Ever heard of Interscope Records? I hadn’t until recently when a good friend and fellow collector tipped me off about a new Damien Hirst cover that was to be released by Interscope Records as part of their thirtieth anniversary celebration.

It turns out that the company released Eminem‘s first album The Slim Shady in 1999 and that they are releasing limited edition albums of the Eminem catalogue with new cover art by Damien Hirst. Five of the redesigned albums are picture discs in new Hirst designed covers produced in limited editions of 500, while a further seven are available on black vinyl, in signed editions of 100 that include a giclée print of the cover art packaged in Gucci-designed wrapping. Each picture disc version costs USD 100, and the signed editions cost USD 2,500 each. Damien Hirst has done these reimagined covers for free as the proceeds are going to charity. Despite the fact that the proceeds from the sale of these art covers are going to charity I feel that they are wildly overpriced. The picture discs are each produced in editions of 500 copies and USD 100 strikes me as too expensive. I think a more reasonable price would be around USD 50. I would expect a record priced at USD 2,500, like the black vinyl albums to be in much more limited editions, perhaps even unique items in order to motivate the price. These are probably aimed at galleries or institutions rather than individual collectors and the exorbitant price prevents serious collectos of the individual artists’ covers from buying them.

In addition to these new Damien Hirst covers there is a redesigned Snoop Doggy Dogg Doggy Style LP cover by KAWS for USD 100 in an edition of 500 copies that sold out almost immediately it was released. However, there was only one further release that I was interested in, and that is Richard Prince‘s reinterpretation of Nine Inch Nails‘ The Downward Spiral LP.

In addition to the Damien Hirst designed covers for the Eminem albums, Interscope have released twenty-one other albums with redesigned covers priced at USD 2,000-2,500 by artists such as Gwen Stefani, Lana del Rey, Helmet, Dr. Dre, Billy Eilish and others.

These are the black vinyl Damien Hirst albums:

I actually really like these Damien Hirst covers! Obviously I can’t afford the USD2,500 limited editions and so I can never own a complete set of the artist’s record cover art.

I have ordered the five Hirst and the RIchard Prince picture disc editions. Perhaps I’ll make my own versions of the USD2,500 editions later to complete my collection.

All these covers can be bought through the Interscope Records site or via NTWRK app, subject to availability.

There’s obviously a new generation of music fans who are buying vinyl records and weren’t around when some historic albums were origianllly released. And a there’s a large group of old fogies like me who were around but have worn out their original copies (or, again, like me, sold much of their original vinyl) and record companies have not beeb slow in realising these markets and producing anniversary reissues of old favourites — and in many cases reissuing albums that weren’t greatly appreciated when originally released but have become cult items. Many of the reissues are released on variously coloured vinyl, so collectors might have to buy several clopies.

I don’t know when the anniversary reissues forst arrrived. I suppose you could say it was when CDs arrived in the early eighties and vinyl albums were tranferred to the digital format. I remember the posters advertising the release of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band CD in 1987 used the “It was 20 years ago today” byeline. Could that have been one of the first “anniversary” reissues?

But 25th, 40th, 45th, 50th anniversary issues now appear with shocking regularity and are often in the form of expanded editions in box sets. Viz. The Velvet Underground & Nico‘s 45th anniversary 6CD box (one of th efirst I fell for) and the 2017 Sgt. Pepper release on single LP, double LP and four CD box set (I fell for these as well.) Lavish boxed sets of each of the Led Zeppelin albums (which tempted me, but I was strong) and many others.

But there’s a newer phenomenon; 10th and 15th anniversary reissues. I’ve just fallen for the 15th anniversary reissues of Malcolm Middleton’s A Brighter Beat album with its David Shrigley covers. I already have the origianal both on vinyl and CD (two different covers) and signed up for the promised 15th anniversary issues when they were announced in the autumn of 2021. Release was, however delayed until May. The “standard” reissue was a limited edition of 1000 copies on clear vinyl and then there is a “Dinked” edition of 500 copies on silver vinyl with a differend Shrigley cover (the same design as was used on the original CD.)

And now I’ve just “invested” in a 20th anniversary reissue of The Promise’s Believer LP, originally pressed on clear vinyl (100 copies) or red vinyl (900 copies) and now repressed on purple vinyl (200 copies). This 2002 album featured a very early reworking of Banksy’s I Fought the Law artwork on its cover and has become a collector’s item because of its cover.

Many, if not the majority, of these anniversary reissues are limited editions and have become collectible in their own right. I realise that it is great that out of print albums are being rereleased so that a new group of listeners can hear them on pristine vinyl, but I can’t decide if it is just a marketing jippo tat has sucked me in.

According to an article I read some time ago, one fifth of people who own vinyl records do not have a turntable on which to play them. I imagined they must be people who had moved on to CDs or even to streaming music. But then I thought of all those who were selling their vinyl records filling the racks in my local record emporium. They didn’t need to own a turntable any more. And what about the people who just packed their old vinyl away in boxes and put them in the attic or wherever people store unwanted and unloved stuff?

Then I had an eureka moment. Hey, wait a minute! I don’t have a turntable — or a stereo — any more. My Transcriptor deck is with my daughter, who doesn’t listen to vinyl records and my amplifier is with my son-in-law, who, like me, doesn’t have a turntable.

My turntable was passed on in 2012. But I still collect records — preferably vinyl records. I collect them for the cover art. I’ve always had a love of nicely designed covers and followed the careers of record cover designers. Hipgnosis, Roger Dean, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver, John Berg, Jan van Hammersfeld, Eve Babitz, Rob Jones and others. Late in my “career” I discovered Alex Steinweiss, Jim Flora and Martin Stone Martin. But I always new about Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Roy Lichtenstein and Richard Hamilton and Klaus Voormann. Then there was Damien Hirst followed by Banksy and, most recently, David Shrigley.

So now I have limited my collecting to specific artists: Banksy, Peter Blake, Damien Hirst, David Shrigley, Klaus Voormann and Andy Warhol. I have been quite lucky in getting hold of many of the early and rarer covers by these artists soon after the records were released, or, in the case of Andy Warhol and Banksy, early enough to be able to find them cheaply.

I follow many on social media and via mailing lists, so I hopefully don’t miss any new releases by my favoured designers. I also try not to fall for other merchandice (prints, posters, tee shirts) by these artists, but sometimes feel they complete a collection. For example, the poster for Drake’s 2021 Certified Lover Boy album, so far only released digitally with no vinyl or CD format. The cover was designed by Damien Hirst and I managed to pull a couple of posters off hoardings near where I live.

A side effect of limiting my collecting to specific artists is that I am no longer tempted to buy beautiful covers by other designers. I find that there are so many lovely covers that could tempt me but I try to resist temptation so that I can continue to find (and finance) covers by those I do collect.

I should mention that I have always catalogued my records, CDs and cassettes on sites like pop.nu and rateyourmusic.com so I have complete lists oc my collections. And I can still listen to the music via streaming, so I really don’t miss my turntable. And, I have all the covers of the records, CDs and cassettes to hold and admire while I listen.