35 Beautiful Music Album Covers
Album cover art is often considered to be one of the “extincted” fields in modern graphics design. In times when digital copies are cheaper and quicker to get, album covers have somehow lost their importance as less and less customers actually buy CDs and LPs in the stores. That’s a pity because album covers can be extremely expressive and convey the message of the album in a number of creative ways. This post attempts to prove exactly that.
Music and art go hand in hand. And the best way to get a potential buyers’ attention is with an eye catching album cover. We all know you can’t just judge a book by it’s cover but it doesn’t hurt to give a CD a spin based off a sexy piece of art.
Below we present 35 excellent examples of beautiful, creative and impressive album covers that will certainly inspire you to head down to the local record shop and start browsing through records and labels. We have tried to address various cover designs and present both CD covers and LP covers from 60s to 2000s, however some excellent album covers are definitely missing. Please let us know about them in the comments to the post!
This post was updated. Thank you for the comments!
Album Covers
The Mars Volta “Frances the Mute”
Danger Doom – The Mouse and the Mask
Michael Jackson: Dangerous by Mark Ryden
Devil’s Gun – Raising The Beast
Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist by Shepard Fairey
Keane: Under The Iron Sea by Sanna Annukka
Kisschasy: United Paper People by Debaser
Editors: The End Has a Start by Idris Khan
Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue
Ground Components: An Eye for a Brow, A Tooth for a Pick by Jonathan Zawada
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Kool and the Gang – Still Cool
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon 1973
Gallows: In The Belly of a Shark by Dan Mumford
Muse – Origin of Symmetry (thanks, Paul)
Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons by Airside
Tool: 10,000 Days
Circa Survive: On Letting Go
The Last Goodnight – Poison Kiss
Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
Thom Yorke: The Eraser by Stanley Donwood
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (thanks, yaara)
Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This by Will Sweeney
The Chemical Brothers: Push the Button by Tappin Gofton
Rafale: Rock It, Don’t Stop It by Akroe
Dream Theater – Scenes from the memory (thanks, OverZero.it)
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction
New Order – Power, Corruption and Lies
Designed by one of today’s most influential designers Peter Saville (thanks, Shaun)
The Police – Ghost In The Machine
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Genji Siraisi: Censorsh!t by Razauno
VHS Orbeta – Bring On The Comets
Fort-Minor – The Rising Tied Front
The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
Elton John – Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Queens Of The Stone Age: Era Vulgaris by Morning Breath Inc
Beck: The Information by Big Active and you
“The album was issued with a blank sleeve and booklet and one of four different sheets of stickers for fans to make their own album art. Beck explained to Wired magazine he wanted no two copies of the CD cover to be the same: “The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity.” However, because the unique album art concept was seen as a gimmick to bolster retail sales, The Information was deemed ineligible to enter the UK Albums Chart.”
Merzbow – Frog: Remixed and Revisited
Last Click
The World’s First Album Cover
Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic sleeves. Please notice that there is the word “smash” on the cover.
Related posts
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
fazlee
August 3rd, 2008 6:03 pmnice compilation. :)
MikeWhoBikes
August 3rd, 2008 6:05 pmSome very inspiring artwork here; thanks for sharing!
tm
August 3rd, 2008 6:17 pmNicely done, but you’re missing 10,000 Days by Tool.
ashu
August 3rd, 2008 6:21 pmthat’s very cool covers
upnyou
August 3rd, 2008 6:30 pmThe Roots is wrong.
You typed Things Falll Apart, but the image shown is the album cover to Game Theory. Two completely different albums. However, both album covers are great.
Croops
August 3rd, 2008 6:31 pmI thought that was a very average compilation. How on earth did that Bon Jovi cover make it? Seems like you went through your (limited) iTunes collection and picked out some random artwork.
Disappointing SM – your articles are usually of a much higher quality than this!
Ali Reid
August 3rd, 2008 6:33 pmCd covers will become album artwork, right? This art won’t have to die will it? It’ll just start being at 72dpi
Myke Cave
August 3rd, 2008 6:43 pmYeah what the hell is so great about the Bon Jovi cover?
nb3004
August 3rd, 2008 6:44 pmWhat’s up with the image you put up for OK Computer? That is someone’s flickr photoshop compliation.
Jason
August 3rd, 2008 6:45 pmI would also include some of the album art that 23 Envelope/v23 has done for the 4AD label, specifically for releases by This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, the Cocteau Twins, and Lush, to name a few. These are some of the best examples of the artwork perfectly complementing, and even adding to, the music itself.
You can find a lot of example here.
frd
August 3rd, 2008 6:46 pmmore more
vjstarrr
August 3rd, 2008 6:58 pmArcade Fire’s Funeral is also pretty: http://www6.nrk.no/magasin/upunkt/gallery/albums/album212/Arcade_Fire.jpg
Steve
August 3rd, 2008 6:58 pmGlad to see the Kool-Aid man made the list. Oh yea!
Daniel
August 3rd, 2008 7:01 pmTo be honest none of these covers are very inspiring and a lot of them are very well known. For a truly beautiful/interesting piece of cover artwork you might take a look at the obscure independent band from the mid 90′s Neutral Milk Hotel and their album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516DZMQ1MGL._SS500_.jpg
Matchy
August 3rd, 2008 7:05 pmNo idea where you got that Radiohead cover from: you can see the actual cover–which is also brilliant–pretty much anywhere on the web, including:
http://thatgirlkate.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/radiohead-ok-computer-87768.jpg
redwall_hp
August 3rd, 2008 7:14 pmYay, Abby Road!
Ryan
August 3rd, 2008 7:15 pmMy personal favorite across the years has been Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy cover. I remember being drawn into it as a kid, trying to understand what the hell was going through the mind of the person who created it. I still have no idea, but it continues to be a very intriguing cover.
chrislreynolds
August 3rd, 2008 7:32 pmThanks, I appreciate seeing music-inspired design. I noticed the album year on Dark Side of the Moon, it would be interesting to see the dates for all the other designs as well.
victor
August 3rd, 2008 7:38 pmyou must be joking… some are very good indeed, some others… hmm…
Rhyming Designer
August 3rd, 2008 8:14 pmI think in a lot of cases (e.g., Pink Floyd, Beatles) you’re confusing a classic cover with great / inspiring art. Being generous, I thought six deserved to be here. But Bon Jovi? Queens of the Stone Age?? Ack!
In fact, I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April 1.
Tim Oxley
August 3rd, 2008 8:36 pmAgreed, Radiohead cover is whacked, and where are the tool album covers and um, that bon jovi album It’s so beautiful it makes me feel sick in the guts. : /
JNudda
August 3rd, 2008 8:42 pmSurpised to not find anything designed by Mike Shinoda
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee195/gacontapbayvn/19059_linkin-park_reanimation_front.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/e/ed/Fort-Minon—The-Rising-Tied–Front—www.FreeCovers.net-.jpg
Fahai Media
August 3rd, 2008 8:59 pmA quick compilation by SM. Average collection I would say! I have seen much better covers in ASIAN MUSIC
Steve Fenton
August 3rd, 2008 9:56 pmEven in the world of digital, you do still get good artwork – check out the latest EP from Idiot3 for a really nice bit of “album art” – The Monster and the Grey Goose artwork
It really does add something to the release – and I don’t think album art is dead yet – and it won’t be as long as there are computer interfaces such as coverflow, which display the artwork (albeit smaller than a 12-inch vinyl) as part of the library search / while the music is playing.
raj
August 3rd, 2008 9:57 pmIt’s nice.. but.. still… i feel something is missing here, and its not the best list.
LeonP
August 3rd, 2008 10:35 pmI don’t know, a German blog with no reference to the great Krautrock LP covers?
Faust (typographically correct, too!): Faust IV
Can: Ege Bamyasi
Neu: Neu!
Daniel Janev
August 3rd, 2008 10:41 pmGood collection, but lots of great cover designs missing…
hint: TOOL
Mayur
August 3rd, 2008 10:56 pmwow Gr8 album covers …
http://www.netbulls.co.cc
Hugo
August 3rd, 2008 11:17 pmDamn, really bad choices.
Paul
August 3rd, 2008 11:42 pmYou forgot about ‘In the court of the Crimson King’ by King Crimson
Rony Mattar
August 3rd, 2008 11:44 pmHey! you chose those are the most sick designs i have ever seen!! where do u see the beauty in those covers???
Greg
August 3rd, 2008 11:50 pmThe cover of “Weekend in the city, Bloc Party” isn’t the original. http://images.google.com/images?q=weekend+int+the+city No ?
OverZero.it
August 3rd, 2008 11:55 pmI think would be nice to have some Dream Theater’s cover listed here (Scenes from a memory, Falling into infinity, …).
Mr Truffle
August 4th, 2008 12:04 amOk I worked on this article and I’ll say that it was originally a complication of “illustrated album covers” so that’s why the list is missing so many good ones. SM added 15 more and made it a wider article.
And yes TOOL is missing. I’m a huge TOOL fan too. Silly me. We have covered almost all their albums here http://sleevage.com/?s=Tool&key=Musical+Artist
Anyway no list is perfect. It’s meant to be a “Monday Inspiration” piece not the final chosen list of albums to be sent in the next space shuttle:)
MRX
August 4th, 2008 12:06 amIt seems it would be a good idea to list the actual covers and not the first hit you get when you google for them. C´mon, the OK Computer is well-known! Hope you´re blushing now guys.
Peter
August 4th, 2008 12:09 amRadiohead – man, that’s so way off. C’mon get it right…
Anybody remember Roger Dean and his fantastic album covers?
Pete
August 4th, 2008 12:12 amradiohead – ok compter is wrong although the proper album cover is in that image. nice collection though
rajaraman
August 4th, 2008 12:12 amNot bad,
Jack
August 4th, 2008 12:34 amWow ‘Gallows – In the Belly of the Shark’ is amazing. I’m tempted to seek out a poster.
I’d have liked to see Lemon Jelly’s Lost Horizons on there but you can’t have everything, can you. :)
yaara
August 4th, 2008 12:37 amGodspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (here)
The whole sleeve design, not just its cover – it is made of cardboard instead of plastic and inside there is special art too.
Paul
August 4th, 2008 12:38 amGood list, but one amazing cover is missing…
Muse – Origin of Symmetry
elfelipe
August 4th, 2008 12:48 amyeah !!
“in rainbows” radiohead ?
william
August 4th, 2008 12:59 amthis post really dated you guys.
Haitham
August 4th, 2008 1:02 amas mentioned by some readers, some of the covers are truly great pieces of art, but some are not even worth a second look.
MJ – Dangerous and The Roots – Game Theory on the same list?
Will
August 4th, 2008 1:06 amYeah man, some of these covers are amazing, but classic and beautiful are definitely not the same (although many times they walk hand in hand). I got inspired though, I’ll choose my favourite album art and post them on my blog and start a discussion with my friends.
Lachlan
August 4th, 2008 1:16 amIn fact, to be fair, the cover for Bloc Party isn’t even the artists original work — the album shown above uses a photograph by a popular photographer on DeviantArt. The site where the cover art was lifted for this article even acknowledges the wrong art is shown.
I think Muse’s Absolution album should be listed as well. It has a fantastically designed cover.
Martin
August 4th, 2008 1:21 amGreat compilation, but irrespective of the music, Bon Jovi’s ‘Have a nice day’ cover isn’t that great to feature here.
Dizet
August 4th, 2008 1:30 amSo many bad choices – The plagiarised piece of crap that is ‘Mothership’ over ‘Houses Of The Holy’ for example. In fact, practically every Zep cover apart from ‘Coda is better!
I could go on, but, y’know…
Sebhelyesfarku
August 4th, 2008 1:32 amWhat’s so special on the Beatles cover? 4 hippies cross the street.
Yoeran
August 4th, 2008 2:12 amNot a great post this time. Seeing a lot of mediocre album covers but miss a lot of brilliant album covers.
Where is “Tool – 10,000 Days”, “Soulwax – Nite Versions & Any Minute Now” or the new Coldplay cover “Viva la Vida”?
Stoo
August 4th, 2008 2:17 amNot up to the standards of previous articles at all… only SOME of these covers are in any way decent or groundbreaking…. EG: Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue – a gorgeously drawn piece of cover art with oodles or creativity and depth.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 4th, 2008 2:29 amThank you for all your great comments. The post was updated!
Joe | A New Band A Day!
August 4th, 2008 3:03 amI really love the Soulwax and Arcade Fire covers, they both convey the ethos of the bands and the albums really well and simply.
Thanks for the list!
Joe – http://www.anewbandaday.com
Rick
August 4th, 2008 3:41 amNot a single (Reid Miles) BlueNote album cover made the list?! While most of their covers are fantastic, you should definitely take a look at the Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill, Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, and Jackie McLean covers from the 60′s. Their covers have inspired so many artists it’s a shame to see them missing from this list.
tomek
August 4th, 2008 3:41 amI would love to see there cover of Merzbow “Frog: Remixed and Revisited”, Pelican “The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw” or The Mars Volta “Frances the Mute”. But the compilation is great anyway!
Pepa
August 4th, 2008 3:49 amSome are excellent (Pink Floyd – The Division Bell), some are rubbish (Motley Crue – Theatre of Pain, Earth, Wind & Fire – All’n’all). Thanks for posting
Tim
August 4th, 2008 4:15 amNo factory records releases?
Obviously everyone knows Unknown Pleasures- but what about Atmosphere
Transmission or Closer or Still
(All Joy Division)
Or the later New Order Stuff.
And as Jason said- where is the 4AD/ Vaughn Oliver worK? (I’m not sure if that is even the best Pixies cover- let alone the best of 4AD)
Grant Friedman
August 4th, 2008 4:21 amI love that you guys included VHS or BETA. What a great band! Great album too! They’re from my hometown too which is kind of cool.
Nathan Beck
August 4th, 2008 4:31 amI’m sorry, this is just a collection of CD’s you probably own or know that have nice covers. It’s a difficult article to create because such a massive portion of album artwork is great – you can’t narrow it down to 35. And it seems like you just thrown some up there just because they’re hand drawn or something. Metropolis? Appetite for Destruction? They’re not particularly special.
But hey, it’s a good idea and there are some good selections.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 4th, 2008 4:35 am@Nathan Beck (#59): our intention was not to showcase best covers, we just wanted to present some of them which we think are good and spark our reader’s interesting in designing beautiful and unusual CD covers. We are no music experts, but we appreciate the beauty of unusual approaches and creative ideas. This collection definitely does not display best covers out there (read the introduction), but we hope that it contains some examples worth learning from.
Lila
August 4th, 2008 4:40 amAlways inspiring are the illustrated covers of toy piano band Twink:
Supercute
The Broken Record
Twink
A Very Fine Adventure
Bruno Aleman
August 4th, 2008 4:53 amI think is very hard to choose only 35. Anyway, this is a good collection, but I would have included Nevermind from Nirvana.
Flo
August 4th, 2008 5:08 amAlso a very nice cover: Page Avenue by Story of the Year
grelas
August 4th, 2008 5:10 amcheck out Circa Survive’s covers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Onlettinggo.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/32.jpg
Dizet
August 4th, 2008 5:11 amWell, if we’re allowed to change the list:
Peter Gabriel II;
Peter Gabriel III;
or pretty much anyHipgnosis cover;
nick
August 4th, 2008 5:17 amI’m sorry, but just one Radiohead album doesn’t do it :)
You’d have to at least add The Eraser (it’s frickin’ Stanley Donwood, remember?!)
Gavin
August 4th, 2008 5:27 amSuprising to see the Smashing Pumpkins cover on there instead of KMFDM, they’ve been doing albums like that for years, and better ones at that.
That said, with a catalog to choose from so big, there are bound to be covers that get missed, and everyone always has their personal favorites.
Here’s some KMFDM covers
Shaun
August 4th, 2008 5:31 amTim already mentioned Factory Records album covers but to add to that, most of them were designed by Peter Saville. How you can miss out one of today’s most influential designers in this list is unforgivable.
Everyone has their favourites and will disagree over a list but how can you miss Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order, designed by Saville?
Litos
August 4th, 2008 5:33 amAnd pearl jam? great examples like vitalogy or no code. And Brad Klausen is a terrific designer. Just a suggestion ;)
Lachlan
August 4th, 2008 5:43 amI completely forgot about that Lemon Jelly album cover, it has such a childish quality about it. A very good album too, if you’re into the genre of music.
scott
August 4th, 2008 5:47 amHow about giving hip hop a little bit of love. The first album cover that came to my mind is Kanye West’s Graduation
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 4th, 2008 5:49 am@Shaun (#69): thank you, could you provide us with some inspiring Factory Records album covers?
Simon B
August 4th, 2008 5:50 amCheck out earlier ‘The The’ records.
RSBomber
August 4th, 2008 5:51 amNice compilation. I would have included any cover from Iron Maiden in this list.
Scott
August 4th, 2008 5:57 amWhere are the classic jazz album covers? I would think Reid Miles is worth mention in any collection of artistic album covers.
Robert
August 4th, 2008 5:58 ami almost find it offending you didn’t added sgt pepper cover of the beatles:
http://stormgod.altervista.org/index_file/Beatles%20-%20Sgt%20Peppers%20Lonely%20heart%20club%20band.jpg
I once met a graphic designer who was a great fan of the beatles. He told me there are alot of hidden secrets, also the pop-art designer of it made references to the rolling stones.
Wern
August 4th, 2008 6:04 amWhat about radiohead’s Kid A?
Torley Lives
August 4th, 2008 6:07 amLooks like the Coldplay Viva La Vida cover is on there twice — you meant to put the picture for the New Order cover in the second instance!
I’d argue their floppy disk art for “Blue Monday” is even more smashing, altho that’s for a single.
And don’t forget Orbital’s In Sides… beautiful and colorful! SO MUCH GOING ON.
BTW, where’d you get this album art? It must’ve been big enough for you to resize it uniformly, too! Awesome.
antpaw
August 4th, 2008 6:27 amtool > *
:)
Gershon
August 4th, 2008 6:33 amIf you want truly awe inspiring, look up the “Red Album” by Baroness.
raj dash
August 4th, 2008 6:36 amLove this list of album covers. Reminds me somewhat of the full size Book of Album Covers, volume 1, that I have of LP covers lying around somewhere. Not sure if it’s still in print, but it’s Paper Tiger Press, I beileve. And there are a lot of great Yes and Grateful Dead covers in it worth checking out.
raj dash
August 4th, 2008 6:38 amHmm. My comment has been eaten twice.
istilldontknowhowto.multiply.com
August 4th, 2008 6:48 amDream Theater! Wooohooooo! \m/_
Dominic
August 4th, 2008 6:51 amWhat does this have to do with web design?
Dave
August 4th, 2008 6:56 amhow about this one?
CAKE FAN
August 4th, 2008 6:58 amWhat about CAKE’s CD: B Sides and Rarities. THE ARTWORK IS SCRATCH AND SNIFF!
Matt J.
August 4th, 2008 7:02 amDisappointing. What’s the standard?
Babacita
August 4th, 2008 7:10 amGreat list! Also check out some Marillion/Fish/Porcupine Tree album artwork.
Rhonda
August 4th, 2008 7:24 amCommenter above is right — I spent hours as a child poring over Captain Fantastic.
On the flip side, I LOVE Sleeveface :)
valp
August 4th, 2008 7:44 amabsolutely great collection!
STPo
August 4th, 2008 7:46 amWhere’s the petition to have an Iron Maiden cover in this list ? =]
Ryan
August 4th, 2008 8:04 amLove the idea.
Missing John Butler Trio’s Grand National though
Dima
August 4th, 2008 8:06 amI saw someone else commented on it, but Sgt. Pepper’s by The Beatles should be on the list. Their use of cardboard models and the arrangement of those models and other items makes it a one-of-a-kind cover.
The Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet alternate cover, though slightly disgusting, is a unique approach, as well. (Contributing to the debate about “trash as art”, perhaps.)
Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home has that unique fading effect.
Stephen
August 4th, 2008 8:13 amHmmm… less than inspiring. Some nice pieces for sure, but this doesn’t feel like a representative collection. This feels more like a designer went through his/her collection and picked pieces that they thought to be ‘inspiring’.
justin
August 4th, 2008 8:37 ammy fav is the Circa Survive: On Letting Go design
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 4th, 2008 8:46 am@Stephen (#96): could you be more specific about what you mean with “representative”? And please provide us with some excellent album covers which could serve as the inspiration for further visitors of this post.
enoo
August 4th, 2008 8:50 amI suppose the Soulwax cover and the DJ Shadow cover are here to show what people should *NOT* do. The 1st looks like the ugly gift wrap used by my aunt, and the 2nd is just a bad photo…
A very average compilation, there’s not many “beautiful” music album covers here, and certainly not “35 beautiful music album covers”, as the title said.
I’m disappointed. :(
chriswho
August 4th, 2008 8:53 amI love smashing, but this post is far more subjective (and disputable) than usual…
In the future, a sentence or two about “why” someone thought a piece was inspiring/beautiful/groundbreaking would at least make the opinion seem thoughtful and intentional vs. just picking random covers that look cool.
People don’t have to agree, but when disputed, it makes it apparent that it was “Mr Truffle’s” thoughtful opinion, and helps insulate Smashing’s reputation from differing opinions on design.
jimmy jimbo
August 4th, 2008 8:56 amthat rolling stones cover is terrible
tatiana leão
August 4th, 2008 8:59 amwhat about stone temple pilot’s “tiny music”? that would also be a nice addition to the list.
and i know there’s already a smashing pumpkins cover, but “mellon collie…” also has great visual art all over.
$0.02.