Tan Album Covers

I've always liked tan album covers. If an album has a tasteful tan cover, I'll want to buy it.

If that album cover is just a blank square cut from a brown paper bag, I'll still want to buy it. Why is it that tan has such a strong effect on me? There are many reasons.

The color tan is versatile as hell. How can one not admire something that has myriad uses and always looks sharp? Let's take a look at some stunning usages of the wonderful color tan.

Tan can evoke cardboard, yielding a low-budget aesthetic, as on "Shellac at Action Park".


The cardboard look is perfect for Shellac's gritty, self-deprecating, creative music.

Tan or brown paper is a tradition for artists making woodcuts, prints, and stamps. This "hand-stamped" style has been appropriated by many an album cover designer. It looks elegant and artistic. It makes an album's packaging look more like a handmade art object than something mechanically printed en masse.

I'm nearly ga-ga for Codeine's cover of The White Birch.


Tan can be nostalgic, like faded photographs and memories. The tan photo on the cover of Red House Painters perfectly captures the subdued yearning of the songs within.


Tan works well for the quiet, nostalgic music of The Weakerthans. They sing about garage sale items, forget-me-nots, and all the detritus of our past lives.


Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot made quite a splash in 2002, mostly due to it's beautiful tan cover featuring the Marina Towers of Chicago.


Tan, or beige, is classy. One never gets tired of a simple design or illustration with a tan background.


This can be accredited to tan's neutrality. According to About.com, "On its own, the color beige is a calm neutral background. Beige is a neutral color with a bit of the warmth of brown and the crisp, coolness of white."

Paint your room tan if you want a relaxing color for your walls.

Tan takes the attributes of other colors it accompanies, so it's flexible.


Wonder (color) and sophistication (tan) collide in the music and artwork of "The Album Leaf."

I've always liked tan in combination with maroon. This explains my long-time adoration for the cover of Last Days of April's Angel Youth.


Mmm... I almost want to eat that cover. But instead I'll listen to the cathartic, wintery, European music within.

In general, I think tan looks just fine by itself. Lots of tan. This article is about predominately tan covers.

Tan is earthy. It can give a feeling of naturalness. More rust than tan, Selected Ambient Works II by Aphex Twin evokes moss, lichens, and soil, like Aphex Twin's organic-sounding electronic atmospheres.


Tan can be old-timey, like a faded map. It is also well-suited for country and bluegrass music. This is due to films like "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" asserting that the past was slightly tan-tinted.


Tan is vintage. It is appropriated by bands who want to be associated with classic Rock, Blues, or Jazz.


Tan is just cool. Tan with some flecks thrown in looks like a sidewalk. This is perfect for subversive, underground, and passionate music. If you look at it this way, tan is unbearably exciting.


Tan is serious. This makes tan intense.


I'll never get tired of tan. That would be impossible, due to the brilliant, multi-faceted nature of tan. Tan! Sweet tan!

Tan, somehow, is life. Perhaps the dirt-clouded primordial broth from which the early traces of human life crawled was, in fact, tan.

Moments are tan. Look at this dramatic cover from the band Jesu:


Damn! I'm weak in the knees. Tan knees, as tan is also a nice color for pants.