Season’s greetings to one and all! It’s the most wonderful time of the year – time for our annual Listmas celebrations! Starting in earnest with a look at the most interesting and imaginative artwork of the past year. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A great cover can say a lot about an album before you ever press play. Depending what the album calls for, the artwork can serve to catch your eye, spark your imagination, set the mood, or even tell an entire story all its own. Here’s a look at our favourite examples from 2025.
10. Gatlin – The Eldest Daughter
A simple photo, but I like how, at a glance, it catches you off-guard. Where does the sky end and the water begin? What’s real and what is merely a reflection?
9. Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam
There’s a simplicity and messiness to it that feels comfortingly human. Holding the moon in your hands is such a delightful concept that I’m amazed no one has used it for an album cover before now.
8. Cammie Beverly – House of Grief
I just love the use of contrast in this photo. How the sunlight streams in to pick out the details in a room otherwise swimming in shadow. A perfect metaphor for overcoming grief.
7. Flipturn – Burnout Days
The image of fireworks exploding out from your heart is such a charming way to capture a feeling of euphoria. The fact that you can see the haphazard crayon lines in the shading adds just that extra energetic spark.
6. Grace Rogers – Mad Dogs
There’s something endearingly ugly about it that has left it lingering in my mind ever since I first saw it. The kind of cover you’d spy while crate digging and think “I just have to know what this album is like“.
5. Will Orchard – Behind The Shadow Glass
I love the impressionist haze that makes this scene swirl and shimmer. The sky’s gorgeous rainbow hues, like an oil spill in rain. Splendid work from artist Adi Dahlke
4. The Gentle Good – Elan
Combining a stunning traditional illustration, with modern design elements that look like they should be adorning the most fascinating book on Welsh folklore. The artwork really adds to the album’s profound sense of place and time.
3. Lord Huron – The Cosmic Selector Vol.1
This beautiful oil painting by artist Andrew McIntosh has an impeccable vibe. I’m a sucker for little pockets of light in dark forests, for the warm dreamy colour palette employed here, for the inherent, irresistible temptation of a jukebox.
2. Moron Police – Pachinko
Another incomparable visual feast from Spanish artist Antonio Segura (aka Dulk). A cover every bit as fun, vivid, imaginative, and bewilderingly brilliant as the music contained within.
1. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island
M.C. Escher meets Hieronymus Bosch, on a cover that goes so much harder than it needed to. The band’s long-time artist Jason Galea has truly outdone himself this time around. Hang it in the Louvre!
Belwood Music 