The 10 best album covers of 2025
The album cover never used to be important. Some artists like Woody Guthrie just put their name on the front, meanwhile The Beatles early work simply showed pictures of The Fab Four. My, how things have changed.
It may well have been The Beatles who ushered in the change when it came to album covers. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band comes to mind almost immediately, not just as a memorable image but as something which gave the viewer insight into the record before they had even dropped the needle. Pair that with The White Album which was equally as vital but in the sense that it didn’t give anything away as opposed to giving too much away.
Bands lean into one of these extremes when they are trying to think of an album cover. They either go with something that gives the listener an insight into the music before they’ve pressed play, or they give nothing away so people go into the record not knowing anything. Both approaches work, and year upon year, both approaches give us some truly beautiful album art. 2025 is no different.
From rap to rock to pop, there has been a lot of gorgeous cover art, and we at Far Out have collated a list of our ten favourites. They say a picture speaks 1000 words, but we’ve assigned around 150 to each. Happy viewing!
The best albums covers of 2025
Larry June, 2 Chainz & The Alchemist- ‘Life Is Beautiful’
What a change of pace this was for 2 Chainz, but a welcome one at that. The rapper who has previously gained notoriety for his ability to make party music went for a much more laid back approach when teaming up with Larry June and The Alchemist on Life Is Beautiful. The whole thing sounds like a sunset, and it makes for one of the best rap albums of 2025.
So, how do you condense this luscious sound into an image? Well, the trio do incredibly well. Life Is Beautiful has a cover which uses a lot of negative space, given the majority of the image is simply made up of the sea. The only deviation from this constant is the boat gliding over the waves. It’s pretty minimalist, but it manages to portray the sound of the record incredibly well, and makes for a really gorgeous photo.
Little Simz – ‘Lotus’
Lotus may well be one of Little Simz ‘most versatile and encompassing albums. Every style of music which she has previously championed can be heard at some point on her most recent record, and it makes for a truly compelling listen.
Given how much is happening on this record and how varied it comes across, it was no doubt difficult choosing what to put on the cover, and Simbi opted for the less is more approach. The grey background with the subtle flower and touch of pink make for something great to look at and don’t impose a sound on the listener. It leaves the inside of the album open to interpretation and lets you go into the record with a clear mind.
Mogwai – ‘The Bad Fire’
Mogwai’s music has never been easy to put into words. The band are arguably one of the biggest shoegaze outfits on the planet, and they continue to excel in this realm by making albums like The Bad Fire. With hardly any lyrics on the album and just a general vibe that carries itself throughout the LP, it’s hard to assign a picture, but the cartoon-like choice put forward by the band is an exceptional offering.
This is an album cover that looks like it could be used on the front of a graphic novel. With a colour scheme ripped straight from the dominion of the comic book, the idea of expansive epicness is plonked right into the listeners head before a guitar has so much as being strummed. How do you take such an undefineable sound and define it with an image? Don’t ask me, ask Mogwai.
Wet Leg – ‘Moisturizer’
There are a lot of covers on this list which will be credited because they manage to encapsulate the sound of an album, but Wet Leg’s Moisturizer isn’t one of them. Simply put, this album cover makes the cut because anything that can elicit such an emotional reaction of skepticism and intrigue deserves some kind of plaudit.
Wet Leg had a hard task ahead of themselves when they started working on their second album. The debut was incredibly well received, and there were a lot of people wondering whether they were just one hit wonders. They proved all those doubters wrong with this astronomical offering, which this writer believes trumps their first outing. Pair the music with the creepy / intriguing cover and you’re onto a winner.
Wolf Alice – ‘The Clearing’
Out of all of the album covers in the world, this humble critic believes the greatest on offer is Patti Smith’s Horses, and it’s not just because I share a last name with the photographer (no relation by the way… unfortunately). The reason why this album stands out so much is because it manages to capture the effortlessness and effort that goes into being a rockstar. I think there is something to be said in the simplicity of just having an album cover be a photo of the artist, so long as it’s shot right, it can really get to the heart of a good record.
While I don’t think Wolf Alice’s cover is quite as good as Patti Smiths, the things I like about both of them overlap. A bit more shadowing and effects on the modern indie rockers offering, sure, but at the heart of this artwork is a rockstar, in her prime, looking effortlessly cool while putting in all the effort of being a performer. I love it, and while some might think it’s a touch simple for a place on this list, I believe it’s one of the best offerings of the year.
Jeffrey Lewis – ‘The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis’
Before you look into his actual songs, the thing which Jeffrey Lewis does incredibly well is straddle the line between serious and silly. His ability to tap into what’s real but also crack some jokes in his music and keep things light hearted is incredibly difficult but he makes it look easy. During an interview with Far Out, Lewis said that he is always trying to straddle this line. “I don’t like getting too mopey, and I don’t like getting too silly,” he said, “Both things are annoying to me.”
Lewis occupies that grey area wonderfully on his album The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis, which is a great ode to Bob Dylan and the numerous other folk performers who have previously been an influence to him. The cover somehow captures all of this, showing him naked and walking down the streets of New York, vulnerable in the city that started this new-age folk movement, but with a smile on his face and laughing, the heart of the album is captured in one simple photo.
The Diasonics – ‘Ornithology’
This Moscow-based instrumental band are playing into what is, as many think, a relatively lost art: the soundtrack album. As Far Out said in their review of the band’s album Ornithology, the album “transports listeners back to a time when library albums were at their most innovative, experimental, and, crucially, funky.”
When creating an album that doesn’t necessarily have a huge theme running through it and instead is a representation of innovative soundtrack music, it’s always going to be hard to put together a cover; however, what The Diasonics came up with was a real stroke of beauty. A fairly simple image but something deeply beautiful, the contrasting colours and popping style is as much a treat for the eyes as the music is for the ears. You don’t need binoculars to appreciate this one.
Deafheaven – ‘Lonely People With Power’
Who doesn’t love a good contrast here and there? Deafheaven played into their black metal roots on their most recent record Lonely People With Power. The album was incredibly heavy but also combined a range of different styles, as not only did they just use their thrashing sound to create a sense of chaos, but they implemented shoegaze-esque techniques to layer the sound much more effectively.
That being said, even though the music is incredibly heavy, the cover doesn’t give off the image of an evidently thrashy album. The spikes and difficult to read writing are nowhere to be seen, instead, it’s an incredibly striking image that looks like it’s pedalling a totally different sound. This cover is something to obsess over and makes any vinyl selection look like a work of art.
The Last Dinner Party – ‘From The Pyre’
The Last Dinner Party had one of the hardest jobs in music this year: the tricky second album. How do you follow up a classic like Prelude to Ecstasy so soon after it’s been released? Well, it turns out, you just lean into everything that made the initial album great and ramp it up even more.
This applied to the music but also to the band’s album cover. Embracing a medieval, fantasy, folklore style, The Last Dinner Party managed to tell a story with their LP before a second of music had even been played. Every glimpse at the cover seems to reveal something new as this mythical tapestry is constantly unveiling new gems.
Pulp – ‘More’
When Pulp announced that they were releasing new music, it was met with excitement and trepidation. Excitement because it’s always exciting seeing what Pulp have in the locker, but trepidatious because a lot of bands who reunite after a long time fall flat when it comes to putting together their new record. Happily, More was an instant classic, and people seemed to know that the moment they saw the beautiful cover.
Jarvis Cocker seemed to receive so much attention because of the landscape image on the cover that he took to social media to give fans the full backstory behind the image. “The photo was taken by yours truly at ten past 3 on the afternoon of July 15th 2024 near a place called Kerlingarfjöll in Iceland,” he explained, “Not even a year ago.”
