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The coolest, best, greatest, about iconic, most famous album covers of best. It doesn't really thing what sort of adjective you want to put information technology in front end of the words "album cover," because lists of this sort of are always incredibly subjective. What nosotros can say for sure, though, is that album covers are vitally of import to how a record is received past the public. (It's difficult to imagine Sgt. Pepper's with the cover to the White Album and vice versa.) Even in today's digital age, a cool record cover tin take a huge impact. (Artists as varied equally Young Thug and Drinking glass Animals tin attest to that.) And so, without further ado, here is our option of simply 100 of the greatest tape covers of all-fourth dimension.

100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (pattern by Cyril Jordan)

Bandleader Cyril Jordan'south terrific comic art has turned up on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were at that place to remind you lot how much fun rock'n'coil was supposed to be.

99: The Bee Gees: Odessa

If The Beatles could do a double "White Album," the Bee Gees could practise a fuzzy ruby-red one. The red velvet encompass, with gold embossed lettering, served notice that Odessa was going to be unique and beautiful, which it was.

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98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (blueprint by Barry Feinstein)

Beggars Banquet is a rare case where an album'due south two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and y'all've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the fourth dimension.

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97: Ol' Dirty Bastard: Render to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (blueprint by Alli Truch, photograph by Danny Clinch)

Whenever hip-hop started to take itself too seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and requite the heart finger to convention. Forgoing whatever blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID card on the front cover of his solo debut, as both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assist. As he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Canis familiaris Sh_t,": "Got meals but still grill that former good welfare cheese."

96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Absurd/Pure Pop for Now People (design by Barney Bubbles)

On an album that made a mad dash through the whole of pop history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a bunch of dissimilar guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were dissimilar pics on the US and United kingdom versions), all with natural language firmly in cheek.

95: Jefferson Plane: Long John Silver (design by Pacific Eye & Ear)

Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silver hails from the golden age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for it, forth with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.

94: Billie Eilish: When Nosotros All Autumn Asleep, Where Do We Go? (design by Kenneth Cappello)

Any artist who dares to await this terrifying on the embrace of their first album deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired past the album's themes of the hidden, the night sleeve of Billie Eilish'south When Nosotros All Fall Asleep, Where Practice We Go? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your caput.

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93: Parliament: Mothership Connectedness (photograph by David Alexander, pattern by Gribbitth)

George Clinton's gonzoid have on outer-space gamble institute its perfect lucifer in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party cover for Parliament's Mothership Connectedness . The fact that it looked remarkably low budget just fabricated it funkier.

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92: Geto Boys: We Can't Exist Stopped (design by Cliff Blodget)

Walking a razor-thin line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and null exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album cover art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the hospital was every bit unflinching as their music.

91: The Cars: Candy-O (design by Alberto Vargas)

Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pivot-up artist before designing the famous encompass for The Cars classic 1979 album Candy-O, but this painting of a fashionable redhead, on a auto of form, became his nearly famous piece. Processed-O is 1 of the two best uses of pin-up art on a rock tape, along with…

90: Courtney Love: America'southward Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)

For her debut solo album, Courtney Dear took the Cars' concept a stride further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-upward artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an extra dimension by playing with Love'southward ain paradigm at the fourth dimension.

89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper)

The Rolling Stones probably couldn't trounce the Beatles for a psychedelic anthology in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album cover, the first 3D sleeve in rock. 10 points if you can detect where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Asking.

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88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL's follow-upwards to their famous Metal Box album cover was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her mitt, and a murderous look in her eyes.

87: The Velvet Surreptitious: The Velvet Hugger-mugger & Nico (design by Andy Warhol)

It was weird, it was witty, information technology was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Hugger-mugger & Nico skin-abroad banana album embrace became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.

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86: The Miracles: Hi, Nosotros're The Miracles (design by Wakefield & Mitchell)

The cool album embrace for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the old-school showbiz that Motown would before long lead the world away from. But it'due south and then cheerful that you yet have to beloved it.

85: The Become-Gos: Beauty & the Beat (pattern by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)

The Go-Go'southward sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . It was their party; you could join if they allow y'all.

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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (blueprint by Michael Benabib)

This famous album cover did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre'southward solo debut The Chronic , the design assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.

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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)

Jeff Bridges' got zilch on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic album cover graphic symbol that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q e'er had an ear for talent – equally his cantankerous-cultural LP proved – but he also had an eye for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an fine art gallery and took it dwelling for inspiration.)

82: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (design past Paul W)

The design-centric 4AD characterization did some of its finest piece of work for the Cocteau Twins anthology covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, yet yous never know only what information technology means…merely like their music.

81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)

Arriving one year after his milestone album The Payback , Brown delivered the double-anthology Hell, which called out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed past artist Joe Belt, who made his proper name capturing the characters of the Wild Westward, Chugalug trained his aim on another dark chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the most famous funk album covers e'er.

lxxx: Slayer: Reign in Blood (design by Larry Carroll)

One of the greatest metallic covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a chiliad nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer'southward thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.

79: Male monarch Crimson: In the Courtroom of the Crimson Rex (pattern by Barry Godber)

Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Courtroom of the Cherry King was completed and knew information technology perfectly suited the music, with the crazed cover figure every bit the 21st century schizoid homo. Sadly, the artist passed away only months afterwards.

78: Moby Grape: Wow (design past Bob Cato)

Ane of the psych era'due south great hallucinations, the famous anthology cover for Moby Grape's 1968 double LP Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the globe'south largest agglomeration of grapes. Wow indeed.

77: Kayne Due west: Yeezus (design past Kanye West and Virgil Abloh)

One of the virtually famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye Due west brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. Yous could also see Yeezus as the last celebration of the physical CD before it disappeared.

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76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Tin can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)

Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny gilt Nudie suit) gets multiplied in 1 of the near enduring early 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we will, of form, need fifteen Elvises.

75: Black Flag: My State of war (blueprint by Raymond Pettibon)

Blackness Flag's trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this case, not quite as grisly as the album itself.

74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (design by Robert Rauschenberg)

The abstraction of the Talking Heads' cute, moving-parts cover for their 1983 record Speaking in Tongues couldn't accept better represented the music within. It would take been rated higher if the thing wasn't so tough to shop.

73: The Mothers of Invention: Nosotros're Simply In It for the Coin (design by Cal Schenkel)

Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie culture We're Only In It for the Money in an as vicious parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album comprehend to great success.

72: The Pogues: Peace and Beloved (design past Simon Ryan)

One of the greatest joke anthology covers, the boxer was already a perfect image for the Pogues, but don't miss the subtle flake of play here. (The discussion "peace" of form has v letters.)

71: Rush: Moving Pictures (blueprint by Hugh Syme)

Blitz's greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cognitive sense of sense of humour. In this staged comprehend for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, nosotros discover at least iii different visual plays on the album'due south title.

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lxx: The Beatles: Abbey Road (pattern past John Kosh)

Equally it turns out, The Beatles were simply as well lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original programme – so they came upwards with something just as memorable past leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album embrace. Information technology's since gone done every bit one of the greatest of all time.

69: Marvin Gaye: I Want You (blueprint by Ernie Barnes)

All of Marvin Gaye's cool album covers are works of art in a way, just Ernie Barnes's 'Carbohydrate Shack,' which graces the cover of I Want You , is the only ane currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'due south sensual figures and jubilant dancers reflected the lecherous nature of Gaye's 1976 anthology.

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68: Joe Jackson: I'm the Man (pattern by Michael Ross)

At that place's plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson's album cover for I'm the Man, where he portrays the hero of the title song – a sleazy graphic symbol who'll sell you anything – as long equally you don't really need it.

67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (blueprint by Robert Whitaker)

Okay, so it was a little graphic and provocative, but equally the unmarried virtually controversial matter The Beatles ever did (and the most expensive for an original), the cover of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a list of the greatest anthology covers.

66: Alice Cooper: Schoolhouse'southward Out (design by Craig Braun)

There were nearly as many copies of Alice Cooper's School's Out in 1970s high schools as there were actual school desks. Ten points if you got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.

65: Aerosmith: Describe the Line (blueprint by Al Hirshfeld)

Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the work of the line-drawing caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith'south members hither. As always, his daughter Nina's name was hidden a few times in this famous album cover.

64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (design by Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-manner outfits and the piles of money in the background, the encompass for Eric B. and Rakim'due south sophomore anthology Paid in Total said it all most going bigtime in 1987 and is considered i of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.

63: Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (design past Peter Saville)

The cover of Joy Division'south 1979 debut record is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark blackness-and-white comprehend became so iconic that it's now worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the band.

62: Funkadelic: Maggot Encephalon (photo by Joel Brodsky, pattern past The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)

P-funk's wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and pop fine art extended beyond music, resulting in some of the most provocative LP covers of the era. Model Barbara Cheeseborough's screaming visage on the comprehend captured the swirling anarchy of the 70s and searing funk-stone of Maggot Brain.

61: Family unit: Fearless

Ah, the days when bands had the coin to carry out their wildest ideas. The cover for the British prog-rock outfit Family'due south 1971 album is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early on calculator graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty mistiness at elevation correct.

60: The Beatles: Encounter the Beatles! (blueprint by Robert Freeman)

The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the Usa and UK album version of Encounter The Beatles! was merely the reverse of the grin pic that everybody expected to see, and the starting time of many carry-overs from the Beatles' art-schoolhouse days.

59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)

Almost of Pink Floyd's covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest anthology covers, only nosotros wanted to highlight something that wasn't Nighttime Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features iv versions of the same photo (except that the band rotates i position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.

58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (design past Stephen Gorman)

Metallica'due south trademark mix of stupor value and social commentary had few better expressions than this image of a modern take on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 album cover to …And Justice For All .

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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (design by Guy Webster)

With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the cover said more well-nigh The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original embrace of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to be a no-no in 1966.

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56: Madonna: Madonna (pattern by Carin Goldberg)

All of Madonna's anthology covers are striking in their own fashion, only there's something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks like she can see everything that'south going to happen to her in the next 40 years.

55: 10cc: Ten Out Of 10 (design by Hipgnosis)

The cover for Ten Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more overlooked albums. Here they're on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about information technology.

54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo by Horn Grinner Studios; fine art management/pattern: John Berg and Richard Mantel)

A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz artist, Cloak-and-dagger casts the pianist every bit a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art managing director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan'due south Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, only this was likely i of his more than expensive: They built an entire set, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk'south arresting album cover.

53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (design by David Juniper)

It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page'southward who created this mythic embrace past superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI High german fighter pilot the "Red Businesswoman" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Brawl was doing there simply it was really French actress Delphine Seyrig.

52: The Small Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (design past Nick Tweddell and Pete Chocolate-brown)

One of the kickoff round covers, the tobacco-tin can design for this psychedelic jewel stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the album's principal suite.

51: Dave Stonemason: Alone Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)

This album cover was more of a multimedia assemblage, incorporating the dice-cutting edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall design and giving an instant visual image to the top-hatted Dave Bricklayer.

l: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'k But the Piano Actor (design by David Larkham and Michael Ross)

Some of Elton's greatest album covers were a flake splashy, others a piddling somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'yard Merely the Pianoforte Player was merely right, drawing from his soonhoped-for-legendary love of movies.

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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design past Barney Bubbles)

One of many great Potent Records album covers, this caught Ian Dury'south personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbling also did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury's.

48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (cover by Neil Fujita)

Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Time Out is likely the about famous use of popular fine art on a jazz cover. In this example, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album's innovative time signatures.

47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design by Chika Azuma)

Sporting a photo of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic album Switched-On Bach was different anything people had seen (or heard) earlier in 1968. As the first classical anthology to get platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Heighten your paw if you lot also thought the cat was a head of lettuce.

46: Pink Floyd: Animals (blueprint by Hipgnosis)

Not every band would fly a pig over Battersea Power Station, but few other bands would make an album that admittedly called for it.

45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (pattern by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)

The album cover for Hüsker Dü's final studio album is one of those cases where a cover is exactly like the anthology: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming way.

44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design past John Crawford)

Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a strong sense of the dramatic. The coiled-upwardly body on the cover of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.

43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (design by Ramey Communications)

The corking thing nigh the famous Blondie Parallel Lines album cover isn't just the black-and-white composition but the way Debbie Harry (the only 1 not smiling) exudes power, while all the guys look a bit goofy.

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42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (design by John Wagman)

This Reagan-era concept anthology makes its visual bespeak past using a photo of Beatles records beingness burned that followed John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remarks. Just in this case, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they're burning is the very 1 they're standing in.

41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (blueprint by Austin Unhurt and Amy Fucci)

On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, but incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious epitome on 1989 'south cover was an easy ane for her fans to re-create, and they did.

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40: Apprehensive Pie: Rock On (design by John Kelly)

Why in the world did Humble Pie get a bunch of policemen to course a human pyramid? Because they could, of course.

39: The Rascals: One time Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli)

One of the many imaginative trips from the belatedly 60s, this aggregation – by the ring'due south drummer – represents various personal dreams of the ring members.

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Dear (design by Valerie Phillips)

It may be a more glamorous cover after her starting time two, but this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could hands be mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer image comes at a cost.

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37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (design by Brian Cannon)

Their debut album pictured Oasis in the globe's coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to be living.

36: Grace Jones: Isle Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)

Graphic designer and fine art managing director Jean-Paul Goude met his match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's visual re-imagining of the androgynous vocalist led to some of the all-time album covers in music history, from Nightclubbing to Slave to the Rhythm and the arabesque grandeur of Isle Life. "It looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, creative, and alien."

35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)

Like a proto XXL "Freshman Class", the iii alternate covers of A Tribe Call Quest's classic 3rd album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, like the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric encompass came to fruition with the help of Nick Gamma, the former art managing director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (pattern past Desmond Strobel)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing whatever it was they were doing on the famous Rumours album cover. It's fair that the embrace was a petty mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.

33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (design by Raeanne Rubenstein)

Though Steely Dan was long associated with Los Angeles, the cover for Pretzel Logic (really shot at Fifth Artery and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.

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32: Great Pumpkins: Admire (design by Yelena Yemchuk)

Smashing Pumpkins' album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this cover (created past Billy Corgan'due south so-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Adore.

31: Ohio Players: Climax (blueprint by Joel Brodsky)

All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early Westbound ones were considerably more daring than the hit-era ones for Mercury. Equally the band ofttimes claimed, fewer people would have bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.

thirty: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (pattern by Ira Louvin)

Modernistic death metallic bands got naught on country duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked swell in white suits while doing it.

29: David Bowie: Heroes (design by Masayoshi Sukita)

David Bowie has at least v of the most iconic album covers of all time. From the lightning commodities on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it'south difficult to pick. But the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells you everything y'all need to know nearly the artistic madness of his Berlin period. The cover was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades after.

28: Kate Bush: The Kicking Inside (pattern by Jay Myrdal)

The more commonly known US cover is nice plenty merely makes information technology look similar a conventional singer-songwriter album and Kate Bush is anything only. We're referring to the original Great britain "kite" embrace that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush-league was all almost.

27: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (pattern past Joe Perez )

The perfect cover for a cool, sensual and futuristic concept album, this captures Janelle Monáe's depth and mystery and is a beautiful piece of fine art in its ain right.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design by Mati Klarwein)

Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded like no other previous jazz albums, it couldn't expect like 1 either. It took a German painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk art and psychedelia.

25: David Bowie: The Adjacent Day (pattern by Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an firsthand double-have when they saw Bowie'due south deed of self-sabotage here. Past defacing the Heroes cover, Bowie found the nearly dramatic style of proverb "that was then, this is now".

24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (blueprint by Roy Eldridge)

Largely written past bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with assistance from Chrysalis staffer and former announcer Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper cover of Thick as a Brick is full of cantankerous-references and cerebral wit – just similar the music – and Anderson said it took just as much work.

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (design past Robert Fisher)

The paradigm of a baby grasping at a dollar nib became one of grunge's coolest and most enduring symbols, an album cover that captured the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The infant in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photo 25 years later.

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22: The Who: Who'southward Next (blueprint by Ethan Russell)

The iconic cover for Who'southward Side by side worked on two levels: first as a futuristic epitome of The Who against a monolith; and second, when you noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.

21: Uriah Heep: The Magician's Birthday (blueprint by Roger Dean)

This cover is Roger Dean at his most brilliant. When you walked into a tape store, you lot could meet this album clear across the room.

20: Foam: Disraeli Gears (cover by Martin Sharp)

Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the band looking suitably avuncular) fabricated Foam's Disraeli Gears ane of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote one of the album'due south most vivid lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

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xix: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)

Yous don't necessarily go a thing of rare dazzler when yous load a cover with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an 11-inch disc tin can concord, only Santana certainly did in this case, cheers to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana's performances in Osaka, Japan, the full sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo'due south signature pop art mode.

18: 10cc: How Dare You lot! (pattern by Hipgnosis)

The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not only inspired by 1 of the songs (the telephone sex-themed "Don't Hang Upwards") but is total of hidden gags, with the same people turning upwards in each of the four main photos.

17: XTC: Become 2 (design by Hipgnosis)

Another Hipgnosis job, the famous anthology comprehend for XTC's Get ii boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the anthology heir-apparent's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.

16: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design by Eric Meola)

It's hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when then many have ascended to iconic status. Information technology could have just as hands been Born in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front of an American flag. Nosotros decided to go instead with this kinetic photo that captured the camaraderie of the band and the sense of rock'n'roll mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the cover did the same for Eastward Street Band's sax human being Clarence Clemons.

15: Ramones: Ramones (pattern past Roberta Bayley)

The embrace of The Ramone's 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk stone in all its black-and-white grittiness. A good encompass became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.

14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design past Vaughan Oliver)

The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and full of secret meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photograph that was staged for the encompass shoot.

thirteen: Aye: Relayer (design by Roger Dean)

Roger Dean'south fantasy paintings became as much a part of prog-rock iconography as the music. He fittingly put his coolest anthology cover on Yes' virtually creative album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album's war-and-peace theme.

12: Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me (design by Jon Jonson)

Each one of Sinatra's Capitol-era album covers was absurd and classic in its own way, from the lonely scenes on the carol albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Wing With Me caught both Sinatra's natural charisma and the attraction of the jet-set era.

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xi: Patti Smith: Horses (design past Robert Mapplethorpe)

If Horses wasn't enough to make Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe album embrace certainly was. Nobody always slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.

10: Talking Heads: Trivial Creatures (design past Howard Finster)

Howard Finster'south uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' back-to-roots anthology (and for R.E.M.'s Reckoning effectually the aforementioned time). While some of Finster'due south piece of work had a darker streak, for this anthology he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.

nine: John Coltrane: Blue Train (pattern by Reid Miles, photo by  Francis Wolff)

Well-nigh of the classic Blue Notation covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of assertion marks!). Not and then with John Coltrane'due south Blue Train, whose cool album encompass photo and mood lighting marked it as a piece of work to have seriously.

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8: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Foam & Other Delights (blueprint by Peter Whorf Graphics)

This iconic album encompass said information technology all about coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad style. Despite its daring advent, if you looked closely, the whipped-cream clad model was actually wearing a wedding dress.

7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free)

Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, simply Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the job, as Chiliad dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious party on the White Business firm lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice organisation.

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6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (blueprint past Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones ever had cool, attention-grabbing album covers. Simply while Mucilaginous Fingers has a cracking story, Let It Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology's original title Automatic Changer, the front end has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. Nosotros presume the mess on the backside happened later someone pressed "outset."

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5: Big Blood brother & the Property Company: Cheap Thrills (blueprint by R. Crumb)

Arguably the coolest 60s album cover of all, the fine art for Big Brother & the Holding Visitor'south sophomore record was also most people's introduction to the style of surreptitious comic art perfected past R. Crumb. This style of art would be associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Crumb was a chip anti-hippie himself.

iv: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper'due south Lone Hearts Club Band (design by Peter Blake)

Peter Blake'due south popular-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper'due south famous anthology inverse tape covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to place everybody at the ceremony.

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3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (design past Robertson & Fresch)

RCA wasted no fourth dimension in cleaning up Elvis, who'd look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to wait like the crazed hillbilly everyone's parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of form leads us to…

2: The Clash: London Calling (photo past Pennie Smith, blueprint by Ray Lowry)

A rare case where a parody (of the above Elvis comprehend) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover image of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams rock'north'roll, just like the music inside.

1: The Beastie Boys: Paul's Bazaar (design by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)

This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the album embrace of Paul's Bazaar did everything possible to put you right into the Beastie Boys' earth, making it look both funky and inviting. It also made it essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.

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Looking for more than? Discover the worst anthology covers of all time.

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Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/

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