Music album covers with birds on them

140 albums with birds on the covers.

Here are 140 album covers with birds on them. Now why would we create something like this? Well, we were inspired by this image on flickr, which shows 415 albums with birds on the cover. We wondered how we could recreate something like that and set to work. It turns out that it was harder that it seems. First, you need a lot of album covers in the composite image to get the colors bands/separation to look pleasing.

We chose mostly albums with birds on the front and not people. And we limited ourselves to albums that we could find in www.discogs.com. We also opted for a rectangular orientation that constrained presentation of colors. If we get enough energy, we'll think about this problem again. Our end result is not as pleasing as the image on flickr.

To make this image, we used Visual Studio Code as an editor, studied this tutorial: Using the HTML5 Drag and Drop API, and read up on CSS Grid Layout Module. With these references as a guide, we created a simple HTML page, and in the browser we used drag and drop to move images around to a configuration we liked and then saved page. Kind of low tech, but it worked.

For an updated image, see Album covers with birds on them – 238 birds on the cover!

Here's the list of albums used in this post (left to right and bottom to top):

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Let Me Get By

Floorplan - Paradise

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Old Crow Medicine Show - Best Of

Roger Lion - Roger Lion

Relient K - The Bird and thew Bee Sides 

The Parlor Mob - And You Were a Crow.jpg" alt=" " class="grid-image"></div>

Raven - Raven

Earlimart - Everyone Down Here 

Arooj Aftab - Bird Under Water

Crooked Fingers - Crooked Fingers

Jim Guthrie - Now, More Than Ever 

The Lovetones - Medidations 

The Low Anthem - What the Crow Brings 

John Zorn - The Mockingbird

Kishi Bashi - Omoiyari

Lee Curtiss - Watergate 08 

Yardbirds - Birdland 

Strawberry Path - When the Raven Has Come to the Earth 

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans 

Ancients - Heart of Oak 

Doomtree - False Hopes 

Santana - Greatest Hits 

Great Lake Swimmers - Onigiara 

Doldrums - Secret Life of Machines 

Gary McFarland - America the Beautiful 

Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism 

Steve Earle and the Dukes - Guy 

Baroness - A Horse Called Golgotha 

Dif Juz - Out of the Trees 

Bert Jansch - Avocet 

A Grave with No Name - Feathers Wet Under the Moon 

Neal Halstead - Palindrome Hunches 

Ulaan Passerine - Byzantium Crow 

Jeff Beck - Emotion and Commotion 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Last of a Dyin' Breed 

Clifton Chenier - Bayour Blues 

Sangre De Muerdago - Sangre De Muerdago 

Will Hoge - Blackbird on a Lonely Wire 

Guster - Keep It Together 

Los Lobos - Good Morning Aztlan 

Hoelderlin - Rare Birds 

Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes 

Jeff Hanson - Madam Owl 

Train - Save Me, San Francisco 

The Silos - The Silos 

Talk Talk - The Very Best Of 

Waylon Jennings - The Eagle 

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Ermerson Lake and Palmer 

Kate Bush - Never For Ever 

Rare Bird - Rare Bird 

Spread Eagle - Spread Eagle 

Depeche Mode - Speak and Spell 

King Kurt - Big Cock 

Spyro Gyra - Carnaval 

Macondo - Macondo 

Radical Face - Ghost 

Portastatic - Slow Note from a Sinking Ship 

David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock 

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha 

Talk Talk - Asides Besides 

Deftones - Diamond Eyes 

Big Business - The Beast You Are 

The Mission - Carved in Sand 

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Quicksilver 

Pavement - Watery Domestic 

Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross 

Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires 

Elvis Costello - Secret Profane and Sugarcane 

Our Lady Peace - Naveed 

Jets to Brazil - Four Cornered Night 

Melvins - Stoner Witch 

William Doyle - Great Spans of Muddy Time 

Aquila - Aquila 

Alda - Alda 

Europe - Wings of Tomorrow 

Saxon - Wheels of Steel 

Alphataurus - Alphataurus 

Andrew Bird - Are You Serious 

Pernice Brothers - The World Won't End 

Various Artists - Imagination Anthem 

Shearwater - Rook 

The Inner Banks - The Inner Banks 

Blackfoot - Marauder 

The Stranglers - The Raven 

Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling 

Inti-illimani - leyenda 

Midnight Oil - Bird Noises 

Mazzy Star - Among My Swan 

Faith No More - Angel Dust 

Rosemary Hardman - Firebird 

Robert Rich - What We Left Behind 

Shearwater - Palo Santo 

Mike Oldfield - The Complete 

The Bluetones - Expecting to Fly 

Ian Anderson - Secret Language of Birds 

Rain Parade - Beyond the Sunset 

Susumu Yokota - Sakura 

Chicago - Chicago VIII 

Seculos Apaixonados 

WASP - Still Not Black Enough 

Kansas - Song for America 

Peter Frampton - Winds of Change 

Rascals - See 

Deadsoul Tribe - A Murder of Crows 

Bjork - Vespertine 

American Eagle - American Eagle 

Original Soundtrack - The Flight of the Condor 

Herbie Hancock - Mr. Hands 

Little Feat - Down on the Farm 

Christopher Cross - Another Page 

Deftones - Gore 

Afghan Whigs - Unbreakable 

Saxon - Thunderbolt 

Yardbirds - Live Yardbirds 

Budgie - The Definitive Anthology 

Opeth - Socrceress 

Monopoly Star Searchers - Make Mine, Macaw 

Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit ‎– Here We Rest 

Yes - Yesshows 

Magnus Granberg - Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth 

Chick Corea - Return to Forever 

Ryo Fukui - Mellow Dream 

Christopher Cross - A Night with Christopher Cross 

Troyka - Ornithophobia 

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock 

Graham Parker - The real Macaw 

Rush - Fly by Night 

Songs - Ohia  - Magnolia Electric Company 

Homer - Homer 

Rosie Hardman - Eagle Over Blue Mountain 

About Tess - Beautiful 

Big Country - The Seer 

Neil Cavanagh - Short Flight to a Distant Star 

Tony Williams - The Joy of Flying 

Maharadja Sweets - Somethings Been Lost 

Deodato - Frist Cucko 

Julia Holter - Maria 

The Cakekitchen - Stories for Late at  Night 

Various Artists - Sweetheart 2005 

Bergamo Santa Caterina – Festa dell'Apparizione

Composite image of street lights celebrating the Festa dell'Apparizione in Borgo Santa Caterina, Bergamo.

Santa Caterina is a charming borgo (district) of Bergamo, centered around the street of the same name, Via Santa Caterina. The street is characterized by small local shops. There are few chain stores like you find in the center of Bergamo on the Sentierone. Santa Caterina is a good place to take a walk and explore a working neighborhood of Bergamo.

In early August, Santa Caterina goes through a transformation as it gets ready for the important Festa dell'Apparizione, centered around the church Santuario della Beata Vergine Addolorata. The street is dressed up in lights with religious celebratory phrases expressing Marian devotion (la devozione mariana). At night, the lights make for a striking backdrop, if not a lesson in Latin phrases.

The Festa dell'Apparizione (in English, the Festival of the Apparition) has it roots in the miraculous event of August 18, 1602 when – hold on to your hats – a star appeared in the midday sky and did something interesting. That star shined three rays of light on a deteriorated fresco, Our Lady of Sorrows (Madonna Addolorata), and brought the fresco back to its original splendor. This event was observed by a large crowd, so there were witnesses.

The star-restoring-fresco event inspired the building of the church Santuario della Beata Vergine Addolorata, which was finished in 1605 in Santa Caterina. The fresco – originally elsewhere in Bergamo not far from Santa Caterina – was brought to the finished church and there it has been ever since. A wooden structure replicating the fresco's depiction of Mary and Jesus was created in 1606 and it is this structure which is carried through the streets during the festival.

Some resources:

• This YouTube video shows images of the festival, the wooden structure carried through the street, and just how important this festival is locally.
• The site Bergamo da Scoprire has a good write up (in Italian) with photos of the fresco as it appears on the main altar of the church today.
• Google Maps has some good photos both internal and external of the sanctuary.

In a typical year (not this one or the past one during the pandemic), there would be fireworks during the celebration and a festival in the street, la Cena lungo il Borgo d'Oro. (See this picture in this Eco di Bergamo article.) 

The lights hanging above the street and shown in these photos are referred to as luminarie lauretane. Luminaria (plural with E) is lighting. Lauretano (feminine plural with E) refers to someone from Loreto (Marche).  Loreto is famous as the home of the Basilica of the Holy House, an important and ancient places of Marian pilgrimage. Via Lauretana is an ancient (Marian) pilgrimage route connecting Rome to the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto. There is a chapel in Santuario della Beata Vergine Addolorata dedicated to the Madonna di Loreto. From Loreto to Bergamo.

Here are the messages spelled out in street signs (with our translation):

Mater Inviolata – Mother Inviolate

Mater Intemerata – Mother Undefiled

Mater Amabilis – Mother Most Lovable

Mater Admirabilis – Mother Most Admirable

Mater Creatoris – Mother of our Creator

Mater Salvatoris – Mother of the Savior

Mater Castissima – Mother Most Chaste

Mater Purissima – Mother Most Pur

Mater Divinae Gratiae – Mother of Divine Grace (related: Mary, Mother of Grace)

Mater Ecclesiae – Mother of the Church

Mater Boni Consili – Mother of Good Counsel (Our Lady of Good Counsel)

Mater Christi – Mother of Christ

Virgo Prudentissima – Virgin Most Wise

Virgo Veneranda – Virgin Most Venerable

Music album covers with the Statue of Liberty on them

Composite image made of 16 music album covers that feature the State of Liberty on them.

The Statue of Liberty is an American icon located in the New York Harbor within New York City. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. The statue represents the robed Roman goddess Libertas, the personification of liberty.

The depictions of the Statue of Liberty on popular music album covers is curious. Of course, we are only sampling a few album covers but it seems that up to 1980s, depictions are cute or celebratory. After the 1980s, Lady Liberty tends to look under siege on the covers she appears on. Many of the darker, dystopian depictions of the Statue of Liberty are on albums in the genre of heavy metal.


Row 1:
1969 Al Kooper – "I Stand Alone"
1972 The Grateful Dead – "Dick's Picks Vol 11"
1974 Kin Ping Meh – "Virtues and Sins"
1976 Kin Ping Meh – "Concrete"

Row 2:

1978 XTC – "Statue of Liberty"
1979 Gianna Nannini – "California"
1986 Jackson Browne – "Lives in Balance"

1990 Tackhead – "Friendly as a Hand Grenade"

Row 3:
1991 Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band – "The Fire Inside"
1991 Meshuggah – "Contradictions Collapse" 

1999 Golden Earring – "Last Blast of the Century"

1999 Mitch Ryder with King Chubby – "Monkey Island"

Row 4:

2001 Various Artists – "The Concert for New York City"

2005 God Forbid – "IV: Constitution of Treason"
2007 Smashing Pumpkins – "Zeitgeist"
2018 Ministry – "AmeriKKKant"

Music Album Covers with Lips on Them

A composite image of 16 album covers featuring lips.

Large red, female lips are often used as a visual cue aimed at male viewers to represent sex. Studies have suggested that men and women process visual sexual stimuli differently. Activation in the parts of the brain controlling emotion and motivation is higher in male than females when shown arousing images. It is believed that natural selection spurred the development of different sexual behaviors in males and females. 

The album covers with lips shown in this post span almost forty years. The oldest recording is 1971 (Mystic Moods) and the most recent is 2019 (VanWyck). There are many other albums with lips on them. These covers were chosen for their visual interest by themselves and when put together in the mosaic of album covers shown. The composite image is arranged from oldest to most recent album cover. (See lips2 and lips3 for more images of lips.)

Row 1:
1971 The Mystic Moods Orchestra – "English Muffins"
1976 Wild Cherry – "Wild Cherry"
1982 Hot Chocolate – Hot Chocolate's Hottest Hits
1983 Sammy Hagar – "Three Lock Box"

Row 2:

1987 Yello – "One Second"
1992 PJ Harvey – "Dry"
1996 Holy Barbarians – "Cream"
1997 Nelson – "Silence is Broken"

Row 3:

1999 The Nickel Slots – "White Lies and Cigarettes"
2000 Boney James – "Shake It Up"
2000 Lil' Band of Gold – "Lil' Band of Gold"
2004 Cut Copy – "Bright Like Neon Love"

Row 4:

2004 Dirty Vegas – "One"
2004 Superbus – "Pop'n'Gum"
2016 Cerrone – "Red Lips"
2019 VanWyck – "Molten Rock"