After years of procrastination, deep into my 2020 lockdown, I decided to turn my love for album artwork into something concrete. Drawing off of my previous quarterly lists, I’ve spent the past year curating a compilation of the 100 most impressive and beautiful album covers of the year. The art is not ranked, but ordered through vague aesthetic similarities from color to framing to iconography. This list is not exhaustive, of course, as there were a plethora of stellar works that made it extremely hard to boil it down to just these albums. Special thanks to the user someone for his huge help in finding some of these hidden gems. Here’s to another year of beautiful artwork!

Click or tap the 10×10 grid to see the high-res image.

For a high-res image with each album listed, click or tap here. –neekafat

Black Thought // Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane & Able

Kesha // High Road

Misery Signals // Ultraviolet

Within Destruction // Yōkai

Invent, Animate // Greyview

Zombi // 2020

The Vamps // Cherry Blossom

upsammy // It Drips

Kairon; IRSE! // Polysomn

Silverstein // A Beautiful Place To Drown

Psychonaut // Unfold the God Man

HHY & The Kampala Unit // Lithium Blast

Monte // Mirla

Doves // The Universal Want

The Word Alive // MONOMANIA

Run the Jewels // RTJ4

Cecilio G. // SCORPIO

Eartheater // Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin

Oliver Tree // Ugly is Beautiful

Dance Gavin Dance // Afterburner

NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM // Éons

Bonnie Banane // Sexy Planet

Arctic Monkeys // Live at The Royal Albert Hall

LA Priest // GENE

Tame Impala // The Slow Rush

Neon Trees // I Can Feel You Forgetting Me

Freddie Dredd // Suffer

Phoebe Bridgers // Punisher

Alice Ivy // Don’t Sleep

Bather // Phantom Guilt

Pun Collins // Dying Together

Allie X // Cape God

Nyktophobia // What Lasts Forever

Crack Cloud // PAIN OLYMPICS

Lightning Orchestra // Source And Deliver

Geist & the Sacred Ensemble // Waning Hymns

Biting Elbows // Shorten the Longing

Soccer Mommy // Color Theory

Samia // The Baby

Emily Keener // I Do Not Have To Be Good

Johanna Warren // Chaotic Good

The Beths // Jump Rope Gazers

Shell of a Shell // Away Team

Shopping // All or Nothing

Yuri Gagarin (SWE) // The Outskirts of Reality

Tornado Wallace // Midnight Mania

ThouxanBanFauni // CLAIRVOYANCE

Лилу // Mode 1

Caitlin Pasko // Greenhouse

Titan To Tachyons // Cactides

déluge // Digue

The Courteeners // More. Again. Forever.

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids // Shaman!

Lido Pimienta // Miss Colombia

PYNKIE // Love Theme

Sub Focus & Wilkinson // Portals

Whitney // Candid

Bright Eyes // Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was

Roy Montgomery // The Electric Children of Hildegard Von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)

O’Brother // You and I

Young Knives // Barbarians

Shabazz Palaces // The Don of Diamond Dreams

Douglas Dare // Milkteeth

Good Tiger // Raised in a Doomsday Cult

Knuckle Puck // 20/20

Armand Hammer // Shrines

Suffer Ring // Reverentia

Loathe // I Let It In And It Took Everything

Jaunt // All In One

Wajatta // Don’t Let Get You Down

STRFKR // Future Past Life

Waco // Hope Rituals

Emancipator // Mountain of Memory

CoVet // technicolor

16 // Dream Squasher

Lingua Lustra // Omni

Deerhoof // Future Teenage Cave Artists

The Microphones // Microphones in 2020

Reptoid // Worship False Gods

Sólstafir // Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love

Myrkur // Folkesange

Zara McFarlane // Songs of an Unknown Tongue

Washed Out // Purple Noon

Polaris // The Death of Me

ajj // Good Luck Everybody

Cut Copy // Freeze, Melt

Hån // gradients

Yves Tumor // Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Future // High Off Life

Daniel Davies // Signals

The Boomtown Rats // Citizens of Boomtown

Craven Faults // Erratics & Unconformities

Handwrist // Electric Park

Vous Autres // Sel De Pierre

KEYAH/BLU // Sorry, I Forgot You Were Coming

Insect Ark // The Vanishing

Washington // Batflowers

Ulcerate // Stare Into Death And Be Still

Havok // V

Melted Bodies // Enjoy Yourself