As I worked on it, I was also working on getting elements together for the artwork. Check their answers out below, and scroll to the bottom for our full list of the album covers of the year.Īndrew Savage: “The cover is based around a painting that I was working on shortly after the album was recorded, and it wasn’t intended to have anything to do with Parquet Courts. We asked the designers behind our top 10 pieces of album artwork to explain the stories behind the sleeves. An attention-grabbing cover can make you hear an album in 3D and spark a conversation, regardless of the process, tools or medium.Ģ016 has had no shortage of memorable sleeves, from the strikingly simple portrait of Solange adorning A Seat At The Table to the strange cartoon colors of the Lil Uzi Vs The World cover. B ut which were the best? Here are our top 10 picks and the design inspirations behind them.Ĭover art may have evolved from vinyl gatefolds and CD jewel cases to a thumbnail image on a digital player, but the essence of what makes a sleeve great hasn’t changed that much. It’s been a great year for iconic album sleeves that helped shape the identity of our favorite releases.