Hello and welcome to Art Before Noise. My name is Craig and let's just say that I am an older (gentle)man in my fifties, and I have had music on in the background (and the foreground) for as long as I can remember. From my first vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and now Spotify. All of it. All genres, all decades, all moods. Music has never really been background noise for me, it has always just been....there.

But this blog isn't about music.

It's about the thing you see before you hear a single note. The artwork. The cover. The art of the cover. That first impression that either pulls you in or leaves you cold before the noise starts. It's Art Before Noise.

I've been staring at album covers my whole life. Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Those early Bowie albums where he graces the cover. Revolver by The Beatles, a personal fave and probably the best Beatles album ever. And, Maggot Brain by Funkadelic. You know the one. These aren't just records to me, they're objects. Visual statements. Pieces of art. Sometimes the cover is the first argument the artist makes, and I find that fascinating.

There used to be a blog called Sleevage that did something like this beautifully. It's gone now. I miss it. And, I don't think there's much out there on the internet that gives album cover art the attention it deserves.

So here we are.

This is my passion project. Art Before Noise will go deep on famous covers, shine a light on the overlooked ones, argue about controversial ones, and occasionally just celebrate the ones that stopped me in my tracks as I walked past that album sitting on the shelf. If you want to know more about the album cover sitting in your collection, then this could be the place for you.

If you'd like new posts delivered straight to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mail list. No spam, just covers worth talking about. You can also find me on [social platforms] where I share thoughts, discoveries, and the occasional rabbit hole.

Thanks for dropping by.

Craig