[purlieu]

1. Pearl's Girl. I adore this. The warped text, the weird layering, the out of focus photos, the entire structure of the whole thing. It's up there with my favourite record art ever, just totally unlike anything else I know.

2. Dubnobass era. Just the whole lot. All the single art from this era feels part of the same package. Just a wonderful patchwork. I'd say my favourites are the Dark & Long singles, especially the green tint on the April Records CD.

3. Born Slippy. My introduction to Underworld was through seeing the 1996 NUXX single in Woolworths as a kid and being blown away by the cover. Plain murky grey and green sleeves with all the text - tracklist, credits, everything - stuck at the top in weird broken text and absolutely nothing else. I bought the single based on the cover. I love the fact that it's completely functional and yet has such a brilliantly subtle aesthetic too.

5. Beaucoup Fish & singles. Took me by surprise at first, because of how different it is to the intentionally messy earlier covers. It's such a wonderful range of images, though, feels like it has a very distinct purpose despite being completely abstract. Feels like it still has some of the Pearl's Girl murk but done in a very polished way at the same time.

6. Second Toughest. Has elements of the murkiness of Born Slippy and Pearl's Girl, but its own identity too. The text inside makes it feel like a more stripped back, lo-fi version of Dubno to me. It's good but not especially iconic.

7. Oblivion With Bells & singles. It's obviously an intentional return to the earlier style, and it's not done quite as well, but it's still a style I like a lot. I'm not bothered about all the inner art, though.

8. Strawberry Hotel. I think what jars about it is that it looks like an album cover. A photograph of something easily identifiable that's been especially made to go on the cover of an album, which is so at odds with the abstract Tomato style. I like the colours a lot. Will take a bit of getting used to, I suppose.

9. Barking & singles. I think it suits its purpose very well, a vibrant, dayglo, euphoric version of the messy style. I'm not sure just how good it actually looks, though.

10. A Hundred Days Off & singles. I prefer the random objects of the singles to the face balloon of the album. Overall the era has its idiosyncrasies, and I like the continued use of the comma, but otherwise it's not especially memorable.

11. Drift. I don't mind the dog. I don't think it's great but it's fine, it has a weird non-specific nature to it. As with most of the pictures. But the whole thing is merely... ok. It doesn't feel especially Underworldy.

12. Barbara Barbara. I mean this could be anyone. Indie band, techno act, ambient record. Feels so low-effort and anonymous for a group whose art is normally so striking.

I've never spent time looking at the various compilations and other bits, so don't really have much of an emotional response to them. I don't like the 1992-2002 stuff at all. The 2012 ones are ok I suppose. I quite like the Frankenstein cover.