It's a shame that any time anyone talks about Underground, they only talk about the cover art and not the music. I think it's one of his best albums, the last by his longest-running quartet, and with a few excellent late tunes — Ugly Beauty, Boo Boo's Birthday, and Green Chimneys — that you won't hear anywhere else. The only thing misguided about it is the last track, a version of In Walked Bud with vocals, that if I remember correctly is from a different recording session.
Belaboring the cover of the album buys into the same image-oriented discussion of Monk the writer seems to want to move away from.
I suspect it's because everyone wants to talk about Jazz but almost nobody sits and listens to it long enough to have an ear be able to enjoy listening to it. Like 95% of the people who talk about Jazz never listen to it, but anyone can blather on about some visual piece. They have probably spent 100x more time looking at the album they have prominently displayed than they have spent with it out of it's sleeve.
Belaboring the cover of the album buys into the same image-oriented discussion of Monk the writer seems to want to move away from.