{"id":5627,"date":"2013-12-22T13:20:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T18:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=5627"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:15:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:15:45","slug":"year-end-list-top-10-album-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/year-end-list-top-10-album-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"YEAR END LIST: Top 10 Album Covers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Let’s all just agree to agree that hip hop as a genre won the album cover contest this year, okay? Much of the new heavy metal out this year bore covers that ran the gambit between overstatedly woodsy<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>to just plain inexplicable<\/strong><\/a>, and pop albums favored stark, angular glamor shots<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and occasionally left us confused as to why these artists are so mad at us<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0Release for release, hip hop had some stellar, memorable artwork, much of it instantly iconic portrait art, like Drake’s diptych<\/strong><\/a> of his child self mirrored with a matching image of himself as an adult. However, one exclusion from our favorite cover art of 2013 is a hip hop album worth mentioning: Kanye West’s\u00a0Yeezus<\/em>.
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I know, I know: Yeezus<\/em> saves. Equally loved and detested, West’s new album will, I predict, come to be one of\u00a0the<\/em> lasting albums from 2013, and he’s had his share of notable, exquisite, and ridiculous moments<\/a><\/strong>. But\u00a0Yeezus’<\/em> album cover art<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0isn’t any of the above. First of all, the red tape slapped onto the homemade CD is at best a humble-brag for the contents’ breadth and slick production–the record itself is far more magnum opus than it is demo tape, and both West and\u00a0Yeezus<\/em> know it. Secondly, it’s neither iconic nor indicative of the year West has had–the image is tepid, and in 2013, the rapper was anything but. Number 10 in our Year End Album Cover countdown employs the same understated formality of\u00a0Yeezus’\u00a0<\/em>image, but goes for an effect more subtly surreal.<\/p>\n

10. Kid Cudi – Indicud<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The contrast of the stately frame makes the fire in this image come alive, as if it’s three-dimensional. Dangerous, uncontainable things come inside unassuming packages, and this image is so memorable because it’s unpredictable, framing a scene that doesn’t naturally observe boundaries.<\/p>\n

Listen to “Unfuckwittable” off of Indicud<\/em> here via Grooveshark<\/a><\/strong>:
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9. Warm Soda – Someone For You<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Flat, room-temperature yellow backs this ambivalently nostalgic cover, bringing listless summer days to mind. In fact, the image captures the album’s blistering-but-catchy, vaguely seventies-era sound perfectly.<\/p>\n

Listen to “Someone for you” off of Warm Soda<\/em> here via Grooveshark<\/a><\/strong>:
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8. The Civil Wars – The Civil Wars<\/strong><\/p>\n

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High-definition billowing smoke, a black and grey scale, and the austere white script across the dark grey cloud make this album cover memorably melancholy and archaic. This image looms, foreboding, channeling the loneliness and stark beauty of this band’s self-titled album.<\/p>\n

Listen to “From This Valley” off of The Civil Wars<\/em> here via Soundcloud<\/a><\/strong>:
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