Best Album Cover

I'm a fan of the simpler covers. These two immediately come to mind:

 

I always thought Meddle was cool.
Here's the story behind it.

Packaging
The album's title Meddle is a play on words: a medal, and to interfere.[16] Storm Thorgerson of the art-design group Hipgnosis originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anus for the album cover photograph. He was overruled by the band, who informed him via an intercontinental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear underwater".[19] The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the water).[16] Thorgerson has expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I think Meddle is a much better album than its cover".[20] Thorgerson's colleague Aubrey Powell shares his sentiments, saying: "Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all; it's half-hearted."[21] The gatefold contains a group photograph of the band (Floyd's last until 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason).[20]

 

these album covers are definitely iconic, but they're largely iconic because they were iconic albums. appetite for destruction looks like a bad ripoff of numerous iron maiden albums featuring eddie the head. doesn't win any points for originality. a guy being set on fire and shaking another guy's hand? what, was evel knievel booked that day?

 

The newspaperman in me actually likes the Lies cover almost as much, even though they used a shitty page designer:

 

You should see the cover they wanted to do.

 

Damn you, Machine.

 

I have an almost irrational hatred of Guns N Roses.
I just can't stand them. The songs, their artwork........I just can't stand them.
However, my hatred of Guns N Roses is nothing to the way I feel about Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Everything about them just makes me want to jab a screwdriver through my eardrum.

 

As previously mentioned, Led Zeppelin III always one of my favorites.

For Pink Floyd, I'll go with Ummagumma. If you look close, it's a picture of the band inside a picture of the band inside a picture of the band ... and in each photo, the band members switch positions. Tough to do in 1968, before Photoshop.

And in middle of the gatefold (it's a double LP), the band pictures include a shot of Roger Waters with his first wife. I'm told she was edited out of the picture on the CD release.

You can see the photos here: Ummagumma