Great Album Covers- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Though my opinion of the album has gone back and forth over the years, there's no denying what an important and iconic album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was and remains. Chicago had become a cultural mecca in the 90s for the indie and post-rock scenes though realistically the city was known as a center for great art of all stripes for many years. Indeed, it is the artistic mecca of the entire Midwest. That a band like Wilco would end up there seems only fitting, since they spent the first phase of their career moving from alt.country to more experimental music, much as young people from the Midwest often leave their suburban and rural birthplaces for the intellectual and artistic offerings of Chicago.

It's only fitting that something from Chicago would end up on a Wilco album cover, and that it would also be on the band's most iconic album is sweet serendipity. The low angle view of Marina City emphasizes the bizarre appearance of its towers; unless you're from the area you probably weren't sure exactly what you were looking at right away. "What are these, man, like prickly corncobs...?"

Beyond the unique look of these buildings, their use on the cover cements Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as a Chicago album through and through.