BEST-EST ALBUM COVERS OF 2014
After the past Phantogram album covers with almost abstracted elements from nature, this cover was a breath of fresh air. Precisely situated and artfully graphical – this visual language accompanies the music video for Fall in Love terribly well.
13- CHRIS THILE / Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1
Punch Brothers' founding member and lead vocalist Chris Thile's take on Bach: "Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1" was released this year. The cover artwork, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, stood out for me for its calm, yet expressive nature. It adds another dimension to Chris Thile's mastery.
12- FLAKE MUSIC / When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return
is a remastered re-release of the full length album which was initially recorded in 1997. I am a sucker for this cover artwork by Keith Negley. He did his magic and created his painted interpretation of the original artwork.
11- FIRST AID KIT / Stay Gold
It's one of those visually vivacious covers that makes you want to keep looking and indulging in it. Kudos for the elegant logo design.
10- ST. VINCENT / St. Vincent
Then comes this compelling album cover for St. Vincent. Photography by Renata Raksha & pay attention to the beautiful typography.
9- RÖYKSOPP & ROBYN / Do It Again
One of the album perks this year was the blissful collaboration between Röyksopp and Robyn. This mini-album is a Grammy Award nominee for Best Dance/Electronic Album, and guess what, it is also a nominee for the Best Art Vinyl-- thanks to the exquisite art direction by the Swedish design duo: Sandberg & Timonen. There is more! Same team created the music video for Sayit, and it's ridiculously good!
8- TODD TERJE / It's Album Time
Norwegian DJ/disco producer Todd Terje's handsomely titled LP It's Album Time's cover was handsomely illustrated by his fellow friend Bendik Kaltenborn.
7- LA ROUX / Trouble in Paradise
Alexander Brown worked impeccably on this album jacket that brings out a 70's dream vibe.
6- JENNY LEWIS / The Voyager
The photographer and director Autumn de Wilde has a portfolio of heaven for music lovers. She is known for her famous portraiture of musicians, and her shot for the cover of Jenny Lewis' The Voyager hands down makes it one of the coolest album cover of this year.
5- BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB / So Long, See You Tomorrow
La Boca design studio, led by Scot Bendall, have been designing for the latest albums and singles' covers for Bombay Bicycle Club. The artwork reflects a very distinctive taste of the 60's, takes you back to the classical Penguin covers in a way.
4- LIARS / Mess on a Mission
Welcome to the reeling world of Liars. This year is indeed the year of colours, and it was no different even for Liars. The cover concept was created by the band member Julian Gross. As a part of the album's promotional process, they carried on with this concept of applying coloured woolen strings on various places all around LA and photographed it. Good art directors as well!
3- TV ON THE RADIO / Seeds
Through my research of cover artists, it was a great surprise for me to find out that the band member of Liars, Julian Gross - a name that I mentioned above - served as the creative director of TVOTR's Seeds album art, as well.
Initially an art installation made with polyurethane foam, plaster, clay, plexiglass, lights, and paint; ended up influencing the album's design. The cover features an animated interactive technique called "scanimation".
2- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS / Brill Bruisers
Illustrator and designer Steven Wilson collaborated with Thomas Burden to create the album artwork. It features CG neon lettering woven through the band's name in a bold 3D. There is also an interactive version of the artwork on the band's website which is pretty fun.
This modern day queen of sensuality who goes by FKA Twigs has been going undercover for too long it seems. It is now the time to explode. A long time after eyeing this cover all over the internet, I gave in, and it was the cover art that drew me to her music in the first place. Here is a strange combination of eerie, curious, intriguing, provoking, captivating and otherworldly all at once by Jesse Kanda. How can you top that?
