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Top 40 Best Album Covers Of All Time
Album covers are often sadly overlooked as a source of artistic expression.
The best ones, however, are able to distill the feel of an entire album into a single image.
Throughout music history, there have been countless iconic album covers that have left a lasting impression on both fans and casual listeners alike.
From Nirvana’s Nevermind to Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, these covers have become synonymous with the albums they represent.
Our top album covers of all time are all as inspiring as the tunes they represent.
Collecting albums is also cheaper than collecting art and you can listen to them too!
David Bowie
Aladdin Sane
If you close your eyes and think of David Bowie, there’s a good chance it’s this image you see staring back at you.
Get a copy online here.
Miles Davis
Bitches Brew
There’s no other jazz cover like it. The blend of surrealism and African tribal art is completely unique.
One of our personal faves!
Get a copy online here.
The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers
An Andy Warhol original that won a Grammy for the best album cover.
Get a copy online here.
Jethro Tull
Thick As A Brick
You have to see this one to appreciate just how clever and funny album art can be.
Get a copy online here.
Drake
If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late
A minimalist cover that spawned a thousand Twitter memes.
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Nirvana
Nevermind
It’s completely iconic and back in the headlines as the baby, now fully grown, is suing for exploitation.
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Duran Duran
Rio
Patrick Nagel’s cover art was originally done as a 5’ x 5’ canvas that blew the band away.
Get a copy online here.
The Who
Who’s Next
Patrick Nagel’s cover art was originally done as a 5’ x 5’ canvas that blew the band away.
Get a copy online here.
Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures
Peter Saville opted for radio waves and it transformed this into a cult classic.
Get a copy online here.
Uriah Heap
The Magician’s Birthday
Roger Dean is an all-time great in the album art stakes and this is his most noticeable work.
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Judas Priest
British Steel
The pure menace of this image leaves it stuck in your mind long after viewing.
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Cream
Disraeli Gears
Martin Sharp’s psychedelic color explosion gave Cream’s album a truly unique identity.
Get a copy online here.
The Roots
Things Fall Apart
Inequality defined by a single image, completely capturing the band’s message.
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Santana
Lotus
Buddhist imagery and Japanese brilliance from Tadanori Yokoo.
Get a copy online here.
The Clash
London Calling
This is a huge shout out to the king of rock’n’roll Elvis Presley, while pretty much redefining rock’n’roll at the same time.
Get a copy online here.
10CC
How Dare You
The “Don’t Hang Up” theme is stacked with visual gags and is unforgettable.
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XTC
Go2
The most brutally honest cover of all time from Hipgnosis? You decide.
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Blink 182
Enema of the State
Both suggestive and literal, you can’t unsee this iconic cover.
Get a copy online here.
Bruce Springsteen
Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band hired Eric Meola to photograph them for this cover.
It’s arguably the most recognizable rock album cover of the 20th century.
Get a copy online here.
Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp A Butterfly
Clever, confrontational and era-defining. A rap album can’t ask for more than that.
Get a copy online here.
Ramones
Ramones
Roberta Bayley’s photo was transformed by a middle finger and the rest is history.
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Hole
Live Through This
Empathy and satire in the same shot? A rarity but it’s what makes this such a powerful image.
Get a copy online here.
Pixies
Surfer Rosa
Sexy, shocking and startling and full of implicit meaning, it doesn’t get much better.
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The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
60 people plus the Beatles themselves, listen to the tunes, identify the faces.
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Yes
Relayer
It’s fair to say that Roger Dean’s imagery became the face of prog rock and this is one of his finest.
Get a copy online here.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
You may think you’ve seen this before, it’s the one that inspired London Calling, after all.
Get a copy online here.
Frank Sinatra
Come Fly With Me
It captures all the cool of the era and the jet-set brilliance of the artist.
Get a copy online here.
Public Enemy
Fear Of A Black Planet
When NASA’s illustrator does your cover, you know it’s going to be out of this world.
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Patti Smith
Horses
There’s no doubt that Robert Mapplethorpe’s photo defined Smith’s image for a generation.
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Cyndi Lauper
She’s So Unusual
Another classic Annie Liebowitz image and this time around the ultimate call to girl power too.
Get a copy online here.
Talking Heads
Little Creatures
Howard Finster’s Southern Folk Art is at its most joyous and inspiring here.
Get a copy online here.
Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon
The cover that launched a million t-shirts and remains among the most distinctive of all time, nearly 50 years later.
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John Coltrane
Blue Train
The use of blue mood lighting elevated this album’s cover and artist and showed the seriousness of the work.
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Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This probably wouldn’t have worked today but the explosion of the Hindenburg is exactly the right metaphor for this band’s impact on rock music.
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Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Whipped Cream & Other Delights
It’s not actually whipped cream but it sure looks like it, this is 60s sexuality writ large.
Get a copy online here.
The Notorious B.I.G.
Ready To Die
The contrast between sweet cover and the raging contents is a testimony to how our world can destroy our minds.
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Big Brother & The Holding Company
Cheap Thrills
R. Crumb’s hippie comic art makes this one of the most legendary covers of the 60s scene.
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The Beatles
Abbey Road
A cover that, quite literally, stopped traffic and which hundreds of people try to recreate on Abbey Road every day.
Get a copy online here.
The Velvet Underground and Nico
Ready To Die
This absolutely astonishing Andy Warhol painting is worth the top slot but on the original pressing? You could peel off the banana and find a flesh-color one beneath. Legend.
Get a copy online here.
Did we miss anything? Feel free to let us know, otherwise, we hope you enjoyed this brief tour of the best album art ever. Peace.
The first time Nicholas went to a live gig, 31 years ago, it turned out to be an Iron Maiden secret gig and he became hooked on the music scene. He was one of the founding writers for Astro Zombie a heavy metal and new world techno-inspired zine and his interview with Rob Caggiano of Anthrax brought in over 300,000 readers. He’s based out of Southeast Asia now, but his love of music is as strong and diverse as ever.
