Hand Drawn CD Covers – Trend or Am I Seeing Something?

I was in the local big-box book retailer the other day to pick up a copy of Elvis Costello‘s latest masterpiece, and noticed a curious thing: many of the new “albums” (I’m showing my age) OK, CD’s had hand drawn cover art.

Maybe I’ve been chatting too much with graphic designers these days on Twitter (@mikeconaty for those who don’t know already). Is it a trend? Am I just seeing things? Who knows, but in any case, here are some new releases (and in some cases yet to be released) CD’s with hand drawn cover art. While there are some familiar artists on the list (at least to me), There are others I have never heard of, and who, quite frankly, may stink… but hey, they have hand drawn CD covers, so they made the list.

This is not a recommended list (except for Elvis, Steve Earle, and Levon Helm, because they all rock, no matter what). New stuff to discover. I wish that Amazon provided information about the album, but they don’t so the credits for the cover art come from my favorite music poop site: AllMusic.

Full Disclosure: The links to Amazon.com all have my affiliate ID, so if you use it, I will make billions from it… OK, a few cents. Hey, worth a shot, right? :-)

Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Design: Coco Shinomiya
Illustrations: Tony Millionaire
Album Info at AllMusic
Buy Secret, Profane and Sugarcane at Amazon

Dave Matthews Band: Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King
Package Design: Mary Fagot, Eric Roinestad
Album Info at AllMusic
Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King at Amazon

Paolo Nutini: Sunny Side Up

Catherine MacLellan: Water in the Ground
Photography: Patrick Nichols (that’s what’s listed at AllMusic)
Album Info at AllMusic
Water in the Ground at Amazon

Steve Earle: Townes
Cover Art: Tony Fitzpatrick
Album Info at AllMusic
Buy Townes at Amazon

Christian McBride & Inside Straight - Kind of Brown

Fat Freddy's Drop: Dr Boondigga & the Big Bw

The Builders and the Butchers: Salvation Is a Deep Dark Well

Iggy Pop: Preliminaires
Guitar, Vocals, Engineer, Author, Concept: Iggy Pop
Album Info at AllMusic
Buy Preliminaires at Amazon

Levon Helm: Electric Dirt

Moby: Wait For Me