Imagine you’re browsing through your music collection. You are trying to find the perfect playlist for your mood. But, even before you start playing any song, there’s that moment of connection with the album cover. It’s like meeting someone for the first time, and you hope there’s an instant spark. In this case, be prepared to be inspired because I’m going to share my top 15 album covers that, in my humble opinion, just get it.
- If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (2015) by Drake
2015 was such a vibe and this album is the evidence. A surprise mixtape from Drake where he was really rapping on an album. The cryptic yet simple album cover was impactful. It become one of the first such images to become a Twitter phenomenon in its own right. Fans substituted their own scrawled messages into its format and made it an unmissable mid-’10s music meme.
2. Raven (2023) by Kelela
Evoking what the singer has called “the feeling of the isolation and alienation I’ve always had as a Black femme in dance music”, this album cover, by photographer Hendrick Schneider, is a visually poetic work of greyscale genius. It features a black face emerging from a body of dark water. It serves as a visual metaphor for blending into one’s natural environment.
3. Season of Glass (1981) by Yoko Ono
This album cover is a heart wrenching image featuring a single glass of water half empty (or half full?) next to Lennon’s blood-soaked glasses – the ones he was wearing when he was shot to death at age 40 on Dec. 8, 1980. It’s honest and jarring. And unforgettable. Almost like the death of a lover.
4. Jeffrey (2016) by Young Thug
Young Thug in a dress designed by Alessandro Trincone. This cover is an image that would’ve been unthinkable in hip-hop decades earlier. It is an image that would also prove influential on everyone from rappers to pop stars in the years after as this dress is currently in the Boston Museum for Contemporary Fine Arts.
The ‘Jeffrey’ dress at the Boston Museum of Contemporary Art.
5. No Agreement (1977) by Fela Kuti
The blatant disregard for authority and polite society that this album cover poses is almost too proud. Fela Kuti’s album artwork was typically as vibrant, thought-provoking and as bold as his music. This album cover with illustrations is one of his finest. Behind him are floating oval-shaped buttons with an assortment of rallying cries, from “freedom” to “Afrikan science” to “total emancipation”.
6. SOS (2022) by SZA
With five years passing between her debut Ctrl and this follow-up, it’s understandable that SZA might’ve been feeling adrift or isolated. This image of her alone on a diving board, wearing a sports jersey with her name on it perfectly represents that. It was also inspired by a photograph she saw of Princess Diana.
7. Island Life (1982) by Grace Jones
It’s not one picture but an anatomical collage that results in this superhuman picture. Fun fact, it was taken by the same photographer that took the Kim Kardashian breaks the internet magazine cover – Jean-Paul Goude.
8. ‘Abraxas’ (1970) by Santana
Taken from a Mati Klarwein painting, this cover is a surreal, psychedelic feast for the eyes. Inspired by the Biblical story of the Annunciation, this painting gives us a naked, Black Virgin Mary and a red angel. What could be more unforgettable?
9. ‘Nevermind’ (1991) by Nirvana
One of the most recognizable album covers of all time features an underwater, naked baby reaching for a dollar bill on a string. This finds Nirvana making a statement about the values our society passes on to its youth. Three decades later, the baby featured on the cover — by then an adult man — sued the band; a judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2022.
10. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (1988) by N.W.A.
A “Welcome to Reality” sign – this is a photograph from the perspective of someone lying down on the ground which shows Eazy-E pointing a gun at the viewer while the rest of the group looks down without mercy at the person about to die. Grim and provocative, it’s probably the most iconic image in gangsta rap history.
11. Electric Ladyland (1968) by Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix envisioned the Electric Ladyland album cover as a visual representation of the music’s psychedelic and experimental nature. He enlisted the help of Karl Ferris, a British photographer known for his innovative use of color and psychedelic aesthetics. Ferris employed ground-breaking techniques, such as infrared photography images that perfectly complemented the music.
12. ‘Let’s Start Here’ (2023) by Lil Yachty
This cover is on the list purely for controversy. I saw that the artist behind this enigmatic cover is no other than Artificial Intelligence. We are seeing yet another artist embracing the DIY wave, however, he is doing this in the middle of Protests and Union disagreements over same issues. The cover is interesting but I’m going to be thinking about the politics of it for some time.
13. African Giant (2019) by Burna Boy
Burna Boy cemented his status as an Afrobeat/Afrofusion heavyweight with his first grammy-nominated album. The art direction for this project was excellent. While integrating an artist on a currency is nothing we’ve not seen before, this was executed perfectly, fitting into the album theme.
14. ANTI (2016) by Rihanna
Rihanna turned to Israeli artist Roy Nachum who dug deep into her past for this artwork. It shows a doubled image of toddler Rihanna on her first day of daycare, holding a black balloon with a gold crown covering her eyes. On the original canvas for the art, there’s a poem by Chloe Mitchell in braille. Its first few lines: “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won’t be heard.”
15. MAN MADE (2021) by Greentea Peng
This album was written as part of a month-long wilderness retreat with her seven-piece house band, the Seng Seng Family. Greentea Peng seemed to have endowned the shroom-soaked spirit of her surroundings in this project. Her influences and style are ever present in the aesthete of the cover. As a part of the wave of neo-soul indebted vocalists emerging from the UK, her entrancing cover delivers the right message. This is an excellent example of a cover helping to discern genre.
