A few of my favorite, new-classic album covers

There are many beautiful, classic album covers from the second half of the 20th century that are fascinating to study. But there are so many good album covers coming out now (and in the past decade or so) that I might as well dedicate a blog post to some of what I think are the most interesting, engaging and aesthetically pleasing covers that we can all draw inspiration from. So here's some of my favorites! They're pretty cool to look at.

Plain White T's
One of my all-time favorites

I love the cover of "All That We Needed" because of the contrast of the bright yellow background behind the black and white jeans and shoes. It makes me think of a NYC taxi, which brings us to the next cover. 

Plain White T's
A classic

"What's it like in New York City?" 

Both the song and this cover are a classic. Any other time this font (who knows what it's called?) is used, it looks ... unprofessional. But here, it just works. Since this song came out in 2005, this slightly old-fashioned font works well to indicate the time period this cover was designed. And it's clean and simple, set against the cool, rainy background of the person walking in the lit-up city. I love this one. It sets the mood of the song.

Avril Lavigne
The first CD I ever loved

Since Avril Lavigne was my first favorite artist, and "Let Go" was my first favorite CD (and still remains my forever go-to music), this album cover had to be on the list. It's in the city theme, with Avril still and sharp against the busy, blurry background. The punk lettering of "Avril Lavigne. Let Go" is perfect for Avril circa 2002.

Andrew McMahon (Jack's Mannequin)

I love "Everything In Transit" because of the illustrations of the California beach town and the details -- "This Is A Story..." written on the billboard or whatever's on the side of that building, the cool biplane trailing the name of the band, the cursive handwriting of the album's title in the corner.

Andrew McMahon (Jack's Mannequin)

"The Ghost Overground" EP's cover is cool because a) the scene draws you in. An open road in the California desert, the contrast of the guy in the black jacket and his black shadow against the highway -- I don't know, it makes me want to take a road trip or something and b) I love the font they picked for Jack's Mannequin. It's another one of those serif fonts that looks a little old-fashioned but just works.

Cold War Kids

From what I've seen of Cold War Kids art, they are going all out on the sort of handwriting/casual scrawl look.

Cold War Kids

This is the back of the Cold War Kids's album "Loyalty to Loyalty" -- it's neat to look at what they've done with text sizing and spacing to keep these song titles interesting.

Cold War Kids

I mean, what are they doing? Scrapbooking?

Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids

You have to admit, they look pretty awesome.

The Black Keys

Of course, this Black Keys album had to go on the list. You can't get much more straightforward than this.

I do like what they did here. Obviously it's simple, with just red used to emphasize the band's name. And they changed the font size for the important words! It doesn't have to be complicated to look good.

American Authors

First off, I want to say how much I like the American Authors band logo. The "X" looks good overlaying the photograph, which I also love. The old-fashioned filtered photos of New York City may be a little cliche, but they still look awesome.

American Authors

All Time Low

I just enjoy this album cover for how much is going on -- zombies? Burning city? The band members running in? And some giant monster taking over everything, of course. (This cover is literally illustrating an all-time low.) You could spend a lot of time just gazing at this album cover, finding new details you missed at first. It tells a story in a bunch of funny-looking drawings.

Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate)

From the same guy who brought you Jack's Mannequin, here's the band Something Corporate. This album cover is also kinda scrapbook-y, and it makes me think of a roadtrip or a guy who's just living on the road, a nomad-type. The grungy lettering on both the front and the back looks good with the stampy (for lack of a better word) images of the guys and the car.

Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate)

Soundcloud (Ben Phipps)

I looked at this artwork and thought, "wow, this is cool." Then I saw the guy standing in front of the sky in the elephant and decided it was awesome. This is just beautiful design. I love the geometric shapes that the lines criss-crossing the elephant form. And the photo in the elephant is intriguing.

Alessia Cara

First, I like the handwriting on "Four Pink Walls." Handwriting definitely gets overused, but I like it on this album cover anyway. I also like how simple this cover is, how well the colors go together (pink with red? Who knew it could work? Alessia Cara's album designers, that's who), and Alessia's outfit choice.

MGMT

What does this mean? What are they doing in this picture? I mean, sometimes it's more fun to just look at the cover and decide for yourself instead of Googling what exactly you're supposed to get from it. Who cares? It's MGMT. They do what they want.