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Private No More: The Strange World of Vanity Vinyl Album Covers

Photo via Sinecure Books

People can create the most amazing things when no one else is telling them what to do. In the sumptuous new book Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992, (Sinecure) editors Johan Kugelberg, Michael P. Daley, and Paul Major have collected more than 1,000 of the wildest, weirdest, sweetest, and coolest vanity vinyl covers, all of which were made to accompany music recorded and released by private individuals. Some of the music deserved to be heard by wide audiences; lots of it, if we’re being frank, didn’t. But in all cases, the unfettered personality evinced by the cover images offers a look at an alternate and previously hidden universe of American music.