Of course, if the band thinks it's totally lame, than...

First one, let's me 'mire the gears 'n shit

...and you'll be pleased to know that is in fact Yonge Street (in proper coloration) behind the glass, as it were.

I like the first one the moast. The other ones feel a bit too symmetrical to me, vertically and horizontally.

Name of the recoard "Republic"?

I might scuzz up the text on the gears a bit to push them a bit further back from easy legibility, and to discourage college DJs from calling the band "garda republic" and the recoard "destroy everything". I might also go for the lighter treatment of the logo from the third one.

The third one is actually also nice, though i might reduce the size of the word "REPUBLIC" onnit so it is not as close to the same width of the logo. I might be inclined to bring the width of that to a bit closer to that of the lens, maybe just a little bigger than that.

Nice colors and shapes overall, i dig it.

I like the first one bestest.

I was thinking something along these lines

Well, I wound up doing both, by suggestion of the persons in the band as well, go figure.

If anyone can be arsed to look at a 60 meg PDF (hint: load this in Photoschnappes, not Acrobat/Preview/etc. if you want it to not take forever), the whole damn shooting match for the album art is here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/GARDA_REPUBLIC_6panel_flat.pdf.zip

Minus a few minor changes (there's some type missing in the credits, a couple things need to be moved, lighten the title on the spine or the art under it for legibility) and cleaning up around the flap for the CD. I left the template on so the bandpeeps could see what's where. Rotate 180º to look at the inside part.

I couldn't resist being a clever bastard and having hinges- a hinge, at any rate; I might add a second at the bottom- in the art where it opens up to the CD pocket and having something resembling a handle on there too.