Best Album Covers Of 2023: 10 Great Artworks Of The Year

Whether encapsulating the music or raising more questions than answers, the best album covers of 2023 offer plenty of visual thrills.

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Izzy Sigston

24 April 2023

No matter how much we love music, there’s an argument to say that it wouldn’t sell as well without the entire package – think The Dark Side Of The Moon’s game-changing artwork, or the thrill that comes with tracing Iron Maiden’s mascot, Eddie, as he evolves across the group’s genre-defining album covers. With new creative tools offering an ever-expanding creative palette for musicians and visual artists to draw from, the best album covers of 2023 prove that music still has the power to provide a visually stimulating experience.

Listen to our Chart playlist here, and check out the best album covers of 2023, below.

10: Orbital: ‘Optical Delusion’

In a genre which is somewhat overcrowded with vocal distortions, electronic titans Orbital stick to their guns on their tenth record, Optical Delusion. Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll remain a powerhouse duo, providing squelchy bass, synthy goodness and nostalgic old-school drum’n’bass. The album’s inexplicably wacky artwork does a pretty good job of visualising the energy – and the madness – that fuels the duo’s vital music.

Artist: Unknown

9: Caroline Polachek: ‘Desire, I Want to Turn Into You’

The multi-talented Caroline Polachek returned in early 2023, releasing her impressive sophomore album, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You. As a solo artist, Polachek cherry-picks influences to create a multiverse of alternative pop, drawing vocal mannerisms from Christine And The Queens, fashioning punchy soundscapes indebted to Charli XCX and seeking to capture the moody yet hypnotic essence of British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack. One of the best album covers of 2023, the Desire, I Want to Turn Into You sleeve comes across like a Y2K editorial fashion shoot hitched to a collection of carefully constructed music – a bold and striking move that raises more questions than it answers.

Photographer: Aidan Zamiri

8: Joesef: ‘Permanent Damage’

The long-awaited debut album from Scottish singer-songwriter Joesef finally emerged at the start of 2023, and though it was heavy with themes of heartbreak it certainly helped bring soulful warmth to a cold winter. Unlike Joesef’s initial run of EPs and singles, which sat comfortably with low-slung guitar hooks and head-nodding production, Permanent Damage takes a brave step into the unknown, its creator using orchestral arrangements to cinematic effect. Motown influences and pop soundbites are tied together with Joesef’s angelic soprano vocals, the overall atmosphere spilling into the album cover, which offers an all-round dose of loveliness courtesy of a 35mm shot of Joesef filtered with peachy hues.

Photographer: @peeohvee

7: Inhaler: ‘Cuts & Bruises’

Inhaler continue to ride the crest of their nostalgic yet refreshing indie-rock-revival wave with their second album, Cuts & Bruises, which bears resemblance to work by such predecessors as The Killers, Stereophonics and, of course, U2 (frontman Elijah Hewson is Bono’s son). Moodily monochromatic, with shadows, highlights and distorted blurs, the band portrait on the sleeve is at once striking and familiar, sitting among the best album covers of 2023 for the way it reignites the flame of 2000s indie-rock.

Photographer: Unknown

6: Kali Uchis: ‘Red Moon In Venus’

Shimmering with twilight odes to infatuation, Kali Uchis’ third album, Red Moon In Venus, encapsulates everything we love about the genre-defying Colombian American princess. On its cover she appears as the human embodiment of the album’s themes – divine femininity and cosmic devotion – her face seductively radiant against a terracotta background, butterfly hairpieces offering a surreal extension of the dreamlike music within.

Photographer: Cho Gi-Seok

5: Måneskin: ‘Rush!’

The modern-day rock’n’roll band that has piqued the interest of younger audiences around the world, Italian four-piece Måneskin continue their global triumph with the release of their third album, Rush! With roaring vocals and elegant guitar solos, Måneskin’s old-school-style rock ballads pay tribute to their influences, and are matched for impact by a provocative entry among the best album covers of 2023. Capturing the emotional range of the music, the image showcases each of the band members’ thoughts as they try to decipher whether the leaping model is trying to overtake them, bewitch them or crush them.

Photographer: Unknown

4: Paramore: ‘This Is Why’

Five years after the release of their pop-inspired fifth album, After Laughter, Paramore erupted back on the scene with This Is Why, which plucked influences from 2000s Britrock, leaned back into the group’s own infectious guitar hooks and traded in the delicate lyricism frontwoman Hayley Williams has displayed across her solo projects. Written on the back of a global pandemic, the album is awash with paranoia, impatience and fear. Picturing Williams and her Paramore bandmates, Taylor York and Zac Farro, slammed against a condensed shower screen, This Is Why’s artwork earns its place among the best album covers of 2023 for encapsulating the chaotic pressure everyone has been under in the years leading up to the album’s release.

Photographer: Zachary Gray

3: Miley Cyrus: ‘Endless Summer Vacation’

Disney’s producers certainly got it right when casting Miley Cyrus as their iconic teen pop star, Hannah Montana, back in 2006. Almost two decades later, Cyrus cements herself as Gen Z’s queen of pop with the release of Endless Summer Vacation. Shaded with heartbreak and hints of sexual prowess, this tribute to sticky summer nights and dreamy days is brought further to life through its album cover: radiating energy and all-encompassing power, Cyrus poses triumphantly against a rich blue backdrop while hanging on to a trapeze.

Photographer: Unknown

2: Young Fathers: ‘Heavy Heavy’

Straddling the line between hip-hop and rock, Young Fathers have never paid attention to typical genre boundaries, and Heavy Heavy is, as its title suggests, pretty heavy-heavy. Reverberating with thundering drums and gospel choruses, the album aims to leave listeners with wild thoughts and outrageous questions the likes of which its artwork does little to address. A truly arresting entry among the best album covers of 2023, the sleeve pictures an obscured figure pierced with sharp objects; it is based on the Nikisi figures found in many West and Central African cultures, which are believed to have spiritual capabilities that can banish evil.

Designer: Tom Hingston

1: Gorillaz: ‘Cracker Island’

Returning after a three-year gap, Gorillaz remain in ultimately wacky form on Cracker Island, adding a raft of new collaborators to their roster, among them Tame Impala, Thundercat and Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks. Continuing to develop the group’s image, Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett has worked up one of the best album covers of 2023, drawing on themes in Damon Albarn’s lyrics as he reframes the group as members of a cult somewhere on the edge of the world.

Illustrator: Jamie Hewlett

Best Album Covers Of 2023: 10 Great Artworks Of The Year

Listen to our Chart playlist here, and check out the best album covers of 2023, below.

10: Orbital: ‘Optical Delusion’

9: Caroline Polachek: ‘Desire, I Want to Turn Into You’

8: Joesef: ‘Permanent Damage’

7: Inhaler: ‘Cuts & Bruises’

6: Kali Uchis: ‘Red Moon In Venus’

5: Måneskin: ‘Rush!’

4: Paramore: ‘This Is Why’

3: Miley Cyrus: ‘Endless Summer Vacation’

2: Young Fathers: ‘Heavy Heavy’

1: Gorillaz: ‘Cracker Island’

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