What's your favorite Led Zeppelin album cover

My favorite album covered by Led Zeppelin is Willie Dixon's greatest hits.

 

I just bought an original pressing of that album. Mine came with specks of some vintage looking organic material stuck down in the crease of the inside gatefold. I wonder what that's all about?

 

Presence

 

Most of their album covers are good without being great. I eventually voted for IV, because I remember how this piqued my curiosity when I first saw it - it's chiefly notable for what it doesn't say.

The only ones I don't particularly like are the first and the last. I get the point of the LZ 1 cover, i.e. the Zeppelin, but it's a very messy image that could have been made to look much better. And the cover for Coda is just lazy.

 

"whole lotta love" is my favorite ZEP cover of willie dixon's "you need love". oh wait. you meant album cover! sorry HA!

 

Z1

 

Want to say presence as it really is something and possibly my fave LZ album but IV just takes it for me on an emotional level as it was picking up IV when I was a teenager on cassette on this little music stall called Bradley’s Records on the market in my hometown just because of the mysterious image, then the fold out of the wizard on the mountain. Bought it having not heard Led Zeppelin before at that point, weird loner kid (or actually school was just hell), but then later after making some friends away from school, my mate ‘’Doof’,’ had it on vinyl with the inner sleeve, and I’d enjoy looking at it for long stretches with a ‘cup of tea’. Ahem.

 

I would go for Presence, agree with the comment that said it was a slightly spooky cover.
Also the other photos that are in the super deluxe edition are pretty cool too!

 

In order from best to worst I'd say:
HOTH
III
I
PG
IV
II
Presence
ITTOD
TSRTS
Coda

 

I'll also add, I even traveled all the way across Ireland when I was there on vacation to see Giant's Causeway and the castle used in the inner gatefold for HOTH, both of which are really close to eachother actually. It was my favorite cover then and it still is now.

 

I don't think their main concern was a high quality photograph though, it's meant to be monochrome, adds to the hard rock vibe of it

 

Untitled/Led Zeppelin IV

 

Probably still the same as my original response. All the album covers are great for the particular album inside.

In my humble view, I would broadly summarize each as:

Led Zeppelin (The most iconic)
Led Zeppelin II (The most classic)
Led Zeppelin III (The most layered)
Led Zeppelin IV (The most mythical)
Houses Of The Holy (The most striking)
Physical Graffiti (The most clever)
Presence (The most humorous)
In Through The Out Door (The most interesting)

 

III here too. Though, to be perfectly honest, I'm not really super-wild about any of them.

Increasingly I feel the same way about Pink Floyd's entire output too, oddly enough -- the only exception being Animals (which I'll *always* love the cover of).

 

OMG, those are amazing!! - never saw any of them before just this moment.

Almost tempted to change my vote from III to Presence (and Presence is actually my favorite LZ album, based on the music).

 

Giant's Causeway is awesome, probably the most amazing natural feature I saw in Ireland. I don't particularly like the false colours of the cover though, not because they are false but because I just find them unattractive. I much prefer the spooky bluish cover of the de luxe edition (which of course is also false colour).

 

IV. Due to the symbolism of why it was packaged this way and not due to it being a neat cover (III is neat). No name and no band name....it sold a bit too if I recall....

 

Houses Of The Holy
...followed closely by Physical Graffiti.

Someone previously mentioned that they all have their own unique look and style about them and that is absolutely true.

Another someone mentioned the iconic nature of Led Zeppelin I and that, too, is absolutely true. I think that cover represents the name better than any other cover. If I was voting for favorite album, this would be it.

 

I can see why Coda is not a number 1 but I actually like it for its understated, dignified quality.

 

Zeppelin IV.I always loved the hermit and the letting style too.The Song Remains the Same is my second favorite.I thought the 1990 crop circles was cool artwork.

 

I didn't know that - wiki quote - "The cover art for Houses of the Holy was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End."
Houses of the Holy - Wikipedia

It is my favorite Clarke novel btw but I'd have never guessed about the inspiration behind the sleeve : the picture conveys the idea of a gathering to a local /regional / possibly hippy-trippy cult, lacking the bigger-than-solar-system sense of wonder of the novel.

 

Eww!

 

It's not that different in style from your own avatar.

 

PG and 2nd would be TSRTS.

 

absolutely... I loved the embossed cover of Coda. In fact I prefer this any time over the Beeb sessions or - heaven forbid -How The West Was Won, Mothership and Celebration Day