Actually good album covers/avatars of 2009

http://al-la.ru/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/a-camp-colonia-300x300.jpg

'avatar' is quite an apt term for these times isn't it

i love this

http://eyeslitcrypt.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/bonnie_prince_billy-beware-cover_art.jpg

(the cover, haven't heard the album)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8dscbsCesxE/SblTXbNQdHI/AAAAAAAADo8/SbfdX58Gmsw/s400/thejuanmacleancover.jpg

http://music.parrygill.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/keri-hilson-in-a-perfect-world-2-300x300.jpg

http://www.normanrecords.com/images/covers/105495.jpg

What do you like about the Keri Hilson one, rev? it seems a bit genric to me.

here's one from '09 that I dig, speaking to the point above about album covers becoming avatars, something like this

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/12702-200-million-thousand.jpg

at a much smaller size (like what you'd see on your iTunes or ipod etc...) has a different effect

http://www.baeblemusic.com/thumbnail.ashx?ImgFilePath=/images/albumreviews/200millionthousand.jpg&width=150&height=150

I don't much care for any of those, actually, but. . .

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/reviews/2009/lukid-foma.jpg

http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/cover/8/360/8639.jpg
May have come out in 2008 in a few places but whatevs.

And that's DJ Sprinkles' Midtown 120 Blues, btw.

besides being my favorite album of the year, a good cover:

http://thehurstreview.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/coward.jpg

Was going to post Midtown 120, stopped at the last moment and I have absolutely no idea why cause I think it's great.

(and I should buy that Lukid album too)

That Black Lips cover is pretty great. Just drag yr browser left and right quick and if you don't have a superfast LCD, you can see the effect in the larger version.

The Keri Hilson one (though it's a good album) is just Photoshop wank.

Wow I had no idea that was a face on the Black Lips cover. Freaky.

xp: Yeah, I'm conflicted re: the Hilson cover. On the one hand, it IS photoshop wank, indisputably. On the other, I like it a lot in spite of this.

I think the Hilson one is awful for seemingly obvious reasons. Why do you like it?

The photo of her is fine but the background and font makes it look like a Hed Kandi comp - DNW :(

http://laincreibleverdad.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/f.jpg

http://8106.tv/blog/audio/2009_02/FR/feverray.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rVZDMVadRrA/SZg4yiEsFVI/AAAAAAAAAg8/NAnV_G47BiE/s320/akron.jpg

New Akron/Family album - my promo actually has the band name/title on it which I think improves it by virtue of using a rad typeface

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y264/leviz/electrikred-howtobealady-1.jpg

i'd like it more without the red banknotey framing tho

i like the banknote framing because it a) looks like a banknote, implying money as one of the considerations for being a lady, b) looks like a picture frame, making the main image look like a scene from a victorian painting or something, which is also rather ladylike

i like most of the covers in this thread apart from a couple which are boring, and apart from the black lips one which gives me a headache. a cover that one doesn't like to look at is by defn not a good cover

All of their press shots (or the first three pages of GIS at any rate) are absolutely amazing

xp re Electrik Red

whens that gonna leak btw >:(

maybe they should be wearing banknote frocks

also the background girl really does not look like she is in those surroundings (i mean way more than the other 3)

that would be a bit too obvious, no? as it is they look like alice in wonderland characters. or, more accurately, through the looking-glass.

what is that white thing that she is stepping on, though? a newspaper? a bird's wing? uh.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NaDsR3gkp-0/SdiufSwIh6I/AAAAAAAAATY/_LRlAmnp0xQ/S240/swfwf.bmp

vile

you really find it that objectionable? best grime cover i've seen by some distance

one thing really irritating me about the A Camp one is the really bright rim of the bath on the bottom left - a more straight on angle may have been better (otoh it's good that you don't see too much of the wig holder)

All that the electrik red cover says to me about being a lady is that it involves being colonically irrigated after attempting to eat a cactus and then wiping your bum on a goose's neck.

newham generals vs midfield general

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NaDsR3gkp-0/SdiufSwIh6I/AAAAAAAAATY/_LRlAmnp0xQ/S240/swfwf.bmp http://www.edbangerrecords.com/newsletter/newsletters/25_12_08/MIDFIELD.jpg

These are mostly pretty horrible covers IMHO

http://betterpropaganda.com/images/artwork/Sometimes_I_Wish_We_Were_an_Eagle-Bill_Callahan_480.jpg

http://www.urb.com/uploads/reviews/cd_reviews/Dan_Deacon_Bromst_Carpark_Records.jpg

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music2/monotonix_cover.jpg

Goatse Fingers

http://betterpropaganda.com/images/artwork/Infinte_Light-Lightning_Dust_480.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2006/o5y2srfox2rcd5qr7r2i000.jpg

http://images.blog.edelight.de/dance-music/new/one_hell.jpg

I love good album art. I look forward to threads devoted to the decade's best (and worst) album art. In the meantime:

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/files/2009/06/ylatengo.jpg

http://betterpropaganda.com/images/artwork/WindXs_Poem-Mount_Eerie_480.jpg

http://dearlucifer.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/courtneylove.jpg

That is good. What album is it?

Courtney Love - Nobody's Daughter

http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/images/585x/TO70DS.jpg

And a 2009 EP release by the same artist:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Mrc0g2e5L._SS500_.jpg

"These are mostly pretty horrible covers IMHO"

yeah, i don't get it, is this thread supposed to be ironic?

Reining Sound, Love and Curses. Captures the feel of the album perfectly, thrift store soul.

http://static.boomkat.com/images/251161/333.jpg

http://static.boomkat.com/images/251161/333.jpg

So Courtney's going the full Marianne Faithfull route? Makes sense.

http://dearlucifer.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/courtneylove.jpg http://artandmylife.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/brokenenglish.jpg

The new SubArachnoid Space Eight Bells. Art by Stephen Kasner

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3477/3821278821_46f7edd015.jpg
(gatefold looks even better)

ones that are good: bonnie prince billy, courtney love, mount eerie, akron family, fever ray, electrik red, juan mclean.

ones that are awful and wtf those who posted them: reigning sound, yo la tengo (seriously, that font?), black lips, dj hell, newham generals, nels cline, the moore brothers.

the rest are just ok nothing special, but i could see where you're coming from. and i do kinda like the dan deacon cover.

here are some that i've found nice

http://www.iheartmusic.net/images/talfamily.jpg
http://messagetoourfolks.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/songs-of-shame-large-msg-123815885187.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-lpMaiI8d0s/SmnRIbINdfI/AAAAAAAAAv8/-SUN6F70fM0/s400/memory+cassette+-+calls+and+responses+album+cover.jpg
http://www.academyannex.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/bitters.jpg

ones that are awful and wtf those who posted them: reigning sound, yo la tengo (seriously, that font?), black lips, dj hell, newham generals, nels cline, the moore brothers.

wtf you. the dj hell one is probably my favourite on here. simple (and no more cliched than anything else on here) but striking (but not entirely sure about the yellow). i do think most of the covers posted on here are bad myself tho.

I love the cassette on the YLT sleeve but the typeface bugs me a bit too

http://pics.theendrecords.com/juliettelewis/thumbnails/2_JL_Terra_cover_sq.jpg

ironic indeed

This is the first thing on this thread that has made me go "ooh, who are they, what do they sound like?":

http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/images/585x/TO70DS.jpg

Is that really an album cover? It looks more like a picture some tourist took. The EP above of the same place looks more like an album cover because it definitely is a more creative photograph (color scheme, composition).

"Without Sinking" is an album though not an EP. It's solo cello stuff with some electronic textures. Pretty nice.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/thumbnails/posts/fiery-furnaces-im-going-away-album-art.jpg

Oh I was just taking Daniel's word for it.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/thumbnails/posts/pe-yeah-yeah-yeahs-its-blitz.jpg

some of you have terrible, awful taste

I'm sensing a divide between people who like eccentric imagery and people who are irate that the Ikea catalog is changing from Futura to Verdana. Tell me, what are your feelings about the Let it Bleed sleeve?

lol ikea haters.

the ylt sleeve is great, retards.

alot of these are pretty atrocious (are u serious abt that sub-arachnoid space???), but i dig the lightning dust (a LOT), belbury poly, memory cassette, and maybe even dan deacon

http://uploaddeimagens.com.br/imagem/ver/Demented_Retarded_-_Sisters_Menstruation.jpg

http://cdn.images.juno.co.uk/full/CS362126-01A-BIG.jpg

It's Blitz demonstrates well enough how just a good photo can make a good sleeve. at the same time this is a bit of a cop-out as not having to bother with type and make it work with imagery is a huge advantage (maybe not from a consumer pov). judging by this thread i feel like type is the hardest thing to make work/look good on a record sleeve.

favs from this thread:

a camp
dj sprinkles
fever ray
electrik red
yo la tengo
courtney love
hildur gudnadóttir

there are some pretty bad ones though. i guess i don't go for cartoon grotesquerie as much as some. and stuff like the hell cover is just kinda boring and standard, sorry steve!

don't see how the hell one can be more boring/standard than the courtney one

i wish i'd made this thread just 'covers of new releases you like, hate or find interesting in some way'

I'd like the It's Blitz! cover a lot more if the photo was better staged and lit. As it is now, it looks like something taken with a cheap camera they swiped off Flickr. xxx-post

it's the way the courtney one refers to marianne faithfull and joni mitchell as much as the photo itself, consciously positions itself in a lineage of Great Confessional Albums, which is entirely apt given what it sounds like.

plus i like that blue.

xp

Oh I was just taking Daniel's word for it.

Yeah, it's an album cover. I'll locate and post the eMusic link to it.

it's the way the courtney one refers to marianne faithfull and joni mitchell as much as the photo itself, consciously positions itself in a lineage of Great Confessional Albums, which is entirely apt given what it sounds like.

aka 'rip off', but that's fine too

judging by this thread i feel like type is the hardest thing to make work/look good on a record sleeve.

^so true - like for me w/ the Hildur Gudnadóttir one it makes a really lovely evocative photo look like it's housing some provincial emo band's self-released EP

when it's as obviously deliberate and conscious as that, not really a "rip-off", no - it's entirely apt for the album

others i like:

http://images.hitfix.com/photos/147638/maxwell-BLACKsummersnight_gallery_primary.jpg
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-1677333-1236275909.jpeg

when it's as obviously deliberate and conscious as that, not really a "rip-off", no - it's entirely apt for the album

it's not obvious until you've seen the MF cover which i hadn't before but you're judging the cover's quality almost entirely within context of a) what it's ripping off/homaging and it's supposed appropriateness there and b) the supposed quality of the record itself. which is fine but i haven't judged any of the covers i like on that basis just strictly on their/my own aesthetic terms so that's interesting.

both really boring and standard sleeves

the dj hell would be great if it wasn't for the watermarked background, the title font and the mspaint graffiti effects on his face

xpost

i like the YLT cover a lot more after reading this: http://pitchfork.com/news/36087-take-cover-yo-la-tengos-ipopular-songsi/

i like this one, it's appropriately creepy, but i expect others to differ:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sUtyx4_Y8PM/SnIn2N118jI/AAAAAAAACYY/NwkFiUhqD3g/s400/king+of+jeans.jpg

it's not obvious until you've seen the MF cover which i hadn't before but you're judging the cover's quality almost entirely within context of a) what it's ripping off/homaging and it's supposed appropriateness there and b) the supposed quality of the record itself. which is fine but i haven't judged any of the covers i like on that basis just strictly on their/my own aesthetic terms so that's interesting.

- it's a great photo anyway
- album art doesn't exist in a vacuum away from the record - the best album art for me manages to capture something of the album's essence, eg new amerykah last year, as well as being aesthetically pleasing. this might be why i'm not really feeling the YYYs cover?
- my immediate comparison was joni mitchell's blue, which is about as iconic as album art gets

other ones i like that i realize could be divisive:
http://bleckitybleck.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/swlp.jpeg
http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/thumbnails/posts/pe-st-vincent-actor.jpg
http://www.nylvi.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/blacklips_200million.jpg

The St. Vincent one needs some kind of text element.

the courtney love one reminds me of the period in the 90s where some albums would come in colored cassette cases (they might have had this for cd cases too, don't remember). the one i specifically remember was living colour's "stain," which came in a clear red case. the CL cover looks like it should be a black and white photo in a blue case.

re hell - watermarked background? all i see is flat yellow

font is fine - clear, sharp, simple, the red goes well with the yellow

rather than 'lol mspaint' i'm assuming the effect on his skin is something more complicated like the unexpected result of the photo's development - hard to tell how much thought was given or intention there is behind it ether way tho.

this was the original Pissed Jeans art, not sure why they changed to that boring one:

http://www.whitedenim.com/pissedjeans/kojposter.png

How text betters a cover:

http://i26.tinypic.com/2d7xcn7.jpg vs. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rVZDMVadRrA/SZg4yiEsFVI/AAAAAAAAAg8/NAnV_G47BiE/s320/akron.jpg

are you sure that was the original PJ cover art and not just for a poster? it wouldn't really fit well on an album cover.

going to disagree re: text on st. vincent cover, I think it's so striking and bright that the viewer is like "wtf is that?" and will seek out the info on the spine or back. text would normalize it, and not in a good way.

i'm surprised so far two people have posted that black lips cover. it's not hideous or anything, but not interesting and plus it hurts to look at. also yeah that original pissed jeans is way better than the one they actually used.

Yeah, I think the PJ thing is just promo poster art...though it's obvious the cover image was taken from the same session.

again I like the black lips cover because it fits the music, it's appropriately obnoxious but also hiding something extra

I don't think the St. Vincent cover needs mechanical in-line text or anything. But it would benefit from a more hand-scratched element, contorted to fit around the negative space.

The St. Vincent one needs some kind of text element over her face.

i actually really like album covers without text, there's something more dramatic about just having an image fill up the whole of an lp cover. too often text is just trying to awkwardly fitting itself into an already kick-ass image.

oh there's this! a single cover, not an album one, but still amazing.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BJbaPRBdOYU/SordwlHZvmI/AAAAAAAAElo/h0uPkupko0U/s400/Amerie+-+Heard+%27Em+All+(Official+Single+Cover).png

blergh

yeah that's just straight awful

i don't really like heavily stylised text on covers generally. tends to come off as trying too hard a la numerous photoshop effects.

i like the St Vincent (and the music's pretty nice too) but again so easy to approve when it's just a nice strong photo

the best album art for me manages to capture something of the album's essence, eg new amerykah last year, as well as being aesthetically pleasing

the former relies on you hearing the album tho, to judge - and chance, as the designer won't in most cases hear the album before creating the cover so intentions beyond just competence and style don't matter much to me. the main reason i like the new amerykah cover is just because it's an impressive, powerful illustration both in concept and execution.

the font lets the amerie one down but the pose is amazing

again I like the black lips cover because it fits the music, it's appropriately obnoxious but also hiding something extra

yeah, the illusion is sorta neat. i could only make out the face when i saw a reduced version of the image, though. full scale and my eyes just start bleeding.

the former relies on you hearing the album tho, to judge

well...the best album art makes me want to hear the album, like k8 said about the hildur gudnardottir one. b/c if it sounds like the cover looks, it'll be interesting.

http://www.bbemusic.com/images/large/bbe128_comp_cover.jpg

Text placement too deep in the image and the font is too modern.

yeah.

http://thehurstreview.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/crying-light.jpg

what do you think of this lettering + image?

http://bigcartel.com/accounts/1/37309/1439477/Immagine_1.jpg

Bradock's is the cover i most want to be in

xp to Scott - that's great.

I really like the WTFness of the Bradock cover.

it seems like the 'no text' trend is growing maybe as part of the 'avatars not covers' thing

the font lets the amerie one down but the pose is amazing

No, her armpit looks weird.

When the PJ album was first announced it was a normal LP shaped snapshot of what is now the foldout full art/poster.
And then they changed it to just the arm.

Amerie: Beard Em All

indie crossover time?

so when do we get to the actually good ones

i like no text on covers usually. i like pure image. has the internet killed the album cover? soooo many stock photos of empty fields and/or mountain ranges. or is everyone just a big black metal fan now. even the whimsical stuff just seems forced or kinda dumb. i do like that antony cover. it's striking.

see, that's the thing. there are sooooo many bad covers that its hard to even tell what the good ones are.

http://cdn.images.juno.co.uk/full/CS346415-01A-BIG.jpg

http://onethirtybpm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/wilco_album_390.jpg

the Wilco one is truly awful. as if they've tried to do some sort of 70s proggish concept thing but it doesn't work.

ha i do like the wilco cover

can we change the ILM board description to "guys, not everything is prog"

http://thepostfamily.com/uploaded_files/community_post_images/751/thumbnail_bibio.jpg

mysterious red door

this was probably my fave album art of the year:

http://www.distractionrecords.com/media/images/releases/dist19/dist19-xlarge-front.jpg

http://www.distractionrecords.com/media/images/releases/dist19/dist19-xlarge-back.jpg

um, but it looks horrible on this page, sadly.

that's great

you can see it better here:

http://www.distractionrecords.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94

blues control - local flavor

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/bluescontrol.jpg

btw on the pissed jeans vinyl the arm is the front cover and the girl with the candy bar is the back

Amerie looks like she has a massive dong in that cover.

goddamn that blues control is gorgeous.

Really like the bibio one.

I friggin hate the Bibio artwork - I wrote a (pretty) long review of it a while back and spent ages going on about how dumb it was and WTF was he/Warp thinking

What does the artwork have to do with a review of the album?

the Bibio might also have one of the worst album titles of the year

http://images.blog.edelight.de/dance-music/new/one_hell.jpg

Considering that Hell has remixed Grace Jones, the cover of Teufelswerk must be a reference of this one:

http://static.blogstorage.hi-pi.com/travelblogg.se/s/sk/skivomslag/images/gd/1205759619.jpg

Plus the "cut paper" technique used in Hell's jacket reminds me of this:

http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/71/Gracejonesmyjamaicanguy.jpg

y'know, that really could've gone in the "cover connections" thread, dude

Why couldn't discuss similarities/references in covers in this thread, if we spot them? It was done upthread with the Courtney Love/Marianne Faithfull connection, and no one was complaining.

"why couldn't we"

2nding the Local Flavor cover, love it.

tbh i didn't realize that the Hell cover had been posted in the thread already, i thought you were introducing it into the thread w/ that post. either way, nothing to say you can or can't do anything, it just makes a lot more sense to post that kind of thing in the thread established for exactly that.

xpost

woah thread police

there is definitely a paler shade of yellow in the dj hell cover. i do like the portrait of hell, but the rest of the design just screams 2003 to me

like this too.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_q39C-KJX7k8/SnDJ1UeJ0yI/AAAAAAAAAiw/Qqb8yu94hwo/s400/9065.jpg

lol sorry like i said if i'd noticed it upthread i wouldn't have said anything xpost

^What is that one? I like it too.xpost

as far as outdoor photography goes, this is pretty good:

http://www.twistedmusic.com/images/news/TWSCD36_final.jpg

"^What is that one? I like it too.xpost"

nurse with wound - surveillance lounge

I friggin hate the Bibio artwork - I wrote a (pretty) long review of it a while back and spent ages going on about how dumb it was and WTF was he/Warp thinking

What are your specific objections? Seems like nice ink drawing. (The title is bad, I agree.)

lol i didn't notice your second post, sorry

not sure if this counts but i like it:

http://s44.radikal.ru/i104/0904/7c/12d184c0db62.jpg

that nurse cover is great

<img>http://static.boomkat.com/images/221167/333.jpg<;/img>

Don't know anything about the band other than they're on ITR, but when I saw this CD in the store I had to look back a bunch of times. Something about the way the text is laid out made it really jump out of the jewel box.

duh
http://static.boomkat.com/images/221167/333.jpg

^i have a single of theirs which is pretty good

multiple xposts to jaymc (sorry, went out earlyish last night) - yeah it's a 'nice' drawing but nothing special in itself, and combined with the title and the type of music on the album has the effect of almost willing you to expect pleasant mediocrity. It's like the quote-unquote folktronica equivalent of those shitty Bargrooves comp CDs, or Hed Kandi or whatever, except at least you can figure out how/why stuff like that is trying to convey a lifestyle... I just cannot fathom what he's trying to say by having that on the cover

http://www.tomentosarecords.com/xzpcsddd.jpg

http://stereogum.com/img/thumbnails/posts/spiral-stairs-the-real-feel.jpg

http://deadsoundmusic.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/oneida-rated-o.jpg

Oh, I was gonna say. About the Spiral Stairs font -- I think it's the Family Ties font.

what's that, psychgawspie? and is there a bigger jpeg of it?

I liked the Danae vibe of this Delorean EP:

http://www.galacollette.com/site_media_galacollette/cms_images/serie_img/delorean____.jpg

http://www.mbvmusic.com/images/hornet-leg-ribbon-of-fear.jpg

lol
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music2/harmarcover.jpg

Actually existing album covers

http://files.list.co.uk/images/2009/08/19/jim-orourke-lp-LST066062.jpg

LP especially.

I quite like the covers on the series of Audion releases this year. In chronological order:

http://static.ghostly.com/images/artists/5/albums/257/SPC-69_300.jpg
http://static.ghostly.com/images/artists/5/albums/258/SPC-70_3002.jpg
http://static.ghostly.com/images/artists/5/albums/266/SPC-77_300x300.jpg
http://static.ghostly.com/images/artists/5/albums/268/SPC-76_300x300.jpg

what's that, psychgawspie? and is there a bigger jpeg of it?

― send a hilarious message or make a "wild" statement (Whitey on the Moon), Monday, September 14, 2009 8:35 PM (2 weeks ago)

it's james ferraro - heaven's gate (i found a larger jpeg but it looks not so good). he's the dude from the skaters, all of the releases on their pacific city and new age tapes labels have a similar xeroxed, b+w look on the cover...

http://www.tomentosarecords.com/xzpcssf.jpg
http://www.tomentosarecords.com/xzpcss.jpg
http://www.tomentosarecords.com/jvnajrvdkva.jpg

http://static.boomkat.com/images/253356/333.jpg

i like this one. good album, too.

congratulations to the smoke monster from 'lost' on his new solo album

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XoXuOfPJEyM/SqYTBJ2EfhI/AAAAAAAAApk/j40_3cHZsdQ/s320/six-organs-luminous-night.jpg

http://static.boomkat.com/images/226570/333.jpg

sorry if this is huge, but I think it's awesome. The actual booklet comes on amazing glossy stock.

ihttp://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa291/no_face_2007/Cover_eMEGO094_itunes.jpg

doh that style of linking images was two ILMs ago

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa291/no_face_2007/Cover_eMEGO094_itunes.jpg

This is Ballads by Ekkehard Ehlers and Paul Wirkus.

http://illegaltagteam.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/333.jpg

^luv it

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61TDezABVOL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

it looks like he has a tumour.

Can't say any of these really grab me: http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/nominations.html

I love the art on the Baroness album.

Nice enough to make me want to buy it without hearing a note of it.

It would probably help if you could click on the weeny thumbnails on that site and see the covers in non-weeny thumbnail size, esp considering how many of them are richly coloured and detailed paintings etc

http://messagetoourfolks.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/shrinebuildercoverfront.jpg

Here's a bigger view of 10 of the nominations:

http://flavorwire.com/50276/what-are-the-top-10-vinyl-covers-of-2009

That Hours cover looks like some cutout-bin 1992 baggy band. But a famous person did it, so I guess it's good.

Of the ones I've heard, Baroness and Fever Ray do the best of aligning with the sounds inside. And actually having good sounds inside.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9999/realestatej.jpg

and also

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9790/00panthaduprincebehindt.jpg