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"One, two, three, UH!" That curtain-raising count-in to smash Hey Ya! , delivered by rapper and singer songwriter André 3000, was reverberating through our headphones at this precise time 20 years ago; we were ready and rabid for the entirety of André and Big Boi's double album as duo Outkast, the darlings of Atlanta and a musical force poised to make history. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below scudded in supreme with crocodile on its feet, to officially land on September 23. It became an immediate classic with its jazz-funk hip-hop styles, neatly bowling over fans from every genre's corner. The album's crossover success found the pair rewarded with three Grammy wins from six nominations, positioning them not just close to spectacular and fantastically well, but celebrated as ambitious musical visionaries.

THIS MONTH:

Romy

Dope Lemon

Big Boi and André 3000 in a promo shot for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below , 2003

Roisin Murphy

Lifting the Lid on a classic from The Hives

Looking back at the stories behind our favourite album covers, this month it's Olivia Rodrigo's belter debut, SOUR (2021).

A bored expression, arms crossed, forehead and cheeks dotted with super kawaii stickers which could've been pulled straight from the pages of a teen diary; popstar Olivia Rodrigo's debut album cover is a distillation of the record's themes, which revolve around adolescent ennui and heartbreak. The cherry on top of the now iconic image is the album's title spelled out letter by letter on Rodrigo's extended tongue. Photographed by Grant Spanier, the majority of this image would be easy to Photoshop, of course... but it wasn't Photoshopped. Three weeks before SOUR arrived, Rodrigo posted a selfie video to her Instagram account sporting the stickers exactly as they appear on the cover (almost – the smiley sun on her cheek has lost his sunnies).

The promotional campaign for the album was heavily influenced by the artwork; fans could buy sheets of the stickers, and even a pack of Olivia themed Sour Patch Kids. Everything looked sweet until promo images for the Sour Prom concert film emerged, in which Rodrigo was depicted as a bawling homecoming queen. Right on cue, Hole's Courtney Love took umbrage with the pics' similarity to the cover of her band's 1994 album Live Through This . Though a Twitter convo between the two artists initially appeared mutually admiring, Love later tweeted: “it was rude of her , and geffen not to ask myself or [ Live Through This 's album cover photographer] Ellen von unwerth . It’s happened my whole career so I d c . But manners is manners !" [sic]. ZKR

GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo is out Sep 8 via Universal.

66 SEPTEMBER 2023

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