A Record Collector Takes His Obsession With Cover Art Online

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Matthew Glass has been collecting records for the better part of four decades. In a his Manhattan living space he has a “record room” where 10,000 records live. Framed records are his wall art. For years he sold records at the flea market on 24th Street. There are times in his life when he was frequently bringing records home by the box.

None of this would surprise you if you were to spend a single short second on LP Cover Lover, the website where he posts strange record covers in daily batches. He’s got a camera on a tripod in his record room and he is forever pulling records, photographing them, and posting them to his site, which boasts a comprehensive collection of “the world’s greatest LP album covers.”

“It’s helped me to spend time with my collection,” says Glass, who works in event promotion, “I appreciate what I have more.”

What he has is an eye for the beautiful and the beautifully absurd. There are plenty of websites showcasing goofy album art. Glass’ eye is well calibrated. “My tastes tend towards the ’50s and ’60s,” he says. “The art of the ’80s was mostly just sort of gross.”

I asked Glass to suggest a few choice stops for anybody who spends some time with his site and wants more from the music blogosphere. His suggestions: StupefactionShow and Tell Music (check out their DIY cover gallery), and If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats (don’t miss this forgotten piece of history).

UTNE
UTNE
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