Cole's album cover, photographed by Nick Knight, appears to be the sum of many parts: Leona, Shakira, Billie Holiday, My Fair Lady, Girl With a Pearl Earring and Her Majesty the Queen. And yet somehow, it works Photograph: Richard Hales/PR
Thrillingly, Leona's debut, Spirit, also used the naked shoulder side-twist pose. She's gone a bit raunchier for Echo, mind Photograph: PR
Feasibly the inspiration behind Leona's cover, Sade appears half-woman, half-bronze statuette, with perhaps just a smidge of mermaid thrown in for good measure. It's up to you to decide whether she looks impassioned or just freezing cold without her top on Photograph: PR
Madonna takes the throes-of-sexual-ecstasy pose of Leona and Sade and, not surprisingly, turns it up to 11. Still in profile and bare-shouldered, it's the antithesis of Cole's demure little chin-dip Photograph: PR
A little more downcast, and perhaps a little more Nefertiti than the rest Photograph: PR
No nakedness for Summer, but certainly a raised shoulder and an open-mouthed head tilt. Once Upon a Time was a double album that told a Cinderella story through the medium of disco. In keeping with the story, Summer substituted her usual souped-up sexy image for a more wholesome, white-frocked look. Once Upon a Time was not a commercial success and her next album, Bad Girls, returned to a foxier bare-shouldered cover Photograph: PR
Contrarily facing towards the right, Shakira nonetheless has the whole naked shoulders and doe-eyed pouting look down pat. Note the album title shoulder tattoo, pre-empting Cole's by a good eight years Photograph: PR
