London against the technicoloured, Caribbean reimagining of London, with the band all in their summer wear, makes for a joyfully effective contrast.

20. “Red Rose Speedway” (1973)

Ahhh, now we can get to the juicy stuff. Here we have the infamous ‘granny cardigan’ photo whereby the studio clearly panicked over Wild Life‘s poor sales and not so subtly began to overemphasise the Paul McCartney element of Paul McCartney and Wings. Oh how I love this album artwork. And yes, this is one of those ironic, hipster loves whereby I honestly harbour affection for it because of how objectively bad it is. It truly is a work of awkward, overly sentimental, tacky, lowest common denominator art, as it seeks to push the most homogenised, safe and non-controversial version of McCartney to potential shoppers. Is the rose in the mouth a reference to the work of René Magritte? Who knows.

19. “Electric Arguments” (2008)

I have been holding back on my overall thoughts on McCartney’s little side project known as ‘The Fireman’ for some time now as I want those future episodes/blog posts to be as fresh as possible, but fortunately this is just the cover, and based on that one is apparently not supposed to judge the book therein. Anyway.

McCartney is a very instinctive painter. He is very confident with his brush strokes whenever he commits them to paper and I am yet to see footage of him going “oh shit” and painting over/correcting a mistake. Just like some of his most inventive creations in the studio, these paintings are very spontaneous, rarely thought out ahead of time and are really subconscious in their makeup. This colourfully devil may care style of artwork is clearly on display for Electric Arguments as the whole thing looks like it was done in one extemporaneous sitting with little to no thought put into the final outcome and basically means nothing…you know, in the best possible way ever!!!

18. “Rushes” (1998)

Sometimes with art you can’t quite put your finger on the real reason/s why you like something. You just have to trust your instincts and roll with it. Is it the fact that the whole image is one overgrown post box? Is it the distinctive crack in the screen? Is it the fact that it is essentially an overly magnified slice of everyday British life? Is it the images thick, shiny, tactile quality that makes it feel real and not a photo? Do I just have an affinity for Ferrari red? Honestly, I don’t know, but what I do know is that I really, really, really like it.

17. “Thrillington” (1977)

Being a fan of both Eyes Wide Shut, Illuminati sex parties and violins, I was bound to be rather enamoured with the anthropomorphic, bestial hybrid musician that is Percy Thrillington. Possibly one of the starkest ‘album cover quality to album quality’ ratios on this list (saying I loath this album is an understatement), this charming little illustration has this blend of the surreal and photorealism that really messes with your head in a way that really appeals to me. You just don’t see stuff like that everyday. It’s like McCartney is defiantly culture mashing those very formal, and classically styled 78rpm records, with the audaciously vivid RAM art style, and creating something very unique and tongue in cheek as a result.

16. “Driving Rain” (2001)

There is a myth, that was even parroted to me by friend of the show Tom Kwei (check out our podcast together where we discuss McCartney II), whereby this album cover was supposedly taken on a Gameboy Camera, however it turns out it was taken on a Casio Wristwatch instead. Now whilst you can clearly tell that this photo was taken on a very low res camera, what it achieves in doing is breaking down what it means to be a high production album cover. If the McCartney II album cover with its basic photo was cheap in 1980, then a digital pic from 2001 should stand as the ultimate “fuck you” album cover. I really dig this cover purely for the fact that it makes no effort to make Paul look good, and instead the imperfections int he image force you to look at it much more closely. The blocky, pixelated shot of McCartney leaning forlorn against a mirror is a fantastic shot that shows the analogue star of rock’n’roll yesteryear facing down a new millennium of music.

15. “Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest” (1993)

I was always a fan of the plain audacity of The Beatles/The White Album (1968), but the shift from the reserved, colourlessness of The Beatles ‘anti-album artwork’ album artwork to the boldest, loudest declaration of danger ever was a simple, yet effective play on a standard. The homage is carried further by the serial numbers that appear in the top right. What I particularly love about this one is the offset text that doesn’t quite fit onto the cover, it lures you in by with holding some vital part of the puzzle no matter which way you look at it, and for an album where Macca is adopting a secret persona it is appropriately mysterious. The way the text wraps around the album forces you to actually pick it up to see what the rest says, thus engaging you mentally, and ensuring the sale of an extra few hundred units. Quite clever really.

14. “Tug of War” (1982)

I am already giving this one bonus points purely because the photo is actually from the Tug of War/Pipes of Peace sessions, so it has a great historical record element to it, but it’s also just another cracking Linda snap. The whole image is just so wonderfully full of life and appropriately heralds Macca’s impending return to form. Paul’s pose evokes that of the impending listener, and the way he clasps the headphones not only shows how precious the music coming out of them is, but it also reminds me of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, which considering the death of John Lennon, may not be accidental. The striking red/blue colour scheme literally clashes across the cover as the segments evoke both block video games like Tetris and Pong, thus creating the titular tug of war. Like McCartney II before it, it works in making Macca look very fresh faced and youthful as he heads even deeper into his fourth decade.

13.”Wild Life” (1972)

There’s something so utterly charming about the cover for Wings debut album. Like the band itself the cover is delightfully cobbled together and rather effectively, it does feel very much like a ‘back-to-square-one’ type of band. It’s a cheap, probably free location to shoot in, the subjects are all dressed in their own clothes, and my golly gee whizz there is just so much of this thing that is blurred and out of focus that I cannot possibly help but be completely charmed by it. The luscious greens and spring yellows perfectly convey the folky nature of the group as well as reinforcing the fact that this is a new beginning for McCartney. Like the band it is unsure of what it is, why it’s there and is rough as hell around the edges. Honestly the only way they could make this better is if it was a watercolour painting. For all its flaws it’s a gorgeous shot and captures a moment in time I truly wish I could have been a part of.

Now as an irrelevant aside, I have always thought there was some symbolism as to why McCartney is stood in the water and the rest of them sit upon the branch, but in all likely hood its probably just because Macca couldn’t get on the branch and hold his guitar at the same time.

12. “Venus and Mars” (1975)

Nothing better than a pair of balls on the front of your album cover eh? In all seriousness I have always been a fan of this album cover…ever since I physically bought a copy of it. Yeah until I held it in my hand it felt a little overly simplistic and silly, but ever since I handed over that ten pounds I have since come to admire the beauty in its minimalist composition. The use of two snooker/pool balls in lieu of the titular planets is a cunningly analogue way of representing that concept, and the fact that its a real photo as opposed to a painting, means the whole thing looks vibrantly real and deliciously tangible. Like I want to reach ouch and bite into those gorgeous red and yellow spheres.

11. “Pure McCartney” (2016)

I like RAM-era Macca and I like beards okay…

10. “NEW” (2013)

I’ve been bashing a lot of the minimalist covers on this list so I am glad this one made it into the top ten. At the time of publishing NEW is the only studio album that Paul has released during the time of which I have been his little fan boy and I must admit I was pretty won over by the visual brevity and charming colour palette. It’s very classy, very contemporary (secretary) and very new. It does the job with efficiency and restraint, and is overall way better than any album cover that a man recording for 43 years is usually afforded. Plus pink is just cool. The colour not the singer. Like Venus and Mars I am a sucker for actually still photography, and nothing looks quite as appealing as neon shot well.

9. “Wings Over America” (1976)

Never has an album cover managed to evoke the excitement of an imminent arrival of Paul McCartney and Wings more effectively than the cover to the bands iconic live album. The image pays tribute to the fact that the band would be inevitably arriving by plane to the states from the UK and that the entire country would be waiting with baited breath for the doors to that airliner to open, because when they do…it’s on!!! Obviously this is also an image that has a fantastic grasp of history as it knowingly exploits the nostalgia that was generated when the Beatles also stepped off a similar plane in a similar way all those years ago. Honestly it isn’t the most artsy cover (despite the fact that it has the best single inner sleeve of any McCartney release), but the concept, which is followed through on the individual disc sleeves, is just so interesting and vivid that I just have to give credit where credit is due.

8. “Wings Greatest” (1978)

Probably the most expensive album cover on this list. In fact this fucker cost close to £8,000.00 and in 1978 that was more like £47,360.00, aaaaaand in my humble opinion it is money well spent as this is just such an amazing, arresting image. How can you not think this is cool? To me this is just some tip top composition, colour and iconography. I got given this album along with my father’s copy of Band on the Run and I’ve pretty much loved it ever since, as there is something so enjoyably random about the use of the figure from Assyrian legend, Semiramis, for the front cover of a pop rock band. There doesn’t seem to be and rhyme or reason to it, and honestly i don’t want there to be. I just want it to be a beautiful image, and that is simply what is is. Just admire it’s beauty.

Oh, and I just love the way she is all “Ta da!!!”. I know it’s most likely an unintended, secondary byproduct of the image, but frankly, it’s adorable and is the one, single emotive concept that you wish to convey when display a greatest hits album.

7. “Back to the Egg” (1979)

I know this probably isn’t in the top ten of many of you out there, but I am a pretty big Back to the Egg wave at the moment, and I am nothing, if not a slave to my emotions. As Wings final album cover it is admittedly very nice to see the whole band actually adorn the cover, something they haven’t done since their debut, and it highlights the massive journey the band has been on ever since they started out as that quaint little folk band. Now like any sequel that has ran out of ideas we have Paul McCartney…IN SPAAAAAACE, and in all fairness the idea of the band leaving earth does accurately reflect the ambitious experimentation with the bands sound that can be found on the record.

It’s also a wonderfully trippy image, and the jarring composition featuring the hatch into the infinitive void of space seeing to be located in someones living room (perhaps underneath a rug), harkens back to the psychedelic world of music that Paul really hasn’t dabbled in for a while. Honestly, this front cover would be my ultimate nightmare, and for that reason I cannot help but find the image totally engaging and enthralling.

Also, bonus points if you can spot the statue of Semiramis in the background on the mantlepiece. It’s the only moment of continuity in the Wings album cover canon and it almost makes me wonder whether Paul had intended this new version of the band to

6. “Twin Freaks” (2005)

What we see here is an actual piece of art. What we have here, is what seems to be an attempt by two artists (the titular twin freaks, McCartney and Roy Kerr) to do the same painting twice on the same piece of paper at the same time. It is perfectly non-perfect and its striking asymmetry creates a fresh image that you genuinely will not have seen before. The colours are bold, and eye-catching, and the general weirdness of the whole composition is just perfect for making anyone and everyone who walks past it go “huh?”, and in doing so, getting them to pick up the album. What it also does, and I think this was entirely intentional, is explain what the album is to the buyer without having to use conventional words. The imagery shows a complicated and jarring collaboration of two artists with perviously strong and diverse backgrounds. They will both be working towards an established goal, but they will both bring something different and freaky to the project which will in turn be something that you genuinely will not have heard before.

Much of this album cover’s high placement has been due to the fact that I am just fucking obsessed with this album recently, and I am simply using this list as an excuse to give it some much needed exposure. Though, on that note I think one Paul’s new dubstep album (yes that is a real thing by the way) features two songs off this album so hopefully it will get more of the love that it deserves.

5. “McCartney” (1970)

This is the part where about 30% of you go, “wait, isn’t that picture of McCartney with his kid in the furry coat the front cover of this album?” and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no, that is the back cover. And now this the part where I inevitably annoy more than that 30% by saying that I much prefer the “cherry cover” than that cutesy McCartney propaganda. The thing I like about this image, and this one may be the most subjective selection on this list, but I think that this image is one of the most directly striking in the McCartney canon. There is a common parlance phrase “Aint life a bowl of cherries?”, usually meaning how fucking bad life is. It’s a very sardonic and British turn of phrase which reflects the general melancholy and sadness surrounding the Beatles. Whilst Paul was in that band he had the bowl of cherries, but now that bowl has been spilled out all over the kitchen counter. The party is over. And this is all said without a word.

4. “McCartney II” (1980)

Perfectly capturing the look of a prison mug shot, the cover for McCartney II (which I have referenced more in this article than any other for some reason) is the perfect album for the year in which it had been released. Having just got out of a brief stint in jail for marijuana possession this single cover does more for McCartney’s image as a rebel and a bad boy than nine years in Wings could ever do. Not too much to say about this one besides the fact that I just think its the coolest Paul has ever looked, and the head on image of Paul’s face succinctly lets you know that this isn’t post-Beatle Paul, this isn’t Paul and Linda, and it certainly isn’t Wings. What this cover does more than any other on this list, is let you know that this is Paul McCartney.

3. “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” (2005)

Based on a photo taken in 1962 by Mike “McGear” McCartney titled ‘Our Kid Through Mum’s Net Curtains’, the cover for Paul’s shockingly potent return to form in 2005 was appropriately gifted the single most strikingly effective and spine-tinglingly nostalgic image of all time for McCartney fans. It’s also a shrewd financial move as Beatles imagery is much more identifiable and marketable, ensuring that there will be at least a few shoppers who buy the album on recognition alone. I think Paul has spent so long avoiding his Beatle past that we as an audience are now ok with him indulging himself in a bit of historical self congratulation. And on top of all of that, credit to Mike, it’s objectively a phenomenal photo. Even if you have no idea who Paul McCartney is, you can still appreciate the beauty of the shot.

To see our Paulie so fresh faced and so innocent is just so perfect as it gets you excited for his future career as through dramatic irony we know what lies ahead for him, but that excitement also passes onto the buyer getting excited for this album by proxy. The fact that he would use an image of such a youngling version of himself when he was now pushing 62 was a stroke of genius on the part of his marketing department as it highlights the journey that not only Paul has been on, but perhaps the listener too. They know what we like, they know how to exploit our nostalgia glands and I’m not going to lie, I would eat up every McCartney release, no matter how pointless or tenuous, if they all sported such wonderful historical Macca snaps such as these.

2. “RAM” (1971)

In contrast with the reserved, rather muted presentation of McCartney the year before, Macca, this time, goes for a much more blatantly vibrant and eye catching affair this time around. The image itself is made up of the now iconic photo of Paul taking the ram by the horns, with overlays of bright colours around it, giving it a chaotic immaturity, whereby the cover actually could be passed off as some doodling that was graffitied onto a family photo (family is also a major theme of the album). It’s just bursting at the seams with creativity, and it almost feels like the very fact it has to be a physical product seems to be holding the ideas back. The glorious use of yellow and the quasi-Africana stripe patterns on the edge are literally bringing colour to McCartney’s life in the composition, very much in the way that the fact he is now recording music is bringing a colour into his life.

The fact that the photo is of Paul on his farm is also perfectly reflective of both the albums bucolic leanings as well as his real life accommodations at the time of recording. This really is a rustic, farmyard album and yet the bold use of colour reinforces a notion of taking the ordinary and through creativity, and maybe even a dash of love, turning it into something extraordinary, which is exactly what Paul did whilst making RAM. Now, whilst it is the rear cover of this album that has achieved notoriety with its infamous “Beatle fucking” image, but to me, that stirring shot of Paul taking his life back into his hands was so fucking evocative for me that it ensured I will never forget it, and whilst I know in my heart of hearts it is not the best…it is certainly my personal favourite. #bias4RAM

1. “Band on the Run” (1973)

It was never not going to be this one was it. Some images are iconic because they are good and some are iconic because they happen to be on iconic albums, though in this case, it’s certainly both. What makes this cover work above all the others is that I can truly picture the image alone being enough to really striking a chord with someone in a shop somewhere, tip them over the edge and make them buy this record. It’s that good. Like McCartney II many years later, this is the ultimate image boost for McCartney as this image sets him up not only as a bad boy caught in the act of escaping “the man”, but it also puts him amidst a pantheon of popular pop culture figures to further seal his status as a “cool dude“. This is obviously just one the many elements that made up the perfect storm that was Band on the Run, but it really stands alone as a work of art. The sheer complex choreography in its composition, and the way it so perfectly captures a vivid moment so time reminds me of classical renaissance artwork like Da Vinci, and saying that this album cover is Wings’ Last Supper, or if you want to be even more heretical, their Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, is a fair comparison in my eyes. Yet despite all this staging and precision, the whole thing still has a very stark immediacy to it, and it genuinely feels like a moment, a moment that you want to get involved in. It feels historical and contemporary at the same time, and just fills any potential buyer with real excitement. I believe the term is magus opus.

Aaaaand there we are folks. Wow, 48 entries! Why do I do this to myself? Only our Lord Macca knows, but anyway, I hope you enjoyed going through McCartney’s artistic album covers with me as much as I did writing about it. It has been refreshing to not have to talk about music for one on this blog, and being able to discuss McCartney’s obvious flair for visually stimulating art.

But this where you come in. What did you think of my list of the best and the worst Paul McCartney album covers? Was my list similar to how you would have ranked these covers, or would you have made significant changes? Which covers do you think I was too nice too or too harsh on? Leave and all comments down below, or contact me via Twitter, @McCartneypod, or drop us an email at paulmccartneypod@gmail.com, to let me know your thoughts.

Thank you so much for reading my poxy little, tin pot blog. Your constant support and kind words are always appreciated, and stick around for the next Paul or Nothing article just around the corner.

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