The Best Album Covers of 2023

As it turns out, I (Kaylee) can’t make a simple Top 10 list to save my life. So, instead you’re getting a Top 8 + honorable mentions + same vibes, but different list of the best album covers released in 2023. This has absolutely nothing to do with the music, it’s solely based on the design of the cover art at first glance. So here we go..

The judging criteria:

• Readability (both text and imagery)
• Color usage/color combos
• Has it been done before?
• Does it look cool (obviously…)

We’ll start at the end of the list.

#8 Ben Folds – What Matters Most

I love how simple this one is. There was an emotion they wanted to portray and they nailed it. If you aren’t thinking about growing old with someone after seeing this, you’re lying. No need to complicate the idea of “what matters most”. 

Same Vibes: Belle and Sebastian – Late Developers

If the Ben Folds album was classified as chill/happy, this one is chill/sad. Staring at a photo thinking about life.. muted colors, simplicity. It’s the same idea to me, just more melancholy. Still on my list of favorites, just didn’t hit as hard as What Matters Most.

#7 Maneskin – Rush!

This one had me stumped. Like I’ve seen it before, but don’t know where – and it drove me nuts. I think that’s fantastic. Maybe someone else would think the same thing and feel compelled to figure it out like I was. Once again, it’s not over complicated and they use the blank space to force you to look where they want. Does it communicate a message? Not necessarily. But 10/10 in the looking cool category. The one thing I can’t get past is that the color of the text/logo doesn’t match the red in the suits. Otherwise, I love how much pop they got out of using muted colors and a simple background. 

Honorable Mention: Chris Brown – 11:11

It’s almost as successful as Rush! You’ve got the white space, the people, and the same grainy/blurry effect (shoutout to those with an astigmatism who are having PTSD right now), but it just isn’t done as well. Love the fact it says 11:11 with people, but not enough for it to officially make the list. 

#6 Lil Pump – Lil Pump 2

In all reality, this should look chaotic with all that hair, but honestly, it almost looks serene to me. A nice balance of hard and soft. And they kept the background and jacket dark and let the hair speak for itself…. Get it? If you look really closely, you’ll find “LP2” in the dreads. It’s definitely not something you notice at first glance, so can’t say it’s particularly readable, but it goes with the style, so I’m not mad about it. 

The Wish.com version: Keed – Talk to ‘em 2

No hate on the idea, it’s just hard to love this one when Lil Pump 2 just looks so much better. This one at least has the artist and album title on there, so points for that. If Talk to ‘em 2 came out in a different year, it could have been genius – it’s just impossible not to compare the two when they’re so similar.

#5 Owl City – Coco Moon

Feels like it should be more creepy than it actually is. It’s dark, the person is all alone in the middle of nowhere and there’s a neon sign – all the makings for a good serial killer movie, but I don’t get that feeling at all. It looks more like miles of open road and endless opportunities and makes me want to see what the music is about. There are just enough pops of color and subtle shades of pink/purple to where the blue isn’t overwhelming. Plus, the reflections and lighting are perfection. 

Same, same, but different: Mudhoney – Plastic Eternity

The color scheme is the same, just without any actual subject matter. Like you could pair this with Coco Moon on your wall and it would work. And for an album titled Plastic Eternity, I’d say they nailed it on the texture and idea of never ending with the horizontal line effect. Solid effort, just wasn’t as exciting as the rest of the list.

#4 Boy & Bear – Boy & Bear

The black & white with a giant gradient as the sun… *chefs kiss*. It stands out, y’all. There is actually quite a bit of solid black and solid white, not just all the in-between grays. If there was a lesson in using contrast, this is it. I even like the fact it’s not particularly sharp. 

Same Vibes: Django Django – Off Planet

Here you’ve got black & white with a giant gradient planet. And instead of people, it’s all text. Usually I would have picked this one because I love a good typography moment, but when putting these two next to each other, Boy & Bear was 100% more interesting. This one is still striking and I like it, I just like the other one more. 

#3 Story of The Year – Tear Me To Pieces

I’m not sure how anyone could scroll past this and not stop. The colors are fantastic – a perfect mix of black, gray and warmth. And despite the fact that it’s showing a person getting scorched, it’s very beautiful. It looks like a legitimate piece of art. I think the texture and the details are insane. 100% something I would buy just to hang on my wall. 

Honorable mention: Kristin Hersh – Clear Pond Road

This one is on the list for the color scheme. For whatever reason, I am obsessed with this almost orange but almost salmon color, similar to what we had in Tear Me to Pieces. What I love about this one is how authentic it looks – no symmetry whatsoever, a grainy low-light photo, Christmas lights in the kitchen. Where the other art was more abstract/fantasy, this is kind of the opposite.. Simple and very relatable.

#2 There’s a few:

Good: RuPaul – Black Butta
Better: Ville Valo – Neon Noir
Best: Demi Lavato – Revamped

Since all of these were a progression, I had to list them all together. I think on it’s own, Black Butta stands out. The perfect skin, perfect makeup, butter-colored background.. It all works. But then I see Neon Noir with the same lace over the face look and I like it more. The straight-on look with the bright white in the eyes makes a huge difference. It’s grainy and definitely not as “perfect” but it’s more likely to get me to buy it. I am missing the names again, but that’s just because I didn’t know who Ville Valo is. Demi’s Revamped cover doesn’t have her name and that didn’t bother me one bit. This, to me, has the best of the other two combined. I love the high contrast, the texture in the fur, the smooth skin and perfect makeup, the side eye, the weird hair, the bright white, all of it. I don’t think it’s necessarily a complete turnaround from the previous album covers, but like they were the journey and this is what she was trying to get to. It’s strong. I love it.

#1 Metallica – 72 Seasons

I can’t get over how much I love this one. I am usually so against yellow, but this is the exception. If you listen to The Digital Wrap Up this week, you’ll hear me go on and on about how I hope fluorescent colors make it into the 2024 trends and this is why. You couldn’t ignore this if you tried. And so many of the small details aren’t even apparent until you really look closer. It’s a great example of balance – yeah you have a bunch of objects all around, but you’ve also got tons of white space on the whole top half. And you have a bright, bold color, but it’s solid.. The only “texture” in the background is the stripes from the reflection of the crib. All around, its so good. I’m hoping this is the standard for things to come.

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The takeaway:

As always, I’ll reiterate that these are MY favorite album covers from 2023. Some of you may look through these and completely disagree, and that’s ok with me. It was still fun to look through hundreds of covers and actually analyze the artistry. I think album cover design may not be as popular as it used to be when people actually bought records, but the time spent on conceptualizing and designing something amazing is clear. It’s another way a designer has to be able to communicate a thought and some people did it SO WELL. 

You’ll see a pattern in my rankings here, in my trends discussion on the podcast (coming soon here), in my own design work.. I like things that are clean and simple and are easy to understand. The covers I immediately skipped over were the ones that were just too busy. I’m the same way when looking at a magazine ad or a Facebook post. You have to get to the point, and fast. Or if you’re going to make it complicated, you better have a really good reason. 

Another thing to consider: all these artists likely had a graphic designer working for them. Just another reason it’s important to have a graphic designer on your side!

So there you have it. I know it wasn’t really a Top 8 list, but I tried really hard. Maybe next year I’ll have a whole different outlook on design and my album covers of 2024 rankings will be completely backwards. You’ll have to stick around to see.