I was commissioned to create nine album cover designs for inclusion in the book "The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear: Unreleased Records by the World's Greatest Artists" by Bruno MacDonald, published by Aurum (UK), Cassell (US), 2014
U2 Songs of Ascent (2010)
• This was the mooted follow-up to No Line on the Horizon
• Bono described the songs as having a “kind of beautiful intimacy”.
May Jailer, aka Lana Del Ray, Sirens (2006)
Recorded by Lana Del Rey when she was still known as May Jailer
Bruce Springsteen Nebraska (1982)
Duran Duran Reportage (2007)
• The intended follow-up to their 2004 reunion album Astronaut
• The album featured contributions from Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.
Green Day Cigarettes & Valentines (2003)
• This album was scrapped and replaced by American Idiot
Danger Mouse The Grey Album (2004)
• A mash-up of The Beatles’ “White Album” with Jay-Z’s The Black Album.
Dusty Springfield Longing (1974)
• An abandoned album made when Dusty had evolved from a pop to a soul singer.
Crosby Still Nash & Young Human Highway (1973)
• Aborted reunion album by the supergroup (David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young)
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975)
The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear untangles the twists of fate, the fights and the sheer bad luck that prevented these sonic gems from being pressed. A Pink Floyd album with no instruments. A Sex Pistols record more incendiary than Never Mind The Bollocks. A sci-fi rock opera by Weezer. Rock 'n' roll history is littered with intriguing albums that never saw the light of day, let alone the charts. Self-destructive ambition, intra-band turmoil, record-company politics and even death have all played their part in creating a fascinating sub-genre of mythic masterpieces.
Spanning more than half a century of music from all genres, these tales take in legends such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and David Bowie, cult heroes like Brian Eno and Frank Zappa, and contemporary artists, including Green Day and Dr Dre.
Each ill-fated record is accompanied by an imagining of the cover that might have been. These original artworks have been brought to life by a team of acclaimed designers and illustrators, including Vaughan Oliver (Pixies, Bush, Cocteau Twins), John Pasche (The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix) and Bill Smith (Genesis, The Jam, Led Zeppelin).
Here are the two covers for each of the editions:
And below are some work in progress snapshots of a watercolour portrait of Lana Del Rey, that I painted for my imagined cover design for her May Jalier unreleased 2006 album ‘Sirens’, and there’s a sneaky peak at my rather cramped but fairly functional working environment!
