This is meant as a light hearted post just to get people thinking about Ferry album only Graphic design ...Caught a glimpse yesterday of 'In your mind album' sleeve and I was surprised and pleased about how iconic it felt - This led me to think about the Ferry album sleeves and how I feel less drawn to them over the years ... For instance - Avonmore is my least fave - I don't like the colour scheme, the font and I'd have preferred a more recent portrait photograph.

My list of favourites ( which I think are iconic ) in no particular order - most are equal to each other are ..

'These Foolish things' ,
'Another Time Another Place',
'In Your Mind',
'The Bride Stripped Bare'
' Boys and Girls'
'Bete Noir' (maybe ) and
'Live at the Royal Albert hall "

interested to see what other people think .....

I see Olympia is not on your list , Gardner. . The one that is , arguably, most like a Roxy cover.

Here’s my favourite Ferry covers-

Bete Noire
These Foolish Things
Taxi
Olympia
Frantic
Mamouna

Cher amis!

For once - I don´t mean it in a sinister way - I agree with le jardinier.
Why on earth didn´t our hero follow the tradition from the splendid RM covers when it came to his solo material?

In my opinion Bête Noire and Mamouna are the best. Sadly, Avonmore is a disaster. I can´t understand BF;s obsession to use black when his music is so colourful. The inner sleeve photo is good, though. To tell the truth, I had such a struggle with the cover of Avonmore that I covered it with something more to my taste.
Let´s end on a positive note. The cover of Jazz age is really good.
Bonne soirée à tous!

Yes .. I know what you mean about Olympia .. I was confused about that as well , but I guess when it comes down to it - the cover art leaves me cold - I wanted to love it but over time it just became more and more like a fashion magazine and less and less alluring.

Ah - I forgot about the Jazz age - I do quite like that it's v cute in it's small cd booklet form - I also like the drawings in As Time Goes By - but not the front cover.

I suppose going with BF photos on the solo albums was part of the process of carving out a solo career, putting some clear blue water between his music and that of the band? It's a principle that worked fairly well up to the Mamouna cover which was something of an oddity and Olympia which just seemed to muddy the waters and rather lacked the class of the Roxy artwork it seemed to be trying to emulate.

Regurgitating old images on things like Frantic, Dylanesque, The Best Of and Avonmore has seemed uncharacteristically lazy of someone who is usually so meticulous about presentation. After all, it's not as if our hero suddenly has a face that resembles a bag of spanners! It would be good if images of the performer matched the music within. It'll be interesting to see how he proceeds with his next piece of work.

As for favourite covers, I'd say my top 5 are:

1) Another Time, Another Place - utterly iconic and a great gatefold
2) These Foolish Things - simultaneously bold, yet understated
3) The Bride Stripped Bare - another magnificent gatefold sleeve
4) As Time Goes By - perfectly complements the album
5) The Best Of - simply because it's one of the finest photos of BF, ever IMHO.

I think Ferry putting himself on the cover was not so much carving his own path as a solo performer but , a la Hamilton, who said that he (Ferry) was a work of art in himself ; ergo the other band members, no offence, could not quite match his matinee idol looks so were kept off the covers.
Remember too the controversy over Ferry as chauffeur to Amanda Lear.
And he has aged well, he is not a Dorian Gray. The last contemporary pictures of him that were used for Ferry solo work covers must be from the 90’s. (The live RAH 2020 cover excepted).
Finally, I had a thought that the recent reworking of the back cover of Taxi was because he just couldn’t cope with the coat/hat combo on the original.

1: These Foolish Things
2: In Your Mind
3: Another Time, Another Place
4: The Bride Stripped Bare
5: Let's Stick Together
6: Extended Play
7: Bete Noire
8: Albert Hall '74
9: Boys & Girls
10: Taxi
11: As Time Goes By

The rest (Mamouna, Dylanesque, Olympia, Jazz Age/Bitter-Sweet, Frantic, & Avonmore) do not hold much interest to me.

[quote="UKRichard"]I suppose going with BF photos on the solo albums was part of the process of carving out a solo career, putting some clear blue water between his music and that of the band? It's a principle that worked fairly well up to the Mamouna cover which was something of an oddity and Olympia which just seemed to muddy the waters and rather lacked the class of the Roxy artwork it seemed to be trying to emulate.

Regurgitating old images on things like Frantic, Dylanesque, The Best Of and Avonmore has seemed uncharacteristically lazy of someone who is usually so meticulous about presentation. After all, it's not as if our hero suddenly has a face that resembles a bag of spanners! It would be good if images of the performer matched the music within. It'll be interesting to see how he proceeds with his next piece of work……..[quote]

Mes Amis,
Bravo au jardiniere pour une intervention aussi interessante !
Regarding the substance, W2 thinks the ever tasteful ‘UK Richard’ makes a great assessment of the strategy - it’s fabulous successes and the point at which it weakened. (Thankfully the album ‘Mamouna’ was a masterpiece and no reflection of the cover art).
That said, W2’s top five rankings are a little different :
1. These Foolish Things - what a statement this was.
2. Another Time, Another Place - already the game has moved on.
3. Boys & Girls - an iconic twist.
4. As Time Goes By - tells the story beautifully.
5. Taxi - Americana perfected.
Windswept would also give honourable mentions to ‘The Jazz Age’ and ‘Bitter Sweet’ for their form and depiction of an era.
Sadly, for W2, the worst was ‘Olympia’ - great album but the cover just didn’t work. It just looked cheap despite the money that was doubtless spent.
Salutations a tous,
Windswept.

And now the vote of the German jury :

1. Another Time Another Place
2. The Bride Stripped Bare
3. In Your Mind
4. Bete Noire
5. As Time Goes By
6. The Jazz Age (even if I never listen to it)
7. Best Of BF
8. Avonmore (with a younger photo and a white background)
9. RAH 1974