Choosing the best album covers from a single twelvemonth's worth of releases is a hard plenty job, but information technology'southward aught compared to creating an album cover that stands out. Artists and the creatives they hire need to find a meaningful balance betwixt fine art and commerce; not only exercise they have to create an instantly-recognizable image that can grab the attention of consumers and exist repurposed beyond a whole spectrum of marketing materials, but they also demand to represent the artist'southward musical point of view on a very loftier level. The best album art of 2015 includes images both straightforward and abstract, intricate and uncomplicated, some with real-life counterparts, like Travi$ Scott's Rodeo, and some with video components, like Björk'due south Vulnicura. Most of the artists whose covers made our top 15 were central to the concepts employed and the creation of the visuals that anchor their music.

Get to know The All-time Album Covers of 2015 and their stories below.

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15. Jamie xx, In Colour

Release date: May 29, 2015
Photography: N/A
Art direction: Jamie xx
Designer: Jamie twenty
Label: Young Turks

Though Jamie xx'sIn Color album cover is minimal and reminiscent of his previous LP and single covers, he explained its poignant meaning in an interview earlier this year. He says, "I design all my stuff, so I concluded upwardly designing the album encompass for In Color. I wanted to accept a spectrum of colors to correspond all the records I put out previously, and considering the anthology has a lot of different shades on it." He adds that there is a connection to The xx'due south artwork, as well: "I also wanted to have black and white in there, and so the flip side of the vinyl is gonna be a black logo, and the frontside is white. That represents the 2 The xx albums. Romy designed the 'x' for The 20, and I just fabricated i leg of the 'x' for my artwork. It'southward quite simple."

14. Erykah Badu, But You Caint Use My Phone

Release date: November 27, 2015
Photography: N/A
Art direction: Unknown
Designer: Unknown
Characterization: Motown / Control Freaq

Though the artist behind Erykah Badu's But Yous Caint Utilise My Phone remains unknown, the comprehend has a very clear relationship to the album'southward humorous commentary on our telephone-dependent culture. The anthology's press release stated that "each song makes reference to telephones and our own reliance on staying inter-connected," and vocal titles like "Dial'afreaq," "Whats Yo Phone Number," and "Mr. Phone Human being" drive home the indicate that phones are not only our means for instant communication and information, just likewise for consuming music.

13. Lana Del Rey, Honeymoon

Release date: September 17, 2015
Photography: Chuck Grant
Art direction: N/A
Designer: Unknown
Label: Interscope

Lana Del Rey's Honeymoon album embrace was photographed by her sister, Chuck Grant, who has captured many of Del Rey'due south iconic photographs over the years. In speaking of the process of getting to this final image, Del Rey says via Instagram, "The pictures were perfect, but something was missing. Perchance it was the need for movement and motility or the search for a single frame that felt extra graphic." She adds, "When Neil [Krug], Chuck, Stella and I took an chance through Bel Air by way of speeding Sunset Boulevard in a topless bus, something just clicked—and then we got those gorgeous frames all three of us were looking for." Neil Krug, who photographed the encompass for Ultraviolence, shot the alternate cover that was available exclusively at Urban Outfitters.

12. Brodinski, Brava

Release appointment: March 2, 2015
Photography: N/A
Fine art direction: Le Artistic Sweatshop
Designer: Le Creative Sweatshop and Adulte Adulte
Label: Bromance / Parlophone France

For his Brava album artwork, Brodinski commissioned the French artist commonage Le Artistic Sweatshop, who also collaborated with designers Adulte Adulte on the anthology's typography. Brodinski's face is in the center, anchoring distorted bottles, bubbles, glass, and smoke. Information technology has a futuristic aesthetic and seems graphically continued to Brodinski's "U.s.a." video, where Brodinski blissfully parties on his own in China.

11. Grimes, Fine art Angels

Release date: November 6, 2015
Photography: Northward/A
Art management: Grimes
Designer: Grimes
Label: 4AD

Throughout the atomic number 82-up to Grimes' newest album, Art Angels, she's made it clear that she does everything on her own, from her songwriting to her production to her videos. 2 months ago, Grimes first shared the encompass for Art Angels on Instagram, letting people know that, yes, she as well made that herself. In a documentary about the making of the album, Grimes says, "Grimes as one person cannot correspond more a couple ideas. That's why some of the other characters are really abstract from who I am or how I am." The comprehend and its humorous $100,000,000 cost tag foreshadow the many characters Grimes explores musically on the anthology.

x. Rihanna, Anti

Release date: TBD
Photography: North/A
Fine art direction: Rihanna and Roy Nachum
Painter: Roy Nachum
Label: Roc Nation

In early October, Rihanna held an event in Los Angeles where she debuted the cover art for her forthcoming anthology, Anti. She introduced the artist, Roy Nachum, who after explained to Vanity Fair that the title of the artwork itself is If They Let United states, Part I, and that the image is meant to depict Rihanna equally a young girl with a crown covering her optics. The cover also has braille on it, following the unmarried covers for "FourFiveSeconds" and "BBHMM," and Nachum says that he spent a week blindfolded to achieve the total artistic vision for the Anti cover and his continued "Blind" painting series. Nachum adds, "Sometimes we're running in the world of today, but nosotros're running after achievement, after accomplishment. The crown is oversized and covering what we're supposed to meet. We can't see the success."

9. Tyler, the Creator, Cherry Bomb

Release appointment: August thirteen, 2015
Photography: Marker Peckmezian
Fine art direction: Phil Toselli and Tyler, the Creator
Designer: Phil Toselli and Tyler, the Creator
Characterization: Odd Future / RED

Tyler, the Creator went big for his latest album, Cherry Bomb, which featured Lil Wayne and Kanye W on the same vocal ("SMUCKERS") and drew inspiration from N.Due east.R.D. and Stevie Wonder. The anthology has five covers total, which were shipped out randomly from online retailers. Tyler explained the illustrations on the multiple covers on Instagram, saying that the aesthetic came from his drawings on people's faces in random magazines. With the help of photographer Marker Peckmezian and designer Phil Toselli, Cherry Bomb'southward album covers go on the growing legacy of Tyler's graphics that are simultaneously humorous, shocking, and captivating.

viii. Fetty Wap, Fetty Wap

Release date: September 25, 2015
Photography: Diwang Valdez
Art management: Virgilio Tzaj
Designer: Virgilio Tzaj
Label: RGF / 300

Fetty Wap fabricated a bold motion to bear witness his left eye socket on his debut anthology embrace. In previous interviews, Fetty revealed that he but has one middle due to congenital glaucoma when he was younger. His openness fifty-fifty inspired a child to remove his prosthetic centre, to which Fetty responded, "I'chiliad proud of Jayden and I appreciate him more than he may know." He added, "I've been talked virtually my whole entire life. The only difference now is they're maxim good things about the guy with i eye."

7. Björk,Vulnicura

Release engagement: January xx, 2015
Photography: Inez & Vinoodh
Fine art direction: Björk and Andrew Thomas Huang
Designer: M/M (Paris)
Label: 1 Piffling Indian / Megaforce / Sony

Björk released both "still" and "moving" album covers for her newest album, Vulnicura. The still version was photographed past longtime collaborators Inez & Vinoodh, and the moving version was filmed by Andrew Thomas Huang, who also co-directed Björk'south "Black Lake" music video, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. In an interview with the New York Times, one of Björk's friends notes that her utilize of yellow on the Vulnicura cover art, in videos, and, recently, in her vesture, comes from her association between the color and "healing and transformation." Every bit fans know, while recording the album, Björk went through song chord surgery and separated from her ex-husband, the artist Matthew Barney. In both covers, Björk's breast has burst open; in the moving version, information technology's sewn back together and heals so that she can blossom back into the world.

half-dozen. Drake, If You lot're Reading This It's Too Late

Release engagement: February 13, 2015
Photography: N/A
Art direction: Jim Joe
Designer: Jim Joe
Characterization: Cash Coin / Young Money / OVO Sound / Republic

Drake commissioned the bearding graffiti creative person Jim Joe to create the viral anthology embrace for his surprise release, If Y'all're Reading This, Information technology'southward Also Late. Though Jim Joe had done piece of work for OVO article of clothing in the past, including the illustration of the number "6," this was the first time he had collaborated with Drake on a widely seen project. The unmistakable handwriting that Jim Joe used, recognizable from his tags all over the East Village in New York, was soon turned funny "If Yous're Reading This" memes online, reminding us of Drake's continued resonance in culture beyond music alone. In Oct, Jim Joe collaborated on a piece with Drake for W Magazine's almanac "Art Issue."

5. FKA twigs, M3LL155X

Release date: August thirteen, 2015
Photography: Matthew Stone
Art direction: FKA twigs and Matthew Stone
Designer: Matthew Rock
Label: Young Turks

FKA twigs' M3LL155X EP was released by surprise just over a year after her debut album, LP1, came out. While the encompass of LP1 depicted twigs' equally if she were a hobbling doll, M3LL155X shows her manus pushing through her own face. Photographed and designed by the artist Matthew Stone, who put the formerly unknown twigs on the cover of i-D in 2012, information technology is a jarring fusion of trunk parts. While speaking about working with twigs on the cover, Stone toldArtNews: "I think what's amazing about working with twigs is I don't feel like I'm a visual artist coming in, and I'm just giving the visual bit, and she'southward trusting me to practise that. It really is a visual collaboration. She's very much engaged in every part of that." Of the cover concept, and how it relates to piece of work he has done in this style before, Rock adds, "Our bodies are the most solid physical example of what we know to be our own. In that location is something interesting in making imagery where, at least when you lot read it, you question if there is a moment where people go beyond the trunk as we know it. You lose sight of that of individuality that pervades then much of the style that we retrieve well-nigh things."

four. A$AP Rocky, At. Long. Last. A$AP

Release date: May 26, 2015
Photography: Dexter Navy
Art direction: Awge
Designer: Awge
Label: A$AP Worldwide / Polo Grounds / RCA A$AP

Rocky revealed the embrace art for At. Long. Last. A$AP in early on May, and many immediately recognized information technology as a tribute to the late A$AP Yams, who died earlier this twelvemonth. Yams was an instrumental part of Rocky's career and is still credited equally executive producer on At. Long. Last. A$AP. Past transposing Yams' facial birthmark and cantankerous tattoo onto Rocky's face up, the cover is both an ode to Yams by Rocky and for the fans who mourn him, too.

3. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly

Release engagement: March 15, 2015
Photography: Denis Rouvre
Art direction: Vlad Sepetov, Kendrick Lamar, and Dave Free
Designer: Vlad Sepetov
Label: Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope

In an interview with Mass Appeal , Kendrick Lamar explained that the men in the powerful photograph on the cover of To Pimp A Butterfly , staged outside The White House, are friends from Compton who he grew up with and rapped about on his debut album. The white human being on the ground is a guess. Lamar says, "You wait at these individuals, and you look at them as bad people or a menace to society, just they're actually expert people, only a product of their environment. Simply God tin can judge these individuals right here—non no one with a gavel handing out numbers of years and non giving these kids a chance at life. Every due north**** is a star." Lamar and Dave Free came upward with the concept, which was photographed past Denis Rouvre and designed by Vlad Sepetov.

2. Travi$ Scott, Rodeo

Release appointment: September 4, 2015
Photography: Kevin Amato
Fine art direction: Kevin Amato and Dan Chung
Designer: Dan Chung
Label: Grand Hustle / Epic

Travi$ Scott tapped photographer Kevin Amato to shoot his anthology comprehend, Rodeo, with an action figure made in the likeness of Travi$ himself (which is for auction on his website). Of the concept, Amato said says, "People were flying this doll, it felt human at ane betoken...[Travi$] wanted it to be able to fit in the trucks and cars, sit adjacent to Barbie in a Corvette." Amato adds, "It'due south hard to find someone to shoot a doll and not arrive corny or cheap or be able to bring this to life. Rodeo is the world you enter once you get the album. Just every bit it evolves, and you see the packaging and the visuals within, it makes sense." The utilise of a doll, and the sullen, grainy paradigm that captures it, adds some other dimension to Travi$' already mysterious identity and origin story.

1. Ty Dolla $ign, Free TC

Release date: November thirteen, 2015
Photography: Jory Cordy
Art direction: Virgilio Tzaj
Designer: Virgilio Tzaj
Label: Taylor Gang / Pu$haz Ink / Atlantic

It's special when an creative person can dedicate an unabridged project to someone or something that embodies the motivation or inspiration backside creating a trunk of work. For Ty Dolla $ign, Complimentary TC is defended to his younger blood brother who is currently incarcerated (and as well featured on the song "Miracle/Wherever"). Though the album has big-proper noun guests and covers a range of topics lyrically—partying, lust, and separation, among them—it's Ty's singing and production that make the album such a full, expressive argument that goes across his radio hits. The cover shows Ty talking to his blood brother on the phone with tattooed knuckles that read "Gratis TC" pressed up confronting the prison glass. Ty's face is slightly out of focus; in a way, he represents others who have to speak to family members they've lost to the prison system through a barrier. It's a powerful cover fabricated even more meaningful by the fact that Ty Dolla $ign first shared the tracklisting for the album through a telephone conversation he recorded with his blood brother.