ACHOF’s Annual Summary of the Best & Worst Album Covers of 2018

 

 

 

 

New Year’s Eve, 2018

by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

While I can’t speak for all of you, I’m fairly certain that there are a great number of you who are tired of hearing other peoples’ opinions. Nearly every conversation you’re exposed to these days – on your Twitter or Facebook feeds, your favorite TV news channel or penetrating your personal space from that group of guys that sit behind you on the train or next to you in your health club’s locker room – it’s nearly impossible to not overdose on other peoples’ takes on what’s “good” or “appropriate” or “the best/worst” these days. And so, rather than talk about “what’s best” this year, after both participating (as a judge) in several album cover art competitions and having had the chance to review the articles by others in which the “best covers of 2018” are discussed/rated, I thought that I’d simply make note of several of the trends I’ve seen in record package design lately, leaving the pontificating to those who are perhaps better qualified (or, at least, prepared to convince you that they are) while I remain simply a teller (or re-teller) of tales and one that will continue to monitor the field for my readers so that you’re aware of who is behind the projects that produce the most-notable packages for your favorite LPs, CDs, DVDs and box sets/compilations.

Best & Worst Album Cover Artwork of 2017 – Updated Summary

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

January 3, 2018 update – As I noted in my recent monthly news summary, for the past five years I’ve worked to present you with a recap of the many articles published by art/music/design writers on the Best and Worst examples of album cover design used to package music products here and abroad. Taking the many “Top 10” lists that were proffered and then breaking them down to look for patterns and consistencies, I’d been able to present a fairly-scientific summary of those covers which had earned the most kudos or raspberries from this group of industry experts and observers.

Unfortunately, this year I’m unable to do this for you as the number of people writing on the topic has dropped precipitously, leaving me without the basis of a statistically-significant study. I suppose that I only have myself to blame as each year I have gone on record saying that it was a fool’s errand to create “best” and “worst” lists – “best” or “worst” in what way, following what criteria? It’s something I never would have the courage/expertise to do on my own, but I always felt that it was OK to summarize others’ attempts to do so (I mean, why not let them look like fools, as long as I could benefit from it – just joking, of course).

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Year-End Summary of Best and Worst Album Cover Art listings 2016

 

 

 

 

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Year-End Summary of “Best (and Worst) Album Cover Art” listings for the year 2016

by Mike Goldstein, Curator/Editor, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

December 30, 2016 – Chicago, IL, USA

With “The Media” taking a beating this year (some deserved, but mostly a diversion), I thought that it’d be important for this journalist to demonstrate that not ALL reporting is misleading or factless, and what better way than to share a summary of all of the articles I could find on the topic of “Best” and “Worst” album cover art featured on records released during the past year. As I’ve said in previous summaries on the topic, the focus of the ACHOF site remains on the people who create these works (rather than on the works themselves), so it is important for me to be able to share this editorial content with you as a way to illustrate that there is still a lot of work – both good and bad – being done in this aspect of the recorded music business.

Best And Worst Album Cover Art Lists – 2014 – Summary And Analysis

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s “Best (and Worst) Album Cover Art” listings for the year 2014, along with summary and analysis

by Mike Goldstein, Curator/Editor, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

December 26th, 2014 – Portland, OR, USA (updated December 31, 2014)

At the end of every year, the writers working for art/music/design publications of every size put themselves in a position that your Curator (hey, that’s me!) will most-certainly never put himself in – i.e., having to name the “best” and “worst” album cover designs of the previous 12 months and then, somehow, justifying those choices to readers who, inevitably, will accept some of those decisions with great gusto and then mercilessly berate the choices that disagree with (or those that, Heaven forbid, have been left off these lists altogether!). Now that it is that time of year again, yours truly has completed his research and is ready to offer you his summary of what these esteemed music and art critics have presented as their “best of” and “worst of” selections regarding the album covers and packaging that helps deliver – both online and in physical form – music from your favorite artists.

As I have noted in my previous summaries, “each year, music and art critics work to provide readers and viewers with their ‘Top 10′ lists in a variety of categories (by musical genre, by who most-effected pop culture, by who raised the bar, by who revealed the most of their inner souls or their outer skin, etc.). Many of these same publications and sites also attempt to arrive at – by their design standards and/or knowledge of the relationships between musicians, their record labels/distributors and the people they hire to create a new graphical representation of their latest music releases – which records came with the best (or worst) associated album covers.” This year, I found a number of new publications and sites who were eager to proffer their opinions on the “state of the art” in album cover design, so there was a lot of new data to take into account.

A Scientific Approach To Determining “The Best” In Album Cover Art

Details on the U.S. Mensa Society’s “Best Cover Art” Bracket Challenge

American Mensa “Best Cover Art” Bracket Challenge Artwork

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com 

Earlier this month, I learned about an interesting poll looking to discover “the world’s best album cover”. While these polls are typically done by music/art/photography/lifestyle publications (and something that I summarize in a yearly report on the topic (here’s a link to the one from last year – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/best-and-worst-album-cover-art-lists-2013-summary-and-analysis/), I was intrigued by the organization behind this most-recent poll – the U.S. outpost of the Mensa Society which, to the uninitiated, is an international organization made up of people of all ages who, according to their site, ” share only one trait — high intelligence.” To qualify for Mensa, applicants were required “to score in the top 2 percent of the general population on an accepted standardized intelligence test”, making Mensa members – who include engineers, homemakers, teachers, actors, athletes, students and CEOs – well-equipped to develop a method (their “bracket challenges”) via which the “best ofs” in many categories can be determined (past challenges have include “best” heroes, inventions and toys).

This year, the group decided to throw their focus to determining, in a totally subjective, slightly-scientific and non-definitive way, which modern-era album cover is “the best”. On October 14th, I contacted the organization to find out more about their methodology and heard back from Chip Taulbee, who serves as the Editor of the Mensa Newsletter for the American Mensa organization and, based on this back-and-forth between myself and Chip, I think that they’ve come up with a strong approach that will, in the end, probably start more heated discussions than serve to satisfy any music fan’s appetite to know “what’s best”. Even so, I have to laud the group for their efforts and look forward to seeing the results when they’re posted early next year. For your review, here are my notes from my discussion with Chip:

Best and Worst Album Cover Art Lists – 2013 – Summary and Analysis

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s “Best (and Worst) Album Cover Art” listings for the year 2013, along with summary and analysis

by Mike Goldstein, Curator, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

December 27th, 2013 – Portland, OR, USA

It’s that time of year again, folks! It’s when your Curator scours the globe to bring you a summary of what music and art critics present as their “best of” and “worst of” lists regarding the album covers and packaging that helps deliver – both online and in physical form – music from your favorite artists. As I noted in last year’s summary, “each year, music and art critics work to provide readers and viewers with their ‘Top 10’ lists in a variety of categories (by musical genre, by who most-effected pop culture, by who raised the bar, by who revealed the most of their inner souls or their outer skin, etc.). Many of these same publications and sites also attempt to arrive at – by their design standards and/or knowledge of the relationships between musicians, their record labels/distributors and the people they hire to create a new graphical representation of their latest music releases – which records came with the best (or worst) associated album covers.

Some lists were the opinions of a publication’s reporter or staff, while others reflect the votes of readers of those publications, but whether they approach these surveys from the angle of music fan, the art fan or simply from folks that appreciate the importance of good album art (to the promotion and sale of music and/or a musical act’s image), these lists do provide some interesting insights into the “art of criticism”, as do the comments submitted by those who agree or disagree with the final poll results.

And so, presented along with a little analysis of whose artwork seems to gather the most attention on one or both of the lists (and in no particular order), here are the “best of” and “worst of” lists from sources around the world for Best and/or Worst Album Covers for 2013. As always, please be sure to let us know which of these lists best-represented your feelings on the topic by leaving a comment for us, below – thanks, and best (not worst) wishes to you all for a very Happy New Year 2014!

The Best of the “Best Album Covers of All Time” lists

The Best of the “Best Album Covers of All Time” lists
by Mike Goldstein, Curator, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

(Updated 3-18-13, 1-11-14, 3-14-14 and 12/23/15 with additional information)

This article is the ACHOF’s special effort to show, overall, which album cover images that music fans (as represented in music and design mags, blogs and related reader polls) are the most-liked and appreciated. Over the years, there have been many lists done by genre/sub-genre, but we chose to focus on results from polls and/or sites with a long history of publishing stories on album cover art.

While it is always an exercise in futility to say which album covers are the “best” (akin to “who is your favorite child?”), your Curator was able to draw certain conclusions based on the covers that appear repeatedly in each list’s “Top 10” (as detailed below):

Best and Worst Album Covers – 2012 – An Overview

Best/Worst Album Cover Lists – 2012

Each year, music and art critics work to provide readers and viewers with their “Top 10” lists in a variety of categories (by musical genre, by who most-effected pop culture, by who raised the bar, by who revealed the most of their inner souls or their outer skin, etc.). Many of these same publications and sites also attempt to arrive at – by their design standards and/or knowledge of the relationships between musicians, their record labels/distributors and the people they hire to create a new graphical representation of their latest music releases – which records came with the best (or worst) associated album covers.

Some lists were the opinions of a publication’s reporter or staff, while others reflect the votes of readers of those publications, but whether they approach these surveys from the angle of music fan, the art fan or simply from folks that appreciate the importance of good album art (to the promotion and sale of music and/or a musical act’s image), these lists do provide some interesting insights into the “art of criticism”, as do the comments submitted by those who agree or disagree with the final poll results.