Best Album Covers Of 2024: 40 Great Artworks Of The Year

39: Mk.gee: ‘Two Star And The Dream Police’

Mk.gee made a splash with his debut album at the start of 2024, taking his dedicated following on a journey through pop, rock and soul music. The gloom baked into Two Star And The Dream Police is suggested by its cover, which features Mk.gee mastermind Mike Gordon, guitar in hand, shot against a blurry background of trees. The blue-grey colouring – not dissimilar to that infamous Twilight hue – ties in perfectly with Mk.gee’s overall aesthetic. The photo was taken by photographer Danica Arias Kleinknecht and treated by Nicholas D’Apolito, the latter of whom has more than one entry in this list of the best album covers of 2024…

Photographer: Danica Arias Kleinknecht | Designer and art director: Nicholas D’Apolito

38: Linkin Park: ‘From Zero’

Returning after a seven-year hiatus, Linkin Park unveiled a new singer, Emily Armstrong, and a new album, From Zero, and announced a reunion tour which sold out almost instantly. The nu-metal pioneers poured everything into From Zero, resulting in a mechanical, nostalgic and powerful alternative-rock record. The album’s cover places the band’s symbol front and centre against a metallic liquid, the macro image partly out of focus. As Linkin Park evolve without the much-missed Chester Bennington, From Zero points to new horizons up ahead.

Photographer: Brian Ziff | Designer: Frank Maddocks

37: Beth Gibbons: ‘Lives Outgrown’

Thirty years on from making her debut with Bristolian trip-hop pioneers Portishead, Beth Gibbons has finally dropped her debut solo album. On Lives Outgrown, the singer mulls over motherhood, menopause and mortality as she approaches 60. Captured in a long-exposure shot, Gibbons appears in motion on the album’s cover, out of focus on the far left before eventually reaching clarity – a poignant complement to the themes of loss and self-realisation that course through the record.

Photographer: Netsi Habel

36: Tierra Whack: ‘World Wide Whack’

Six years on from the release of her brief but thunderous debut mixtape, Whack World, Tierra Whack has worked up a brave, raw debut album proper, in the shape of World Wide Whack. Bringing her dark wit to subjects such as depression, suicide and anxiety, Whack channels her catharsis through a captivating, if sometimes random-seeming, musical expression on a record whose minimalist production puts the Philadelphia-born rapper’s strong vocals front of stage. Drawing on influences such as the Pierrot clown and iconic fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, the album’s striking cover art, shot by US conceptual artist Alex Da Corte, depicts Whack as “an alter ego both untouchable and vulnerable, superhuman and painfully human”.

Artist: Alex Da Corte

35: The Smile: ‘Wall Of Eyes’

Mixed media is at the forefront of The Smile’s sophomore record – and at the centre of the band’s ethos. Developed while Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner were on the road, Wall Of Eyes delves fully into space rock, art rock, prog and jazz. The fever-dream artwork is the latest in a decades-long collaboration between Yorke and visual artist Stanley Donwood. Over a two-week period, the pair set up a space in Abbey Road Studios while the album was being recorded, and painted and composed simultaneously throughout the sessions, each inspiring the other in a feedback loop. Ten finished works were selected for display in a gallery exhibition; Wall Of Eyes’ Dalí-esque cover is a standout, showing a scattering of eyes across a formation of blue and orange waves.

Artists: Thom Yorke, Stanley Donwood

34: English Teacher: ‘This Could Be Texas’

English Teacher undoubtedly made their mark in 2024, with their debut album, This Could Be Texas, even scoring the Mercury Prize’s Album Of The Year awards. An incredibly fresh and original first effort, the album meanders between folktronica and post-punk, with a few stops in between. It’s cover is just as alluring as the band’s music: a depiction of a grassy moor on the outskirts of Leeds, it was painted in the 80s by Gillian Fontaine-Grist, the mother of English Teacher’s frontwoman, Lily Fontaine, before being adapted by Lily, who added an abstractly shaded “creature” in charcoal. “The creature on the front… is probably the band in that I don’t know what it is,” Fontaine posted on X, before positing that it could be “some sort of musical meaty machine”.

Artists: Lily Fontaine, Gillian Fontaine-Grist

33: Magdalena Bay: ‘Imaginal Disk’

For their sophomore release, Magdalena Bay have once again offered a vibrant, otherworldly masterpiece in the form of Imaginal Disk. The critically acclaimed record can be loosely defined as a pop record – but such a label seems almost reductive once you start to journey through the mesmeric depths of its 15 songs. The album’s co-writing and production duo, Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, have achieved a surreal blend of Y2K pop influences, danceable basslines and modern synths for a record based around the concept that its protagonist has received an upgraded consciousness via the implanting of the titular object. The narrative-driven project is perfectly depicted in its cover art, which can only be described as showcasing a heavenly figure receiving the CD-sized disc in their forehead, the procedure carried out by the taloned hand of an otherworldly creature…

Artist: Maria Shatalova

32: Megan Thee Stallion: ‘Megan’

Megan Thee Stallion’s influence over popular culture cannot be overstated. From WAP to Hot Girl Summer, it’s fair to say that she has been delivering, and Megan is no exception. Witty, sharp and bitter in the best way, the album reveals how refined and confident the Texan rapper has become as an artist; displaying her reinvention in beautiful fashion, its cover sees Megan hatching from an egg and emerging in her new, actualised form.

Artist: Unknown

31: Cindy Lee: ‘Diamond Jubilee’

Canadian singer-songwriter Cindy Lee dropped their seventh album this year, but Diamond Jubilee wasn’t just any release – it was a triple album. A feast for lovers of psychedelic pop and rock, it catapulted Cindy Lee – the performance project of Patrick Flegel, former guitarist and lead singer of Women – to critical acclaim in 2024. Its mixed-media sleeve features a cartoon interpretation of Flegel’s onstage persona superimposed on a photo of Alberta Terminals Ltd, an industrial building in the Canadian Province where Flegel was born.

Artist: Unknown

30: AG Cook: ‘Britpop’

AG Cook’s third record is a colourful display of electronic music – and we wouldn’t expect anything less. Equal parts nostalgic, vibrant and electronic, Britpop is shiny, sentimental and satisfyingly fanciful, and its artwork, colourblocked in pastel pinks and forest greens, features a Union Jack re-imagined to suit the music within. The three-disc, 24-track album defies boundaries in both its contents and packaging, and its equally bold design confidently takes its place among the best album covers of 2024.

Designer: Timothy Luke

29: Hiatus Kaiyote : ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’

The fourth studio release from the Melbourne four-piece Hiatus Kaiyote, Love Heart Cheat Code is a pleasurable bath for the senses. Easy and bewitching, the album cascades from one song to the next, its mix of neo-soul, psychedelia and meticulous guitar work being the final polished product of a series of evenings the group spent jamming together. Neatly capturing the amorphous, mystical nature of the music within, the album’s cover, by Toronto-based artist Rajni Perera, shows a mythical figure cast in cobalt blue against an off-white background, holding an untwined serpent as if it were a whip.

Artist: Rajni Perera

28: Ariana Grande: ‘eternal sunshine’

A dreamlike palette of washed-out pastel colours, dyed-blonde hair (all thanks to Wicked) and warm sunlight are the defining ingredients of a total of seven different artwork variants for Ariana Grande’s seventh record, eternal sunshine. On this record, Grande courageously takes on difficult topics of opening up and embracing love – sometimes at the cost of emotional pain – and the album’s seven covers each offer a distinct visual representation of the key themes Grande explores.

In one image, she smiles while vivid, red-gloved hands cover her eyes. Another pictures the back of Grande’s head, her iconic ponytail brushing against the shoulder of an unknown other. A third – a blurry portrait photographed by Katia Temkin – has a softness that aligns perfectly with the vulnerability of eternal sunshine’s 13 songs. Taken together, the images help create a fully rounded-out world for an album that is utterly addictive.

Photographer: Katia Temkin

27: Bleachers: ‘Bleachers’

Following in the wake of frontman Jack Antonoff’s growing fame, Bleachers’ self-titled fourth album signals a rebirth of sorts for the New Jersey six-piece. Brash and confident, its sound is a potent blend of pop and rock influences, and it boasts all the hallmarks of a perfect indie-rock album. Having recently loaned his golden production touch to Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and The 1975, Antonoff here gives his own group’s music a palpable warmth, the spirit of which is captured in Bleachers’ cover portrait, as photographed by Alex Lockett. Depicting Antonoff in a simple T-shirt tucked into slacks and leaning against a classic car, the shot conjures an image of all-American 50s cool, with underlying hints of anticipation that helps it earn a spot among the best album covers of 2024.

Photographer Alex Lockett

26: Declan McKenna: ‘What Happened To The Beach?’

One of the most talked-about records of 2024, What Happened To The Beach? is Declan Mckenna’s thought-provoking third album. Achieving the seemingly impossible, it dabbles in the heavy themes of environmentalism and the mounting pressures of climate change while still providing moments of pure euphoria. The album’s striking artwork was photographed by the multitalented Henry Pearce, who also plays keyboard during McKenna’s live shows. An early contender among the best album covers of 2024, the image perfectly encapsulates the essence of the searching music within.

Photographer: Henry Pearce

25: Liam Gallagher And John Squire: ‘Liam Gallagher John Squire’

Liam Gallagher John Squire is the first album the former Stone Roses guitarist has put his name to in two decades. Capturing what happened when two of the 90s’ biggest influences united in the studio, it is – unlike many supergroup-type projects – far more than the sum of its parts. To best represent a dynamic body of work with such historic lineage, the pop-art-inspired cover consists of a kaleidoscope of commonplace home products, creating art out of the everyday. There is no doubt that John Squire himself, who was behind the iconic Jackson Pollock-styled cover of The Stone Roses’ debut album, played a role in its conception, serving up a casual nostalgia that’s fitting for a record that any 90s enthusiast is sure to lap up.

Designers: Jamie Hutchinson, John Squire

24: Little Simz: ‘Drop 7’

Introspective and vulnerable, Little Simz’s latest release, Drop 7, is simply remarkable. Presenting the British rapper in profile as part-human, part-cyborg, the album’s black-and-white artwork both reflects the era of technological possibility we exist in and honours Simz’s own expedition into the unknown on a raw, thought-provoking journey of self-reflection. A powerful representation of the album’s themes, it more than earns itself a spot among the best album covers of 2024.

Designers: Jeremy Cole, Marco Grey

23: Fred Again..: ‘Ten Days’

Producer Fred Again.. continued his meteoric rise in 2024, capping a string of summer festival sets with the September release of Ten Days. Another electronic jewel added to Fred Gibson’s shining discography, the album chronicles his dive into love and subsequent fall into numbness. Gibson spoke about this time of his life on Instagram, describing it as initially “glowy” before becoming “blurry”. The album’s cover features a simple upwards shot of a blue sky, on the edges of which sit Gibson, friends and a scaffolding-clad building – a looming presence amid an ostensibly optimistic image.

Photographer: Unknown

22: Laura Marling: ‘Patterns In Repeat’

Stained glass window meets oil pastel creation: the cover to Patterns In Repeat is satisfyingly illustrative of the album’s name. Laura Marling’s solid streak of breathtaking records continued with her eighth release, as she combs through thoughts on motherhood, ageing and family patterns, perfectly bookending the album with opening song Child Of Mine and closing instrumental Lullaby. Look closely at the image Marling herself created for the artwork, and you’ll see the tessellated form of a woman on her knees.

Artist: Laura Marling

21: Charli XCX: ‘brat’

One of the most praised pop records of 2024, Charli XCX’s sixth album, brat, has asserted its creator’s place as the woman of the moment. It’s hyperpop, unapologetic and bold – just like its cover art. A garish green and a lo-res Arial text was all the Club Classics singer needed to capture everyone’s attention, and to encourage her fans – who have long dubbed themselves “Charli’s Angels” – to take to calling themselves “brats”.

Charli has had to defend criticism of her uncharacteristically “simple” artwork. Speaking to Vogue Singapore, she said, “I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong. I’d like for us to question our expectations of pop culture – why are some things considered good and acceptable, and some things deemed bad?” She revealed she likes “to provoke people”, and provoke she did. brat has become a Marmite entry among the best album covers of 2024. Whether you like it or not, it got people talking, and it’s canonically Charli. That alone is why we rate it.

Designer: Charli XCX

20: Ghetts: ‘On Purpose, With Purpose’

Britain’s grime scene has produced few talents as versatile and adventurous as Justin “Ghetts” Clarke-Samuels. Although his fourth album, On Purpose, With Purpose, captures the London-born MC growing gracefully as an artist, it’s clear that he still has a few surprises in store, adding infusions of R&B, soul and gospel music to his signature flow and potent beats. Featuring an infant Ghetts wielding the god-like powers of a pyromancer, the album’s artwork, masterfully executed by British Nigerian artist Olaolu Slawn, captures the mix of rejuvenation and rebirth within.

Artist: Olaolu Slawn

19: Jamie xx: ‘In Waves’

Arriving nine years on from Jamie xx’s solo debut, In Waves is proof that the songwriter and producer has been busy honing his craft. With the aim of creating something “fun, joyful and introspective all at once”, Jamie has taken 2015’s In Colour to the next level, showcasing his keen ear for melody while creating tracks stacked with eclectic samples and pulsating basslines. Capturing the mesmerising, hypnotic quality of the music, the album’s cover is one part Peter Saville, one part Bridget Riley: a black-and-white response to its predecessor’s colour-wheel explosion that carries Jamie’s unmistakable fingerprint.

Artist: Unknown

18: Billie Eilish: ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’

Arriving nearly three years on from her previous release, Happier Than Ever, Billie Eilish’s hotly-anticipated third album exists in the same realm as its predecessor, but with the added charm of Eilish’s 2017 EP, dont smile at me. Picturing the singer falling through an open door and into a deep blue-black sea, its artwork was created during a gruelling photoshoot for which Eilish was weighted down, fully clothed, in a vast container of water. “There’s a tank in this giant place, and it was, like, ten feet deep. And I popped my little ass in there, and I was in there for six hours,” she told Stephen Colbert.

Many fans and internet sleuths are convinced that Hit Me Hard And Soft is the first half of a double album. Dubbed the “ilomilo theory”, after a song on Eilish’s debut, the idea is that a companion cover would see Eilish submerged in a red sea. True or not, the theory gave Hit Me Hard And Soft’s sleeve its own deep lore, and for that alone it earns a spot among the best album covers of 2024.

Photographer: William Drumm

17: Beyoncé: ‘Cowboy Carter’

After mastering disco and house music on 2023’s Renaissance, Beyoncé continues her mission to reclaim Black music genres, this time with country. Lana Del Rey, Sabrina Carpenter and Zayn have all released their own country projects of late, but none have made a statement quite like Cowboy Carter, an album Beyoncé has said was “born out of an experience… where I did not feel welcomed”.

The Texas-born singer makes her Lone Star State roots clear on Cowboy Carter’s artwork: perching sidesaddle on a galloping white horse, her own icy mane blowing in the wind, she raises the US flag aloft. In a testament to Beyoncé’s attention to detail, the inner sleeves of the deluxe vinyl editions of both Renaissance and Cowboy Carter can be matched together in different configurations. This leaves us all the more intrigued as to the design for the trilogy’s third part…

Photographer: Blair Caldwell

16: Gary Clark, Jr: ‘JPEG Raw’

The fourth album by Gary Clark, Jr, JPEG Raw explores much more than the Texas blues. A play on image file name, the album’s title is an acronym for the subject matter covered across the record’s 12 songs. The Austin-born singer-songwriter takes listeners on a journey of jealousy, pride, envy, greed, rules, alter ego and worlds, via a sensational blend of jazz, hip-hip and his signature rock and blues. The result is an album of self-reflection, on which Clark comes to terms with the fact that it’s impossible to be everything to everyone.

JPEG Raw’s cover is, put simply, a stunning piece of photography – something Clark is no stranger to. Shot in black-and-white, with a blurred background and subtle grain, its simple portrait of the artist, his face partially obscured by a raised hand, is moody and perfectly captures every emotion touched upon in the album.

Photographer: Unknown

15: Dua Lipa: ‘Radical Optimism’

The wait is over. Dua Lipa has finally entered her Radical Optimism era. As she has explained it, the album’s title comes from “the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm”. True to that concept, the artwork pictures Lipa in the open sea, calm and powerfully postured as she eyes an approaching shark. With lead single Houdini being named after a death-defying escape artist, Radical Optimism is full of empowering messages.

Photographer: Unknown

14: Peggy Gou: ‘I Hear You’

Having released track after track and made countless festival appearances since the release of her debut EP in 2016, Peggy Gou has dominated dance music for almost a decade. And at long last, the multi-hyphenate has put out her first album, I Hear You. Gou’s penchant for 90s house music is clear throughout, with added decorations from electronic and techno music helping the record live up to her desire to “create something timeless” that “is a testament to the power of listening, to ourselves and to each other”.

This is perfectly mirrored in what has immediately taken its place among best album covers of 2024. Looking away from the camera and glowing like a holy icon, Gou wears sci-fi-esque accessories that reflect her ears almost to infinity. These “ear art pieces” were designed by Olafur Eliasson, and their beauty captured by photographer Park Jong-ha.

Photographer: Park Jong-ha

13: Royel Otis: ‘PRATTS & PAIN’

If you’re a frequent user of TikTok, you’ve no doubt heard Royel Otis’ addictive indie cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor. Following this viral live performance, the duo released their debut album, PRATTS & PAIN, in February. A deeply captivating listening experience, it fuses rock and soul with breezy vocals in order to create a sound that meanders seamlessly between the tranquil and the gritty. At first glance, the album cover pictures the Australin duo of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic dangling from a wall, in mortal peril. Upon closer inspection, they both have their feet firmly planted on the ground. One of the best album covers of 2024, it’s an astute image for a record that’s suffused with a natural warmth and humour yet which nods to the life struggles which inspired the music.

Photographer: Unknown

12: Halsey: ‘The Great Impersonator’

Following a career hiatus, Halsey returned to the public eye in 2024, with the deeply personal concept album The Great Impersonator. Grappling with mortality, illness and identity, Halsey tries on other personae for size while coping with a near-fatal medical condition. Prior to the album’s October release, she wrote to fans: “I made this record in the space between life and death. And it feels like I’ve waited an eternity for you to have it.” Each of the album’s 18 songs pays homage to one of Halsey’s musical icons, among them Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple. Her role as “imitator” is evident in the retro-tinged artwork, on which Halsey’s face appears like a cut-out mask, shot in sepia and printed in half-tone, a star-shaped sticker bearing its title slapped in the upper-right corner.

Designers: Garrett Hilliker, Nicholas D’Apolito

11: Coldplay: ‘Moon Music’

The follow-up to 2021’s From Earth With Love, Moon Music is the latest addition to Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres project, whose long-running tour the group have extended into September 2025, bringing the total number of shows to more than 200. Such sky-scraping ambition is matched by their new album’s otherworldly cover, which features an image of a rare moonbow, shot by Argentinian photographer Matias Alonso Revelli back in 2020.

Photographer: Matias Alonso Revelli

10: Lady Gaga: ‘Harlequin’

To the delight of Little Monsters everywhere, Lady Gaga’s latest project marries her acting and musical personae. Inspired by her co-lead role in Todd Phillips’ long-awaited Joker sequel, Folie À Deux, Harlequin is an enthralling rollercoaster ride that marks a departure from Gaga’s conventional releases. Capturing the surreal madness of Harley Quinn’s inner world, Gaga offers an addictive 13-song collection of powerfully performed jazz standards and dramatic original compositions. A project as daring and theatrical as this has been perfectly matched by Scarlett Carlos Clarke’s melancholy yet campy cover portrait, in which Gaga stands under a shower head in full Harlequin costume, unfazed as water pours down upon her. The look is made complete by a wittily placed life-jacket, perhaps symbolising how the infamously troubled character always finds herself in too deep.

Photographer: Scarlett Carlos Clarke

9: Vampire Weekend: ‘Only God Was Above Us’

Returning with their first album in five years, Vampire Weekend have confidently embarked on a new era while also paying homage to their two-decade history. Only God Was Above us finds the indie favourites showcasing a more experimental side, and it sounds as though they had a lot of fun doing so. Reflecting their New York City roots, the album’s artwork puts an Inception-like spin on a subway ride, presenting two obscured figures on a beat-up, graffitied carriage seemingly heading nowhere. With the album’s title appearing on a Daily News held by one of the figures, it’s a creative and thought-provoking entry among the best album covers of 2024.

Art director: Nick Harwood

8: Griff: ‘Vertigo’

Capturing attention with singles such as Black Hole and One Night, Griff has certainly been one to watch in recent years, and now the 23-year-old is getting her flowers. Titled Vertigo, her debut album, issued in July 2024, is written from the perspective of what Griff has called “that dizzy upside down sensation that heartache often leaves you with”. The completion of a two-part project, with the first instalment containing “the darker & heavier songs” and the second making “a step up in energy and euphoria”, Vertigo’s “desperate and anthemic” songs have inspired one of the best album covers of 2024. Seemingly defying gravity, Griff appears in the image with her eyes closed, her trademark braid twisting down like the spiralling emotions she explores in her music.

Photographer: Unknown

7: Jacob Collier: ‘Djesse Vol.4’

Breathtaking sonic masterpieces are now par for the course with Jacob Collier, and Djesse Vol.4 is yet another a genre-defying entry in an impressive résumé of releases characterised by their creator’s captivating vocals and multi-instrumental talents. Matching the expansive, mind-blowing sounds within, the album’s cover is a vibrant explosion of tiny images that – revealing more of themselves the closer you look – assumes a vaguely head-shaped image. It’s the perfect accompaniment for Collier’s ever-changing, always exciting music.

Designer: Unknown

6: Raveena: ‘Where The Butterflies Go In The Rain’

US singer-songwriter Raveena is back with her third studio album, Where The Butterflies Go In The Rain. Dropping just in time for summer, the release explores love, maturity and comfort, and features artwork that effortlessly compliments the visuals that accompanied her previous releases.

Borrowing from the dreaminess of her debut album, Lucid (2019), and the vivid colour palettes of its follow-up, Asha’s Awakening (2022), the Where The Butterflies Go In The Rain album cover is an arresting portrait that features Raveena’s face, shrouded by an elaborate bouquet of magenta laceleafs which symbolise gentleness, femininity and love. Raveena spoke about the inspiration behind the album, revealing, “Butterflies are so delicate that they have to hide in leaves and flowers until the rain passes so that their wings don’t get crushed in the rain. I felt like that was kind of a metaphor for where I was in my life. I needed to go back to comfort – to deep rest – and stop weathering storms.”

Photographer: Poyenchen | Art director: Yii Ooi | Creative directors: Raveena, Bijan Berahimi

5: Rachel Chinouriri: ‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’

Fast making a name for herself as a promising talent in the alt-pop world, Rachel Chinouriri dropped her hotly anticipated debut album, What A Devastating Turn Of Events, in May. Illustrating Chinouriri’s rich and poignant exploration of heartbreak and her attempts to find her own resilience and emotional strength in an often unwelcoming world, the album’s artwork shows Chinouriri standing in front of a row of council flats adorned in St George’s Cross bunting, holding her battered guitar while earlier versions of herself appear in the background. Choosing to celebrate her Black British identity and pay homage to her upbringing, Chinouriri shot the cover outside a London flat similar to the one she grew up in. She has said she’s keen to push back against the flag’s current negative connotations and reclaim it as a multiracial symbol of national pride. The image masterfully encapsulates both the tone of the album and the artist’s relatable lived experience.

Photographer: Yana Van Nuffel

4: Benson Boone: ‘Fireworks And Rollerblades’

Benson Boone hit the ground running in 2024: scoring a global smash in January, maintaining constant TikTok visibility and announcing a major tour, the 21-year-old proved that this was year going to be big. Adding to the wins is his debut album, Fireworks And Rollerblades, which has cemented Boone’s status as a rising star and gifted us another entry among the best album covers of 2024.

Featuring Boone rollerblading down a darkened street, sparks flying from his footwear, the image has a dreamlike quality that makes for the perfect introduction to Boone’s charming mix of folk, pop and rock music. With or without explosives strapped to his feet, the Washington-born singer-songwriter is showing no signs of stopping.

Photographer: Jonathan Weiner

3: Foster The People: ‘Paradise State Of Mind’

The only oil painting on this list of the best album covers of 2024, the artwork for Foster The People’s fourth album, Paradise State Of Mind, is a beautifully rich, fantastical image created by Matt Hansel. Tapping into Salvador Dalí surrealism, the image seems to be scattered with items that symbolise the songs on the record: diamonds, snakes, fruit, crows, wine – there’s nothing that doesn’t intrigue. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the disco-funk-gospel-jazz odyssey promised by the album’s lead single, Lost In Space.

Illustrator: Matt Hansel

2: The Last Dinner Party: ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’

Perhaps the most talked-about band of the year, The Last Dinner Party built a loyal yet sizable following even before releasing any music. Bringing baroque-pop back to the fore, Prelude To Ecstasy is an addictive blend of intricate arrangements, stacked melodies and dramatic vocals that it has taken a special type of artwork match. Staying loyal to their roots, the five-piece staged the cover shoot in East London’s The George Tavern, where they first performed together as a band. Framed – quite literally – as a portrait hung above a mantlepiece strewn with flowers, candles and other accoutrements of mourning, the image is one of the most elegant among the best album covers of 2024, its intimation of faded glamour giving an alluring indication of the nostalgic world The Last Dinner Party inhabit.

Photographer: Cal McIntyre

1: Iron And Wine: ‘Light Verse’

From collages to embroidery and paintings, Sam Beam – aka Iron And Wine – usually creates each of his album covers in a different medium, and the artwork for his seventh record, Light Verse, is no different. Appearing like a collaged screenprint in cobalt ink, the image depicts sky, butterflies and a figure in freefall – guitar in hand, of course. It’s right up there with previous Iron And Wine classics, among them the sleeves for The Shepherd’s Dog and Our Endless Numbered Days, and makes for an ethereal beauty among the best album covers of 2024.

Designer: Sam Beam

Check out the best reissues of 2024.

Original article: 3 April 2024

Updated: 2 July 2024. 7 October 2024. 11 December 2024