Featured album cover: Harm’s Way – Posthuman.

I love album covers. Once in a while, an album cover makes me stop in my tracks. I feel amazed at first, sometimes shocked, and always determined to gaze longer at the photograph or artwork to decipher its meaning and absorb the scale, beauty, or strangeness of the album art.

The following album covers from this year are not the most beautiful. Rather, they are the most memorable, daring, and unique.

Now, Now – Saved

Playboi Carti – Die Lit

Tinashe – Joyride

J. Cole – KOD

Lil Baby & Gunna – Drip Harder

Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth

Brockhampton – iridescence

Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer

Denzel Curry – TA13OO

Death Grips – Year of the Snitch

Pusha T – DAYTONA

Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs

Kids See Ghosts – Kids See Ghosts

The Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny and Oh So Bright

Nas – NASIR

Joji – BALLADS 1

Rhye – Blood

Blood Orange – Negro Swan

Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar

Vulfpeck – Hill Climber