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!
Album Cover Hall of Fame.com 