Album art

I am a cd person. When a favorite band puts out a new cd, you can find me on the Walmart music aisle disappointed by Walmart's decision not to stock it.
However, I am also a downloads person. It would be wrong for me to ignore the cornucopia of free or cheap (and legal!) music on the internet. So what decides if I buy the hard copy or the download? Generally, the art.

Every single person on the face of the earth recognizes The Beatles' Abbey Road. And it is so simple - just four guys crossing the street on, of all places, the crosswalk. They aren't even edgy enough to jaywalk. This picture is why so many people list Abbey Road as their favorite Beatles' album, despite it being easily inferior to others like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's. Good art + good music = classic picture.
One time, I almost bought Joy Electric's The Otherly Opus, just because I fell in love in the art. The color scheme is perfect, the idea is commendable. But then I realized I wasn't even that into the music, which should be the whole point of buying the cd in the first place. I wish they'd just put that design on a shirt.
Sometimes, the art is so bad (or weird), it stops me from buying the cd. Welcome to the Masquerade is supposedly the best Thousand Foot Krutch album yet, far above the two cds that I already have...but why would I want to have that picture sitting out in my room?
I didn't buy Copeland's Eat, Sleep, Repeat for this same reason.

I chose to download The Killers' Day & Age, even though I really did like the artwork. There was an Amazon deal...
Sometimes, like in Matisyahu's case, the art can tell you exactly what is on the cd...

...but other times you have no idea what is going on.

A few upcoming albums I already like just based on their art:

Try imagining yourself in space, walking down a giant mosaic tunnel. The picture gets more epic when you put yourself in the little man's position.

The White Album is the Times New Roman of album covers. I went to Barnes & Noble once and saw they were selling puzzles of this. I laughed.

I am not much of an artist, and neither am I a photographer, but I think coming up with creative art for your cd could be one of the best parts of the whole process.

In other news, Weezer's next is the opposite of The White Album.