Artist: Al Stewart
Title: Modern Times
Year: 1975
Label: CBS
For more great sleeves, visit the The Hipgnosis Album Cover Gallery.
Artist: Al Stewart Title: Modern Times Year: 1975 Label: CBS For more great sleeves, visit the The Hipgnosis Album Cover Gallery.
Why It Matters 
Response to “Hipgnosis Cover of the Week: Al Stewart, ‘Modern Times’”
I first encountered this evocative album cover in a local record shop when Modern Times was released in Britain in early 1975. However it would be some 30 years more before I actually heard the music within the album! The original UK cover photo was replaced by CBS c1977 by an unmemorable portrait photo of Al Stewart, presumably in an attempt to capitalise on his higher profile after he had changed record labels and become more commercially successful with Year of the Cat. I always thought this was an unimaginative decision, which significantly diminished the mystique of the album cover. (It should also be noted that Al’s next two albums, which were both commercial hits and like Modern Times were produced by Alan Parsons, also had covers designed by Hipgnosis.) I remained intrigued by the enigmatic front cover photo, and particularly wanted to know where it was photographed – clearly at some English country house. Eventually a concerted internet search of such houses led to me identifying the location as being Stone House, Rushlake Green, near Heathfield in Sussex. I was very satisfied to have finally solved the mystery, 47 years after I first saw the album cover in that Lancashire record shop!
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