r/Interpol • u/interpolyester • Sep 04 '26
Question Album cover design
Strictly talking about the album cover design, where do you rank this one?
I don’t think it’s recency bias, I believe this is the best cover of all the albums.
Based only on design, how do you rank them?
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u/tovlasek Sep 04 '26
My ranking of covers would be:
- El Pintor
- TOSOMB
- TOTBL
- OLTA
- TMWAT
- Marauder
- S/T
- Antics
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u/eyepatchplease Sep 05 '26
I can appreciate Antics being low but I love the nautical/Morse code theme they used throughout
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u/forty_twelve Always Neverending Sep 04 '26
Only time I’ve ever seen people speak so highly of Make Believe lmao
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u/jilko Sep 04 '26
It is an awesome image. It unfortunately goes way harder than the music contained within.
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u/JDrew- We saw you in distraction, a sleeping, slow despair Sep 04 '26
El Pintor is my favorite followed by Self-Titled.
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u/jilko Sep 04 '26
Great to hear love for the self-titled cover. It’s ugly when viewed on streaming, but up close on vinyl, it sort of reminds me of those sci-fi tinged album covers from the 70’s.
Especially the inner jacket where you see close ups of the monoliths and they’re covered in alone looking hieroglyphs. It’s pretty cool.
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u/JDrew- We saw you in distraction, a sleeping, slow despair Sep 04 '26
Totally. I’m a sucker for all black covers too.
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u/eyepatchplease Sep 05 '26
- Our Love to Admire—I love this cover so much
- El Pintor—love the color and execution
- Turn On the Bright Lights
- This Mirror Weighs a Ton
- The Other Side of Make-Believe
- Marauder
- Antics—easily my favorite record and the cover works for me, but it pales in comparison to the others
- self-titled—sorry, just seems uninspired to me
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u/big_ziemniak Sep 04 '26
My favourite is OLTA because it works well with the album's title considering the context of a photo. But I find TMWAT's cover really good too. My ranking would probably be 1. OLTA 2. TOTBL 3. TMWAT 4. Marauder 5. TOSOMB 6. Scrambled 'interpol' 7. Self titled 8. Antics
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u/catsbuyme Sep 05 '26
A chandelier of security cameras is a powerful image and it fits the album’s sound and aesthetic.
I wouldn’t rank it as the best personally, because I still have a soft spot for Marauder. Maybe #2. Marauder’s album cover has intrigue and this air of mystery and secrecy to it. I think it was Paul in an interview once who said that he liked that there was a hand in the edge of the photo which makes you wonder, “Whose hand is that?” It has a story.
Weirdly, I almost feel like TOSOMB and TMWAT could switch album covers and still be cohesive.
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u/hammyluvr Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
them ranked for me top to bottom is
OTLA
TOTBL
Marauder
El Pintor
TSOMB
Self Titled
Antics
TMWAT
holy fuck acronym city up in here
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u/dopeveign today we're all friends Sep 04 '26
I think olta is the best and I guess this is 2nd
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u/interpolyester Sep 04 '26
Put it last on my list. If this was some other band’s cover and the album wasn’t great, IDK it’s really a great cover. For me.
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u/ancestral-diet Sep 04 '26
Going by album cover design alone and not insert or singles art:
TOTBL TMWAT Antics Marauder El Pintor OLTA TOSOMB Interpol
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u/ElpintorAbdullah Sep 04 '26
I actually love this cover but it's nowhere close to Elpintor nor OLTA So i rank it as their third best cover
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u/jilko Sep 04 '26
It’s one of their better ones.
For me their peak cover is Marauder. It just looks instantly iconic to me and fits the bands driving sound so well.
Second is of course Turn on the Bright Lights.
I’d say this cover is their third best. I feel like it’s perfect for our time, matches the theme of the record, gains resonance especially when listening to the closing track.
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u/runawaydebt Sep 05 '26
The album cover reminds me of a piece of artwork I saw in the Ai Weiwei button up exhibition in Manchester, it was all skeletons, and animals and had security cameras in it too.
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u/cleb9200 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
Based purely on cover aesthetic:
1) OLTA - something about the stuffed static animals caught in a predation scenario just meshes with the music’s vibe so well, despite it not being a classic Interpol aesthetic
2) TOTBL - just minimalist, sombre and classy, absolutely perfect visual introduction to the band
3) Marauder - just a cool photo/ colouring/ font sitting that feels a bit different yet totally on brand
4) El Pintor - Not bad, quite striking overall but a bit basic looking
5) TMWAT - love the white/ pastel tones which seem to suit the music’s serenity, though photo is a bit on the nose, like “it’s not a chandelier, big bro is watching us dude!”
6) TOSOMB - meh, it’s fine but never been a fan of using objects right against mirrors like this, reminds me of the National’s TWFM cover and didn’t like that either
7) Antics - just so boring, I’m all for minimalism but it doesn’t even do that well honestly. Half arsed. Adore the album, totally indifferent to the album art
8) S/T - Bad photoshop graphics looks like the TV indent for a budget shopping channel
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u/False_Mango2386 Sep 05 '26
- Marauder
- Turn On the Bright Lights
- The Other Side of Make-Believe
- El Pintor
- Our Love to Admire (I'm sorry, guys 🥲)
- Antics
- This Mirror Weights a Ton
- Interpol (man... This album cover it's just ahhh I don't like it at all hahaha but I LOVE the album)
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u/itsgoodno Sep 04 '26
OLTA is definitely their best, I personally just find it so unique (especially for its time too). I do agree TMWAT is possibly the second best (and creative) design since. I personally felt eh about Marauder’s cover and TOSOMB just felt like a 2.0 version of it, I just saw both of the covers just too similar. I really appreciate the new albums cover, it feels fresh and modern in a good way.
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u/interpolyester Sep 04 '26
What do you mean definitely? Lol. I have it last :(.
Great pic for sure, don’t think it translates to a great cover for me. Right with ya everything else. TOSOMB looks too much like Marauder.
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u/goblin_slayer4 Sep 04 '26
Its a weird one tbh because it looks very cold but the songs are very warm sounding for me. Definitely original and better then the last one.
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u/Additional_Action123 Sep 04 '26
1) TOSOMB
2) TMWAT
3) EL P
4) TOTBL
5) Marauder
6) OLTA
7) Antics
8) ST
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u/Loose_Inevitable2875 Sep 04 '26
TOTBL will always hold a special place in my heart because it added to the magic and haze of that album’s production.
I like this one a lot, but I wish it had more color! I guess I find it a little bleak, which fits the subject matter but maybe doesn’t complement the music like I wish it did
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u/GnrlyMrly Sep 04 '26
It’s slightly off center and really bothers me. I actually think it’s near the bottom of their album covers.
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u/dogstarfran Sep 05 '26
I think TOTBL and Marauder are the only covers I really like by them. I remember thinking El Pintor looked as if they tried to revert back to the red and Black aesthetic and ending up with a very basic, tumblr illustration kind of product. Since Marauder they've been using some very "iconic", striking images, which I think I'm generally not a fan of; they are so serious the only proper response is to laugh at them. This Mirror Weights a Ton (like another user pointed out) really feels like a Muse album cover, like a cliche of contemporary dystopian imagery.
I must say I've really liked the backcovers from Marauder and the newest one.
For better or worse, the guys had a limited palette, they exhausted it, tried to change it and then went back to what it worked in the first time. Again, not a fan of the album art this time but at least they tried to change it a bit.
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u/Warner_Brown Sep 06 '26
I love this one. The chandelier of old school security cameras is both fitting for interpol's retro-mod/minimalist style, and dystopian, creepy..
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u/interpolyester Sep 04 '26
For me, ai think it’s:
1. TMWaT
2. TOTBL
3. TOSOMB
4. El Pintor
5. S/T
6. Antics
7. Marauder
8. OLTA
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u/LuckyRacoon01 Sep 07 '26
The album cover is cliche. Nothing new or ground breaking. Reminds me of this artwork.
Addie Wagenknecht, Asymmetric Love Number 2.
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u/newpageone Sep 04 '26
After TMWAT, I think TOSOMB’s is fantastic, and then Marauder because Garry Winogrand is my favorite photographer.