Album Cover Easter Eggs: 20 Messages Hidden in Plain Sight

The
best
album
packaging
gives
artists
the
opportunity
to
enhance
the
story
told
throughout
their
music
or
tell
a
new
one
entirely
—
and
all
the
artists
on
our
list
of Album
Cover
Easter
Eggs
took
full
advantage
of
the
medium.

Several
of
the
albums
covers
on
this
list
—
such
as
Rush
and
Iron
Maiden
—
are
self-referential,
giving
longtime
fans plenty
of
sight
gags
and
inside
jokes
to
discover.
Others include references
to
different
artists,
although
the
exact
meaning
of
these
nods
isn’t
always
clear.
(You’ll
see
what
we
mean
when
you
get
to
the
Nirvana
entry.)

Some
artists
used
their
album
artwork
as
a
way
to
address
their
current
status.
Harry
Nilsson
and
John
Lennon
poked
fun
at
their
naughty
reputation
on
the
cover
of
Nilsson’s Pussy
Cats,
while
Led
Zeppelin
may have inspired
—
intentionally
or
otherwise
—
more chatter
about
their
alleged occult
dabblings.

While
some
of
the
album
cover
Easter
eggs
on
our
list
are
lighthearted
and
irreverent,
others
carried
a
sense
of
gravitas
that
underscored
the
magnitude
of
their
albums.
When
David
Bowie
released
his
swan
song, Blackstar,
two
days
before
his
death, it
became
clear
to
fans
that
he
used
his
music
as
a
vessel
to
usher
him
from
one
plane
to
another
—
and
he
used
the
packaging
of
his
final
album
to
convey
a
poignant
message
about
mortality.

Read
about
all
of
these
examples
and
more
in
our
below
list
of Album
Cover
Easter
Eggs.