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We gender-swapped some classic album sleeves and the results are spectacular

Features
By ( Classic Rock ) published

FaceApp can now transform the gender of your photographs... so how will it handle a bunch of classic album sleeves?

Peter Gabriel - So
(Image credit: Charisma Records)

FaceApp has come a long way since launching in 2017. 

Originally the features on the Russian photo-manipulation software were limited to small tweaks such as adding smiles to photos of unsmiling people. We used it to do just that on a series of classic album sleeves, cheering them up substantially. 

Cut to 2020 and it's a whole different ballgame. The app, which uses neural networks (a type of artificial intelligence) to make its facial transformations, now has the ability to manipulate the apparent gender of a person. 

So what better way to test the software than by turning a bunch of hoary old rock stars into women? 

The results, as you will see, are spectacular. 

Bruce Springsteen - The River

(Image credit: Columbia Records)

Iggy Pop - The Idiot

(Image credit: RCA)

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive

(Image credit: A%M Records)

Jimi Hendrix - The Best Of

(Image credit: Sony Music Entertainment)

Don Henley - Inside Job

(Image credit: Warner Brothers)

The Gregg Allman Band - Just Before The Bullets Fly

(Image credit: Epic Records)

Prince - Prince

(Image credit: Warner Brothers)

David Bowie - David Bowie

(Image credit: Deeca)

David Bowie - "Heroes"

(Image credit: RCA)

Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet

(Image credit: Virgin EMI)

The Doors - The Best Of The Doors

(Image credit: Warner)

Peter Garbriel - So

(Image credit: Virgin Records)
Fraser Lewry
Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.