Let the vinyl years play on

Of all the things we sell in our bookstore, none has surprised us more than the growing interest in vinyl records. We remember when records were making a mild comeback in the 90s, but the sheer demand for records in this decade from teens through baby boomers is a strong and steady trend!

We’ve heard many reasons: it’s the analog sound; it has character; it’s to experience how people listened to certain albums when they first came out; it’s the hissing and popping, the sound of the needle; etc.

However, there is another undeniable reason: the record album covers.

The covers have served as large canvases for some truly unforgettable art. In the digital music age where “album art” frequently is a tiny image created on a computer, there is something visceral about exploring the jacket cover’s hand-crafted artwork as one listens to the album that is contained within.

In this beautiful Taschen publication, author Michael Ochs shares this perspective in his newly-released book “1000 Record Covers.” Simple title and great contents, it spans the rising tide of records from the 1960s & 1970s, through the declining marginalization in the 1980s, and into near obscurity in the 1990s. “1000 Record Covers” features the highlights from these four decades of vinyl record production.

From Chubby Checker to Elton John to Santana to Van Halen to the Beastie Boys, the book has pages and pages of beautiful full-spectrum color images on high-grade glossy art paper of numerous albums that influenced millions of music lovers.

For some, this will be a trip down memory lane. For others, this will be an exciting dive into vinyl record art history.

And for those who just love art, you may find yourself getting lost in this gallery of memorable record album creations!

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Ed and Cynthia Justus are owners of The Bookstore in Hanapepe.