INXS, Listen Like Thieves

Something about this cover impresses me.

I think it’s the fact that the Australian band’s name really is the cover. The letters provide a window to the image behind; as best I can figure out—through the angles of I, N, X, and S—that’s a scrawny Michael Hutchence about to belt out “What You Need,” the hit single from this album. The image is just bright enough, and just unclear enough, to keep us uncertain what we’re looking at.

But something else about the cover really annoys me.

If the band’s name is the cover itself, why bother putting the band’s name again in the upper right-hand corner?