There were tons of unimaginative album covers done in 2007, just as there were every year prior to this one, but there were plenty of refreshing concepts this year. My favorites weren’t the ones of bands facing in obscure directions with that look in their face like, “how am I going to spend all of this money Universal gives me”, but rather those odd, artistic pictures. The ones that make you think about switching careers and just selling album art out of the back of your car… okay, maybe they’re not that great, but they are striking to say the least. Here are my favorites in no particular order:

Division Day – Beartrap Island

How could you be disinterested to listen to an album named “Beartrap Island”. There’s this odd ongoing fascination with bears; people living with them, hunting them and of course setting traps for them. That must have been the inspiration for this album cover, although I was relieved to not find any bears on the front. Instead, odd spikey pastel patterns seem to be plaguing this island in place of the bears. Quite interesting.

Efterklang – Under Giant Trees EP

If you thought Efterklang was creative with this album, you might also want to check out their cover on their full length album this year, Parades. Simply colorful and beautiful, just as Efterklangs music demonstrates.

Softlightes – Say No To Being Cool Say Yes To Being Happy

Nothing grabs your attention like a big giant trippy spiral leading into a giant tounge speaking “Say No! To Being Cool, Say Yes To Being Happy!” If life were only so simple. Very attention grabbing on this one.

Menomena – Friend and Foe

This is obviously done in sketch style, almost as if someone did it all in one sitting, but the minute detail is so intriguing. If you enjoyed looking at this, check out the full details on Sleevage. There’s truly an appreciation for grafitti art in this one, and the compactness of this all on one album cover doesn’t seem to do enough justice.

Architechture In Helsinki – Places Like This

If this doesn’t sum up the band’s name, I don’t know what else could be drawn here. The square, methodical structure and depth of this is remarkable and leaves a lot to the imagination. I also enjoyed the layers of colors leading skyward, to the depths of the city as well as the album title font structured into the buildings.

Deas Vail – All The Houses Look The Same

Although this is very plain and simple, something attracts me to this album. It looks as though it was a story pulled right out of a Hans Christian Anderson book and transposed into a picture. With the moon (or sun depending on how you look at it) being the focal point, the desolate streets seem to tell many stories. Although this album’s stories come nowhere close to the ones this picture may or may not be telling you, I still find myself listening to a song or two solely because of this cover.

Jimmy Eat World – Chase This Light

I already feel as though this album has gotten too much attention this year, but the album cover is that of a flirtatious peacock. Colors always win for me, in the case of the bright, matching ones which involve every color possible are brought forth. Jimmy Eat world may have had their worst album to date, but this is undoubtedly their best album cover. If you’re from Arizona, this art may make a lot of sense to you.

Explosions In The Sky – All Of A Sudden, I Miss Everyone

Explosions has managed to do more that one thing right in their time and the artwork on their latest this year matched their innovative music style just that much more. I can honestly say, that all of their album art is beautifully done. Pull up any of their albums and you can see the album art had a masterful mind put behind it. I particularly enjoyed the painted style in this one; the light cast on the shadows of the waters as a lonely boatsman drifts though the night. The album name really depicts this picture aptly enough.

Rogue Wave – Asleep At Heaven’s Gate

I know I wasn’t going to give out winners, but this one takes the cake for the “What the hell could this possibly be?” award. When I look at this, I think I’m playing one of those games where the object is magnified beyond human comprehension and eventually stumped into thinking it is only a piece of tin foil. Here’s my guess, it’s a piece of tin foil. (At closer look, you will also notice a girl in a pink dress with blond hair (bottom right))

 

Radiohead – In Rainbows

Of course this doesn’t belong in the top album covers of this year. This is probably one of the worst. What made me put this up was the spur of album art that popped up on flikr so quickly. When I purused through other fans works of what they thought the album art would look like (before it was revealed), I found some of the best looking, new-age designs out there. Who wouldn’t want 1,000 different versions of their own album cover? And based just off of the inrainbows download site back in Oct., these are pretty impressive. Here are a few of my favorites.

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Related Posts:

1. Year In Review: 2007
2. Top Songs of 2007 – Part 2
3. Top Songs of 2007 – Part 1
4. The Worst Best Performers of 2007
5. Top Songs of 2007 – Part 3: The Top 10