If you take a look at old vinyl album covers, the "artwork" is more like PR one-sheets with scattered images than what we now consider as a self-contained piece of work, much less something deserving of its own list. And as we head further into this digital culture, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that album artwork may very well have reached its heyday for the general artist/music consumer. There’s nothing to lament, though, as visual art will live on, but that doesn’t mean the efforts of album cover artists shouldn’t be highlighted as much as possible. Conveniently, this is where our list comes in.

Up until this year, our annual album covers list was compiled completely by Amneziak. This year, he was too busy to keep tabs on album artwork, so we instead opened up the nominations to the entire staff (with many of the contributions still from Amneziak, as you might be able to tell). Here are the results. May your contemplation be deep and your brow be furrowed as you browse these amazing covers.

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25
Ulver
Shadows of the Sun
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24
The Blow
Poor Aim: Love Songs [reissue]
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23
Coconut Records
Nighttiming
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22
Acid Mothers Temple
Motherly Love
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21
Angels of Light
We Are Him
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20
Elegi
Sistereis
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19
Kemialliset Ystavat
Untitled
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18
Paul Duncan
Above the Trees
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17
Wiley
Playtime Is Over
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16
Marcus Schmickler
Amazing Daze
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15
Manogurgeil
Unirytmeja
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14
Various Artists
Well Deep: Ten Years of Big Dada Recordings
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13
No Doctors
Origin & Tectonics
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12
Cex
Sketchi
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11
Sincabeza
Edit Sur Passage Avant Fin ou Montee D’Instrument
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10
Thinguma Jig
(awakeinwhitechapel)
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09
Teenage Bad Girl
Cocotte
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08
X.0.4
Cataracts
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07
Sir Richard Bishop
While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
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06
Giardini di Miro
Dividing Opinions
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05
Panda Bear
Person Pitch
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04
MoHa!
Norwegianism
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03
Madlib
Beat Konducta Vol.3-4: In India
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02
Frog Pocket
Come On Primates Show Your Teeth!
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01
Original Silence
The First Original Silence

(Click here to return to our 2007 year-end image map)

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