Artwork explained

There is a decline in CD productions, many albums aren't released in a physical format at all these days, making it more and more difficult for artists to showcase what they are about.

Strong music is one thing but many artists also express themselves visually and branding is everything these days, which contradicts the trend to not release music on CD or vinyl.

There was a time when music lovers found great delight in the artwork of their favourite bands. The Sweet once released an album on vinyl in the pre-CD days that revealed an almost real-looking guitar once the LP cover was opened up.

Kiss offered their fans do-it-yourself kits of a gun in the inner sleeve of their mid-70's album "Love Gun" album and one didn't need glasses to decipher the lyrics.

When CD's came along a lot of the once hailed artworked became secondary, while posters of Iron Maiden's Eddie figure still sold well at gigs for instance.

Being an 'old school' artist who loves any artistic output that comes as a package and includes exciting and meaningful artwork, I will take my albums apart and tell the untold stories behind the cover in soon-to-follow posts.

Please don't settle for nameless downloads. There is a reason why band T-shirts and merchandise still sells well.