‘Never judge a book by it’s cover’, so the adage goes – but they never said anything about music. For anyone who saw the marvellous interview Noisey conducted with cover designer Stefan Sagmeister earlier this year, the preciousness and joy in classic album art cannot be underestimated. Stefan himself buys music only off album covers, and insists he’s never heard a bad album with a great cover artwork. When we don’t have our iPod to hand, they’re how music fans represent their loves in tattoos, posters and paraphernalia. A cheap cover can lower the tone of a whole project; a great one creates the world in which the music exists, and the pictures in our mind as the song’s play on. These may not be our favourite albums of the year, but they’re definitely the images we most enjoyed looking at while listening to them…
J.B. Biberkopf – Ecologies
J.B. Biberkopf – Ecologies
Regis – Manbait
Cee-Lo Green – Heart Blanche
Gengahr – A Dream Outside
Everything Everything – Get To Heaven
Murlo – Odyssey
Kamasi Washington – The Epic
Grimes – Art Angels
Iron Maiden – Book Of Souls
Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz
A$AP Rocky – At.Long.Last.A$AP
Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh
Sun Kil Moon – Universal Themes
Nicolas Jaar – Pomegranates
Battles – La Di Da Di
Bop English – Constant Bop
Coldplay – A Head Full Of Dreams
Out Come The Wolves – Rancid
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Joanna Newsom – Divers
Ty Dolla $ign – Free TC
Arca – Mutant
Tame Impala – Currents
Dishonorable Mention: Bjork – Vulnicura (Vinyl Cover)
(Seriously. What is that?!)
Selections made by Emma Wilson, Callum Martin-Moore, James Noble, Liam Inscoe – Jones, Rachel Lewis, Charlie Barnes, Liam Fleming, Jacob Banks, Shaun Brewster, Ellen Hutchinson and George Lestner
All images belong solely to their artists, not us: thanks for the work guys.
