Reunimos uma lista das 100 melhores capas de álbuns de todos os tempos, chegando até a década de 1930 e passando pelo nascimento do rock n’ roll, o início do hip-hop e além, até os dias atuais.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Atlantic Records
100. Aretha Franklin, ‘Young, Gifted and Black’ (1972)
If you didn’t get it from the title Young, Gifted and Black, Aretha Franklin was proudly and boldly representing for the African-American community on this 1972 classic, and the cover photo – which shows two sets of gently smiling Arethas facing each other wearing turban head wraps that glow an earthy orange against stained-glass windows – speaks to her African pride and musical upbringing in the church. Set against a black background, the warmth of the photographic portrait(s) is almost palpable.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
99. Beyoncé, ‘Lemonade’ (2016)
The cover art to Beyoncé’s 2016 masterpiece is taken from the “Don’t Hurt Yourself” music video, and immediately hits you with the dual themes of the LP. As she leans facedown against a Chevrolet suburban, her hair in cornrows and her shoulders covered by a fur coat, the superstar conveys hurt and strength in one impactful image; she is forced to take a breather and collect herself, only to strike back harder.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
98. Ariana Grande, Sweetener (2018)
It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that Ariana Grande’s entire world got turned upside down in the three years in between 2015’s Dangerous Woman and its 2018 follow-up. So when Ariana appeared Spider-Man-style on the cover of Sweetener, it felt right — and the sweetly unassuming confusion of the imagery also fit the musical change-up of the thoughtful, delirious, R&B-heavy set it accompanied beautifully.
Photo Credit: Courtesy RCA Nashville
97. Pistol Annies, ‘Interstate Gospel’ (2018)
The country supergroup’s third album was stunning testament to finding strength through the bonds of friendship during tough times, and you can practically feel the warmth and sisterhood radiating from the Interstate Gospel cover art. Standing in a lush, cool forest, Angaleena Presley, Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe clasp hands, eyes upward to heaven (which mirrors the vertical tree lines behind them). The trio’s green-brown garb – which ranges from Lambert’s flashy green sequins to Presley’s peasant dress to Monroe’s moss-hued dress with a leather belt around it – makes them look at one with the forest.
Photo Credit: Courtesy EMI
96. Kate Bush, ‘The Dreaming’ (1982)
Whether you get the esoteric visual reference or not, the cover art to Kate Bush’s The Dreaming is an attention grabber. It’s a sepia-toned, Maya Deren-esque image of Bush pulling a dapper, chain-bound man toward her with a golden key – the only properly colored item in the photo – resting on her tongue as she looks away from him. It’s a tie-in to album track “Houdini,” the famous escape artist who would sometimes get a key passed to him via a kiss from his wife/assistant Bess during performances; it also references a code between the two they decided upon before his death so that Bess could know whether the medium communicating to him in the afterlife was legit.
Photo Credit: Courtesy RCA Records
95. A$AP Rocky, ‘Long. Live. A$AP’ (2013)
A black-and-white shot of A$AP Rocky draped in an American flag served as the cover art to the Harlem native’s studio debut, with the photo rendered through the static effect you would find on an old TV set. The effect is somewhat lost on the deluxe version’s cover, but the original artwork shows the top of his face at the bottom of the cover and the lower half of his torso at the top, as if the fuzzy image is rotating through the screen as the TV struggles to find a full signal – in short, something isn’t quite right with the picture he’s painting.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Atlantic Records
94. Lil’ Kim, ‘Hard Core’ (1996)
While it might seem business as usual in a post-“WAP” world, the cover art to Lil’ Kim’s debut album caused quite a stir in 1996. Hard Core shows Kim hovering over a polar bear pelt on the floor of a rose-covered room, leaning forward in a see-through top and gold bikini. Suggestive more than explicit, fur-and-bikini imagery like this established her reputation as a Madonna-esque force of sexual provocation in hip-hop.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Epic Records
93. Gloria Estefan, ‘Mi Tierra’ (1993)
Gloria Estefan went for black-and-white retro elegance on the cover photo for her third solo album, embodying old school glamour as she drapes her arms over a chic cocktail bar, orchids in her hair and gorgeous men milling around behind her. But it’s more than just a throwback: Mi Tierra means “my homeland,” and the cover art evokes the pre-Cuban Revolution Havana that her family fled when she was just a toddler.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Decca Records
92. Fela Kuti, ‘No Agreement’ (1977)
Fela Kuti’s album artwork was typically as vibrant, thought-provoking and bold as his music, and the cover illustration for the Afrobeat pioneer’s 1977 album No Agreement is one of his finest. We see a shirtless, muscley Kuti hunched over his sax, eyes closed as if he’s pouring every ounce of his soul into the music. Behind him are floating oval-shaped buttons with an assortment of rallying cries, from “freedom” to “Afrikan science” to “total emancipation”; look closer and you can see that the buttons are interconnected by a frenetic web of colorful lines, almost as if all these concepts and ideas share a central nervous system.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Atlantic Records
91. Roberta Flack, ‘First Take’ (1969)
A sumptuous, striking image accompanies First Take, a debut album that revealed a stunning new talent. Shot by Ken Heinen (a photographer who took seminal shots of the Poor People’s Campaign which Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing prior to his 1968 assassination), the cover photo – set against a mustard frame – shows Flack wearing a floral, Sunday-best dress as she looks down at the ivories beneath her fingers in a smoky, cramped club. The keys are pressed down, but the moment – lens flare and all – is frozen, as if we’re witnessing a fleeting moment of quiet in a tumultuous setting, and time.
Photo Credit: Courtesy A&M Records
90. Carole King, ‘Tapestry’ (1971)
When Carole King’s Tapestry came out in 1971, listeners were assuredly familiar with several of the songs, which had already been made into hits by artists like Aretha Franklin and the Shirelles. But the cover art made it clear that what King was doing here with her material was different. Sitting barefoot on the window ledge of her home in Laurel Canyon, King – half-lit by natural light – and her cat eyeball the viewer, exuding California chill. The Tapestry cover went a long way toward establishing and romanticizing the idea of homespun, pared-down recordings that felt more casual than polished.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
89. Lizzo, ‘Cuz I Love You’ (2019)
If anyone found Lizzo to be a disruptive presence in the music mainstream as a plus-sized woman of color, she made it abundantly clear with the Cuz I Love You cover that she wasn’t about to let that deter her. Posing nude on an otherwise blank album cover, she presented herself as bold and self-possessed. Even as a lawsuit from former dancers complicates her legacy (she has denied their allegations), this image remains an important touchstone in representation.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
88. Tyler the Creator, ‘Igor’ (2019)
Perhaps taking a cue from the White Stripes that fewer colors can have a bigger effect, the cover art for Tyler, the Creator’s Igor leaves an immediate impression on your retina thanks to its pastel pink, black and white minimalism. A close-up shot of Tyler rocking an asymmetrical flattop shows the genre-bending rapper with one eye half-closed and mouth slightly agape, which allows his gold tooth to match his glistening earrings; he looks dazed but unfazed, a fitting expression for an artist who never quite seems to fit in on planet earth but has never let that throw him off his cool.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
87. Billie Holiday, ‘Lady in Satin’ (1958)
Billie Holiday had been through a lot by the time Lady in Satin came out in 1958, and those struggles and triumphs are etched into her face on the cover photo. Wearing a strapless gown (presumably made of satin) and tasteful jewelry, she appears in partial profile against a charcoal background. With her sleek hair pulled back into a pony, she’s a picture of then-modern elegance and grace, and yet her expression – distant, troubled – speaks to the hard truths she had learned. It would prove to be the final album released in her lifetime, as she died at age 44 the next year.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
86. RM, ‘Indigo’ (2022)
The cover art for RM’s debut studio album certainly lives up to its title. A painting of vertical blue lines from late Korean artist Yun Hyong-keun hangs on a yellowish wall in a mostly empty room. The BTS member, clad all in denim, sits on the floor, leaning against the wall and contemplatively gazing in a direction opposite a stool stacked high with his old jeans, which is bathed in a sunbeam that just misses him. Enigmatic and elegiac, it’s a fitting visual to accompany an album about saying goodbye to a period in one’s life.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Elektra Records
85. Missy Elliott, ‘Under Construction’ (2002)
Rocking a fuzzy bucket hat, chunky gold chain and a fur-lined, poofy pink jacket, Missy Elliott sits on a cinder block in front of a brick wall, seated next to an old-school boombox. Like the thematic content of Under Construction, the cover harks back to the golden age of hip-hop while still moving boldly into the future; despite the imagery, Elliott leans forward, eying something in the distance, always looking for the next thing.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros Records
84. Prince, ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980)
If song titles like “Do It All Night” and “Head” weren’t enough of a clue, Prince posed half-naked in front of exposed bedsprings for the cover of his breakthrough third album Dirty Mind. Copping a look that’s simultaneously mysterious and come-hither, the photo – taken by his personal photographer at the time, Allen Beaulieu – shows the musical polymath with a studded jacket, handkerchief around his neck and a treasure trail leading down his bare stomach to a thong. Prince had arrived, and the pop world would never be the same.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Nashville
83. Emmylou Harris, ‘Blue Kentucky Girl’ (1979)
Tapping into the same vintage vibes of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler artwork and the 1973 blockbuster film The Sting, Blue Kentucky Girl features a simply dressed Emmylou Harris, acoustic guitar in hand, standing in front of a sepia-toned portrait of an old Kentucky saloon. It’s a bingo card of old-timey Americana, from the oil-lamp chandelier to the spinning casino wheel to the gold-framed portrait of a naked woman to the scantily clad cigarette girl hovering over an eclectic table of booze-soaked poker players. With a soft but firm expression, Harris seems to be telling you that this, folks, is her take on country music.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Uptown Records
82. Mary J. Blige, ‘My Life’ (1994)
When she burst onto the scene in the ‘90s, Mary J. Blige wasn’t just a musical trend-setter with her groundbreaking mixture of sleek R&B and hip-hop – she provided a fashion blueprint for countless admirers and contemporaries. With a black leather cap, big hoop earrings and thick blonde braids, Blige is pure hip-hop soul chic on the cover of My Life, but there’s a lot more to it when you look closely. The photo, rendered through a moody blue lens, shows an artist who looks simultaneously hard and hurt. For a brutally personal album, it’s fitting that her eyes are ever so slightly obscured by the shadow cast by her hat – she’s letting us into her life, but these are dispatches from a dark time.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
81. Funkadelic, ‘Maggot Brain’ (1971)
A screaming Barbara Cheeseborough (who was Essence’s first cover model) possesses the “maggot brain” in question on the cover of Parliament’s classic 1971 album of the same name. The real twist comes when you turn the album over — while her head is buried up to the neck on the front, there’s a skull on the back.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
80. Chance the Rapper, ‘Acid Rap’ (2013)
For his breakthrough 2013 mixtape Acid Rap, Chance the Rapper tapped previous collaborator Brandon Breaux, a visual artist from the South Side of Chicago. Breaux might as well have willed the image into existence: Not only did he give Chance the tie-dye tank before a sojourn to SXSW, but he snapped a photo of Chance – whose expression is more acid than rap here — posing with a fan that turned into the cover. With constellations above and a pine tree skyline below, a pink-purple supernova seems to explode from the heavens all the way down to Chance’s face and clothing, giving the listener a sense of what to expect from the music.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
79. J. Cole, ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’ (2014)
There’s going back to your roots, and then there’s centering an entire album around your childhood home. The North Carolina rapper titled his third album after the address of his childhood home in Fayetteville, and the cover art is a photo of Cole in a hockey jersey resting atop its roof. The low angle shot of the rapper at the house’s peak suggests how far he’s come, but his posture – clasped hands, feet dangling in the air – indicates there’s still something left of the little boy who grew up there as he pensively casts a glance backwards.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
78. Cardi B, ‘Invasion of Privacy’ (2018)
Brash, bold, badass and whatever other “B” words generally applied to Cardi B’s rise to prominence in 2017 also worked for the cover of her 2018 debut LP, *Invasion of Privacy.*Captured by photographer Jora Frantzis, Cardi sneers in cat-eyes sunglasses, mustard-blonde hair and a checkered, long-sleeve coat — dazzling and unignorable, just as the accompanying album would soon prove to be on the Billboard charts.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Third Man Records
77. Loretta Lynn, ‘Van Lear Rose’ (2004)
A performer who embodied country music, Loretta Lynn notched a 2004 comeback with the Jack White-produced album Van Lear Rose. Wearing a sparkling, sky-blue dress that oozes Grand Ole Opry elegance, Lynn – standing in front of a rural manor’s porch, complete with dog and rocking chair — looks off into the distance with a faint smile, one hand on her acoustic guitar and the other on the old tree behind her. Four decades of country history never looked so lovely.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Alfa Records
76. Haruomi Hosono, ‘Philharmony’ (1982)
The pop polymath and electronic music pioneer broke new ground with his synth- and sequencer-heavy solo album (separate from his work with YMO) and the cover art gives a vaguely surrealist impression of his creative mind; Hosono gazes serenely into the future as his hairline disappears into a pine forest skyline, with a glorious, heavenly collection of clouds hanging overhead.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Arista Records
75. OutKast, ‘Stankonia’ (2000)
On the cover of OutKast’s 2000 classic, the duo – a shirtless Andre 3000 rocking a Hendrix-styled headband with his fingers stretched out to the viewer; Big Boi defiantly staring you down in a white shirt and DF (Dungeon Family) chain — stands in front of a black-and-white version of the American flag, seemingly the flag for the fictional country of Stankonia. The pared-down artwork is both an invite and a challenge to look at their complicated, multilayered take on America.
Photo Credit: Courtesy DJM Records
74. Elton John, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ (1973)
On Ian Beck’s iconic graphic for Elton John’s 1973 blockbuster, the bedazzled rocker – wearing ruby red platform heels and a bomber jacket with his name on it — steps into a poster of the famed yellow brick road Dorothy and her coterie followed to the Emerald City of Oz. The defining image of a legendary career, this illustration came out three years before Elton himself did – but if you didn’t get that he was a Friend of Dorothy based on this, that’s on you.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Def Jam Records
73. Jay-Z, ‘The Black Album’ (2003)
While the marketing campaign that Jay-Z was retiring after The Black Album seems ludicrous decades later, it did the job of putting all eyes on Hova for this 2003 classic. It’s a nearly blacked-out photograph of the Greatest Rapper of All Time, so dark that you can just barely make out his hands and mouth. In the pic, Jay pulls down a ball cap over his eyes, as if saying goodbye to the game, while his lips defiantly pout out from the shadows, indicating he’s doing this on his own terms.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
72. Whitney Houston, ‘Whitney Houston’ (1985)
Although he’s best (or in this case, worst) remembered for taking nude photos of a very underage Brooke Shields, Garry Gross’ cover photo for Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut stands out as a beautifully less-is-more image in the visually explosive MTV era. Wearing a simple, timeless toga with pearls, she announced herself to the world as a class act whose elegant ferocity went beyond any fashion trend.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Records
71. Roxy Music, ‘For Your Pleasure’ (1973)
In front of a glowing, skeletal skyline set against a pitch-black night, singer/model Amanda Lear struts along a shadowy promenade in sky-high heels and a bluish black leather dress while leading a snarling black panther on a leash. Seductive, striking and strange, this iconic image conjures up the allure and danger of a late-night dalliance – a fair fit for an LP that housed a trembling love song to a blow-up doll.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
70. ‘Smash Hits by Rodgers & Hart’ (Columbia, 1939)
The one that started it all – literally. Brooklyn-born, Parsons-educated graphic designer Alex Steinweiss was the first person to add graphic elements to the cover of albums (which in the 1930s resembled physical photo albums, as each album contained sleeves holding multiple 78 rpm discs made of shellac). This collection of hits by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (one of the 20th century’s greatest songwriting duos) boasted a striking mix of illustration and photography that marked the start of a new artform.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
69. Blink-182, ‘Enema of the State’ (1999)
For the cover of their mainstream breakthrough LP, Blink-182 enlisted adult actress Janine Lindemulder to put a highly suggestive — and literal — spin on the album title. It’s an image that was burned into the mind of every TRL viewer.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Roc Nation
68. Rihanna, ‘Anti’ (2016)
For the cover of Anti, Rihanna turned to Israeli artist Roy Nachum, who dug deep into Rih’s past for imagery to accompany her greatest creative step forward. The artwork shows a doubled image of toddler Rihanna on her first day of daycare, holding a black balloon with a gold crown covering her eyes. With an uneven column of red paint descending from the top of the black-and-white image, it’s unusual yet warm, and quite literally tactile – on the original canvas for the art, there’s a poem by Chloe Mitchell in braille. Its first few lines: “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won’t be heard.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
67. Janet Jackson, ‘Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814’ (1989)
Eschewing a friendly, fun image more conducive to ’80s pop chart success, Janet Jackson adopted a militaristic tone for her instantly iconic black-and-white Rhythm Nation 1814 cover art. With Janet’s face only partially emerging from the shadows and her body clad in a nondescript soldier’s uniform, the artwork made label execs uneasy, but in the end, she was right. This cover photo perfectly complements the increased social consciousness of the album, and it would go on to become her most recognizable album art.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
66. Fleetwood Mac, ‘Rumours’ (1977)
Oddly enough, only 40 percent of Fleetwood Mac’s then-lineup is featured on the cover to their biggest selling album, Rumours. Only the band’s Stevie Nicks (caught mid-swirl with a shawl flowing behind her) and Mick Fleetwood (with a pair of toilet-chain balls dangling between his legs) are pictured, photographed by Herbert W. Worthington. The album was designed by Desmond Strobel, while Worthington conceived the cover concept with the band.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Reprise Records
65. T. Rex, ‘The Slider’ (1972)
Beyond Bowie, Marc Bolan was the glam rock icon, and the cover art of The Slider captures his androgynous, otherworldly appeal. The photo was taken in the midst of Ringo Starr filming his T. Rex documentary Born to Boogie, but the grainy, worn look was a happy accident that resulted from an incorrect photo development process. The effect is to make Bolan’s vampire-pale skin mirror the overexposed background, the black of his thin lips and eyes popping out like Rudy Valentino in a faded print of a silent classic. His cascading curls, which tumble out from his leather top hat, and the V-neck lead the eye down to the bold, fire-truck red T. REX lettering.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
64. Lady Gaga, ‘The Fame Monster’ (2009)
Portrait shots can be iconic when done just right, and if there’s one artist who knows about iconic imagery, it’s Lady Gaga. For the re-release of her debut The Fame, Mother Monster — framed by a wiry wig — went black and white, rocking a shiny, angular coat that shrouded the lower half of her face in this photo from Hedi Slimane.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
63. Nicki Minaj, ‘The Pinkprint’ (2014)
Nicki Minaj has always embraced her inner weirdo, extending her limbs on the cover of her debut album Pink Friday and splashing her face with paint for its sequel. But for The Pinkprint, the Harajuku Barbie tapped Kanye’s Donda for an image that borders on high art without shedding her identity, showing a fingerprint crushed into pink powder.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo
