So Jasper, Casper and Mike went and stayed in a campsite on the clifftop and then went down to the beach at 5am when the sun was coming up and took some pictures. “Jasper’s friend Selina Bonelli had made a performance on the old WW2 bunker at Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey and after seeing the documentation of the piece, we instantly felt like the structure could work for the record’s cover.

“We knew we wanted the album art to form a set with the ‘Dark blue’ and ‘Skydiving onto the library roof’ single covers,” the band explained. And like its cover photo, you might find yourself drawn to the single element that’s clearly the conceptual focus before you start paying attention to each detail that makes up the picture: the clear blue sky, the rocks, a ladder, people at work. There’s a gentle hopefulness to their self-titled debut album where others might lean on desperation, even as it subtly gestures toward collapse. The music of UK eight-piece caroline is richly textural and atmospheric, pulling you into an empty space as much as it builds on it. These are our 50 favorite album covers of the year. There is a loose ranking, and while for the most part it follows an aesthetic or conceptual logic, we’ve placed the ones that left the strongest impression closer to the top. Like last year, we’ve also included quotes from many of the artists involved to provide context and insight into the process of how they came together. So, to kick off our year-end music coverage, we’re once again highlighting some of the most memorable and striking album covers of 2022 – ones that not only stand out on their own, but pair along with the music in fascinating ways. Even though it’s inextricable from the ways we consume and interpret albums, cover art isn’t even considered a relevant factor when assessing the perceived quality of a record I’m not here to argue it should be, but it’s definitely worthy of more attention. No matter how you first encounter it – whether it’s a picture on social media, a tiny image on a digital streaming service, or the first thing you see when you hold a physical record in your hands – the album cover undeniably shapes our experience of listening to music.

In this moment blood album artwork