A Collection of Science-y Album Covers (because who doesn't like to look at album covers?)

So, I'm prepping for a talk that looks at some of the scientific elements behind music, stuff that builds upon some of the stuff I've looked into in the past. Anyway, seeing that I like to place elements of pop culture in my talks, I thought it would be interesting to do a little "google image" searching to see what kind of CD/album covers are out there with "Science" as a key component in the CD's title.

Here's what I found, with a token review blurb from some place here and there:

Nightmares on Wax's A Word of Science was recorded at the height of happy hardcore fever that gripped the UK in the early 1990s. Alongside groups such as the Prodigy, LFO and Unique 3, Nightmares on Wax introduced a hard electronic sound that tore up the house music and overthrew acid. (via thegiantpeach.com)

Adam Holzman has produced another creative, uncompromising jazz-rock classic for the new millenium. The band, Brave New World, has been together for a long time and it shows. There is a lot of band interaction, interesing arrangements and great grooves. These guys are the real deal! (via CD Universe)

This and Home of the Brave are my two favorite Laurie Anderson albums. Big Science is a masterwork. Laurie did a huge concert called United States I-IV, and Big Science is a studio version of many of the songs. In my opinion, this is one of best albums I've ever heard, and it changed my whole idea of what music was about. The tracks are skeletal, sometimes minimalist, but utterly moving. You can get pretty jaded with electronic music, but Laurie Anderson is one person who keeps surprising you the creatitivity of her sounds. (via ww-static.cc.gatech.edu)

The Sounds of Science is the first Beastie Boys anthology (composed of two CDs). The retail release comes with a trifold sleeve that displays the majority of the band's album covers and a booklet describing the origin behind most of the songs. (via wiki

So then we come to The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, Yo La Tengo's somewhat neglected '02 contribution, which barely sounds like Yo La Tengo at all, rocker or not. Designed as a soundtrack to eight short films by Jean Painlevé, a sort of underground Jacques Cousteau, and conceived to be played as a live score, there is little here that suggests Yo La Tengo in any sort of incarnation. The intro to "Hyas and Stenorhynchus" sounds a whole lot like the intro to I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One's "Damage," and there are scraps of guitar here and there that one could probably identify as Ira's. Apart from that, however, Sounds of the Sounds is unlike anything the group has done before. (via Stylus)

Science & Nature is pure Bluetones from start to finish! 12 tracks including 'Tiger Lily', 'Zorro', 'The Basement Song', 'Emily's Pine' & 'Mudslide' to name a few. Spectrum. 2006. Amazon

Before and After Science is being touted as Brian Eno's most commercial album, and with some reason: it's a graceful, seductively melodic work, and side one even kicks off with a neat little disco riff. But this view also confuses the issue. People who think of Eno solely in terms of the static, artsy instrumentals on David Bowie's Heroes and Low forget, or never knew, that on Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), the master of dadaist cybernetics also made some of the wittiest and most enjoyable music of our time. These records were supremely entertaining, in the best sense, and they were rock & roll. By contrast, Before and after Science is austere and restrained, an enigma in a deceptively engaging skin. (via musicstack)

"Welcome to Rhythm Science. It's an exercise in pan-humanism," states Spooky in his lengthy liner notes. This pan-humanism plays on the blurred boundaries between high art and low art: the philosophical and literary aspects of the spoken words, the sonic research of experimentalists, and the groove, constantly and seductively present throughout the album. (via artistdirect)

Superpop machen Musik im elektronischen Zeitalter. Der Name der Band ist Programm. Ihre Musik könnte gut zu einem schlechten 50er Jahre Science Fiction Film passen, ganz in der Tradition von Peter Thomas. Aus den Lautsprechern blubbern und kullern die vintage bleeps und und biebs nur so. (via online musik magazin)

Alien8 Recordings and its sub-label Substractif will release the debut full-length, The Science of Breath, by Toronto producer Sandro Perri, a.k.a. Polmo Polpo, who blends deep, murky techno with rich layers of feedback and densely orchestrated melodies. Recently the artist has enjoyed an explosion in popularity, thanks in part to a number of opening performances for Do Make Say Think, Pan Sonic and Oval. (via alien8recordings)

Although the package design is more cool than functional, the music within the disc is more functional than cool: Simple instrumentation takes center stage and out goes the lusher production values of his late 1980's/early 1990's records...
This is a good thing: fans of "Someday, Someway" and his new wave approach to early rock 'n' roll will find plenty of wonderfully catchy pop tunes here: Grant Hart's whistful "Twenty-Five Forty-One," the infectious heartland-rock "What Do You Dream Of," and the country-tinged "Who Stole That Train" will have you humming to yourself long after the cd is finished. (via amazon)

After being dropped by Mercury in 1999, she released several more records under the Dead Daisy banner: Science Fair in 1999, Dead Relatives in 2000, Girl Versions in 2001, and Asianblue in 2002. She toured extensively in David Bowie's backup band during 2000 and 2001. She also toured with Swedish band The Cardigans in 2004 on the Chicks With Attitude tour. (via wiki)

And then, of course, there is...