I listen to A LOT of records each year — for work and to appease that nagging obsessive compulsive desire to hear everything and discover new things. One of the side-benefits of all that listening is seeing a lot of album artwork, and when you see enough of it, you start see some trends forming in terms of design, photography, layout, typography, and so on.
So I decided in lieu of listening my top ten covers, which would be nearly impossible anyway, I’d just give you a whole boatload of the cover art that caught my eye this year. This is hardly all-encompassing or definitive, nor ranked in any way. I should also say this is by no means a roundup of my favorite or best music or albums or songs of the year. Though I do like most of these albums, that would be silly. So instead — I grouped in eight distinct blocks — each with three rows of five, where each row I tried to match to some sort of theme. Anyway, have at it…
GROUP A
Row 1: Arcade Fire, Reflektor; CHVRCHES, The Bones Of What You Believe; Cassandra Jenkins, EP; Braids, Flourish // Perish; Kanye West, Yeezus
Row 2: Laura Marling, Once I Was An Eagle; Shout Out Louds, Optica; Sky Ferreira, Night Time, My Time; Polica, Shulamith; Rhye, Woman
Row 3: Palehound, Bent Nail; Chastity Belt, No Regerts; Swearin’, Surfing Strange; Courtney Barnett, The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas; Joanna Gruesome, Weird Sister
GROUP B
Row 1: Julian Lynch, Terra; Fuzz, Fuzz; Diarrhea Planet, I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams; Speedy Ortiz, Major Arcana; The Men, New Moon
Row 2: Fuck Buttons, Slow Focus; Cate Le Bon, Mug Museum; Daft Punk, Random Access Memories; Son Lux, Lanterns; Indians, Somewhere Else
Row 3: The National, Trouble Will Find Me; Small Black, Limits Of Desire; Pharmakon, Abandon; Blue Hawaii, Try To Be; Bored Nothing, Bored Nothing;
GROUP C
Row 1: Josh Ritter, The Beast In Its Tracks; James Blake, Overgrown; Quadron, Avalanche; Zola Jesus, Versions; Olafur Arnalds, For Now I Am Winter
Row 2: Low, The Invisible Way; Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse; Cass McCombs, There Can Be Only One; Okkervil River, The Silver Gymnasium; Lemuria, The Distance Is So Big
Row 3: Juana Molina, Wed 21; Baths, Obsidian; Disclosure, Settle; Blood Orange, Cupid Deluxe; How To Destroy Angels, Welcome Oblivion
GROUP D
Row 1: Ty Segall, Sleeper; Potty Mouth, Hell Bent; Smith Westerns, Soft Will; Great Thunder, Strange Kicks; Radiator Hospital, Something Wild;
Row 2: Buke And Gase, Hiccup; The Blow, The Blow; Mount Kimbie, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth; Foxygen, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic; Alpine, A Is For Alpine
Row 3: The Flaming Lips, The Terror; Guards, In Guards We Trust; Jackson Scott, Melbourne; Volcano Choir, Repave; Julia Holter, Loud City Song
GROUP E
Row 1: Beyonce, Beyonce; Death Grips, Government Plates; Lorde, Pure Heroine; Deerhunter, Monomania; Junip, Junip
Row 2: Julianna Barwick, Nepenthe; Jay Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail; Deafheaven, Sunbather; GEMS, Medusa; Paul McCartney, New
Row 3: No Age, An Object; Pity Sex, Feast Of Love; Atoms For Peace, Amok; David Bowie, The Next Day; Washed Out, Paracosm
GROUP F
Row 1: Savages, Silence Yourself; STRFKR, Miracle Mile; Earl Sweatshirt, Doris; HAIM, Days Are Gone; Janelle Monae, The Electric Lady
Row 2: Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks; San Fermin, San Fermin; Lucius, Wildewoman; Air Review, Low Wishes; Frankie Rose, Herein Wild
Row 3: M.I.A., Matangi; Torres, Torres; Laura Mvula, Sing To The Moon; Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience; Chance The Rapper, Acid Rap
GROUP G
Row 1: Mount Moriah, Miracle Temple; Beach Fossils, Clash The Truth; Night Beds, Country Sleep; Danny Brown, Old; Phosphorescent, Muchacho
Row 2: Ex Cops, True Hallucinations; Teen, Big Talk; Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt; Telekinesis, Dormarion; Fear Of Men, Early Fragments
Row 3: Keaton Henson, Birthdays; Grouper, The Man Who Died In His Boat; Wavves, Afraid Of Heights; Suuns, Images Du Futur; Unknown Mortal Orchestra, II
GROUP H
Row 1: Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires Of The City; Marnie Stern, The Chronicles Of Marnia; Moby, Innocents; Mikal Cronin, MCIIDaughter, If You Leave
Row 2: Lightning Dust, Fantasy; Tim Hecker, Virgins; Sigur Ros, Kveikur; Jon Hopkins, Immunity; Killer Mike And El-P, Run The Jewels
Row 3: Boards Of Canada, Tomorrow’s Harvest; My Bloody Valentine, mbv; Houses, A Quiet Darkness; Parquet Courts, Light Up Gold; Iceage, You’re Nothing
Solid list, but it’s missing ARTPOP. While Lady Gaga’s identity as a decent pop star is questionable these days, you can’t deny that cover art is doooope (no pun intended).