X Marks the Record Cover
A survey of maps on album art
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Within the first hours of his second term as president, Donald J. Trump signed an executive order changing the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This action was included amidst others on behalf of “restoring names that honor American greatness,” according to the official White House website. The maneuver caused significant controversy worldwide, prompting Google to publish a blog post explaining how the change would take effect for its billions of global users.
The first map to exist is believed to be a Babylonian clay tablet from 2500 BCE, according to professional cartographer Damien Saunder. In 1585, Gerardus Mercator created the map we all know today of the Earth as a flat surface. But like many maps, it has “attracted ire in some quarters, with its detractors suggesting it distorts the shape of continents, diminishing the size of Africa, for example, while enlarging the northern latitudes of Europe and today’s United States of America,” according to The Times. Today, where someone was born on a map has provoked some of the most extreme government-sanctioned violence seen in years, from Minneapolis to Gaza.
Yet, maps are not always divisive tools. As Saunders shows in his book Maps on Vinyl, they can also serve as a celebration of culture and art. “This atlas shows that when sleeve designers use a map, its inclusion is never a random choice. It is often to make a deliberate link to the artist’s origin, the album title or lyrical themes, and it frequently reflects the artist’s political, social, and environmental views and values.” An expansive atlas of over 400 record covers, Maps on Vinyl features maps, both literal and figurative, across the medium of album art. From cartographic to geographic, oceanic, abstract, and more, this volume opened my eyes not just to how many map album covers exist, but also to how prevalent maps are in our day-to-day.
British household name Danny L Harle (member of PC Music and producer behind artists like Caroline Polachek and Dua Lipa) released his debut album, Cerulean, this month. The album cover depicts Harle seated in what appears to be a control room overlooking an aerial nighttime view, as if from a plane or a spaceship. The back cover, along with the rest of the packaging, resembles a radar map. In an Instagram video, Harle mentions that “navigation” is a constant theme throughout the record's lyrics.
Since I’ve set out on this scavenger hunt, the list has grown exponentially. On the insert of Go 2, XTC included a map of Swindon, England, where the band formed. The other day, Jake Newby sent me photos of Chinese musician Li Daiguo’s debut EP, “Music For Advertisements,” which is wrapped in real Chengdu street maps (each pressing includes a different map with computer paper that includes the record info glued on). In 2022, designers Li Jheng-han & Yu Wei won Taiwan’s first Grammy for the record packaging of their oceanic landscape for Pakelang. And lastly, Yuma Burgess, the same artist who created the cover for the aforementioned Harle, designed a subway map for Caroline Polachek’s Desire I Want to Turn Into You.
Now that I have the pleasure of owning Maps on Vinyl (thank you, Damien), I need every single one of you to know about it and also begin this scout. No, this isn’t a sponsored post, but on another business-related note, should I start an album art book club? Below, I’ve included a few of my favorite covers from Maps on Vinyl, along with some excerpts written by Damien:
Pat Harrington, Come-All-Ye’s (1939)
According to Saunder’s research, this is the first album cover to feature a map on its cover! “Sleeve design at this time was primarily restricted to one of two colors, as record labels were yet to utilise four-colour printing.”
Fumio Karashima, Hot Islands (1979)
“The late Fumio Karashima was one of Japan’s leading jazz pianists… The name of the album was inspired by Japan’s proximity to the Ring of Fire, a path of active volcanoes and seismic sites, which runs directly through Japan’s 14,000-plus islands, including the big four islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The artwork is by Japanese illustrator Shigenari Onishi, who created a fictitious island group across the front and rear covers. Towns on the islands inherit instrument names, ferry lines carry song titles and the islands themselves are named after each member of the quartet.”
Madonna, “Borderline” (1984)
The cover for the 1984 UK pressing of Madonna’s ‘Borderline’ single was designed by well-known British record sleeve designer Peter Barrett… At the time, Madonna’s music was crossing from the US into the UK, which was the inspiration for the cover. Barrett photocopied maps of New York City and London onto coloured papers, which were then used as wallpaper to support a collage of pop-art-like images.”
Flipper, Public Flipper Limited Live 1980-85 (1986)
This record folds out into “a map of the USA by artist Norman Quebedeau, which doubles as a giant board game when unfolded. The “Flipper on Tour” spinning board game sees players moving from city to city, picking up one of 40 game cards with every move. Each card lists a tour activity, through which players win or lose points. Activities such as ‘band fight’ will lose a player five points and send them back five spaces, while, perhaps predictably ‘wake up in pretty girl’s bed’ will earn them 10 points. After visiting each city on the map, the player with the most points wins.”
Various Artists, Neapolitan Metropolitan (1992)
“In 1991, Simple Machines co-founder Jenny Toomey dropped into a Ben & Jerry’s for an ice cream. She came across a store policy that if you brought your own spoon you would get a free scoop. As Toomey recalls, ‘Ben & Jerry’s was using ice cream as a reward for those customers who didn’t use a disposable plastic spoon.’ After contacting Ben & Jerry’s HQ, Toomey learnt that each of its stores annually donates 4 percent of its ice cream to neighborhood events. Inspired by such interest in community development (and ice cream), Neapolitan Metropolitan was born. A triple 7” box set with 12 flavours (representing bands) on Richmond (pink vinyl), Baltimore (green) and Washington DC (white). This beautifully packaged box set, with historic maps on each record representing the three cities, comes complete with its own wooden spatula.”
Rasix & Sociedad Violenta, Punk y Qué? (2012)
Colombian punk bands Rasix and Sociedad Violenta came together to make a record centered around themes of “oppression, violence, destruction, and fascism. Historically, Colombia has suffered from high levels of inequality, and this has been the source of long-standing conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and the government. A noose around the Guajira Peninsula, gun violence in Medellin (the home town of both bands), oil refineries, bombs, tanks, flying money and sinking ships all illustrate the history of conflict that the country has experienced over the last five decades.”
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno, The Equatorial Stars (2014)
Each track on the duo’s third collaboration, “is named after a constellation. The cover features a detail from Philip’s Star Chart, first published in 1940 under the editorship of English schoolmaster Ernest Tancock. In subsequent years, the map quickly became the standard wall chart for amateur astronomers around the world. The star map includes all 88 constellations, the brightest stars, double stars, variables and deep-sky objects. It features maps of the northern and southern skies and stars of the equatorial region, as pictured on the cover of this record.”
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Love the Flipper one which is also a game! A great map artwork example is a band called Is Tropical who released “Black Anything” in five parts over the course of one year. Each vinyl had a continent image on it (where the songs were recorded). When the vinyls are stacked they make a map of the World!
Great - I nominate A Certain Ratio - Force