I’ll never stop loving the beauty of a physical album. Everything gives meaning from the scent of a new vinyl, to the magic of reading the lyrics and seeing the images inside the insert, to the touch of the glossy, matte or recycled paper, and the most important factor — the cover art of the actual overall masterpiece.

Here are 25 of the best album covers of 2011. It’s easy to see in all of these artists, that there was an actual thought to the structure of not only their music but how it visually sounds. Enjoy!

Artist: The Antlers

Album: Burst Apart

Record Label: Transgression

Designer: Zan Goodman

Listen: I Don’t Want Love

Artist: Beastie Boys

Album: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

Record Label: Capitol

Designer: Mike Mills

Listen: Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (ft. Santigold)

Artist: Bill Callahan

Album: Apocalypse

Record Label: Drag City

Designer: Paul Ryan

Listen: Baby’s Breath

Artist: Bon Iver

Album: Bon Iver

Record Label: 4AD

Designer: Gregory Euclide

Listen: Perth

Artist: Braids

Album: Native Speaker

Record Label: Kanine

Designer: Marc Rimmer

Listen: Lemonade

Artist: Bright Eyes

Album: The People’s Key

Record Label: Saddle Creek

Designer: Zack Nipper

Listen: Shell Games

Artist: Coldplay

Album: Mylo Xyloto

Record Label: Capitol

Designer: Tappin Gofton

Listen: Every Tear Is A Waterfall

Artist: Cults

Album: Cults

Record Label: Columbia

Designer: Dave Bett and Jeannette Kaczorowski

Listen: Abducted

Artist: Cut Copy

Album: Zonoscope

Record Label: Modular

Designer: Alter

Listen: This Is All We’ve Got

Artist: DJ Shadow

Album: The Less You Know, The Better

Record Label: Island

Designer: Tony Papesh

Listen: Scale It Back

Artist: Explosions In The Sky

Album: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Esteben Rey

Listen: Trembling Hands

Artist: Fleet Foxes

Album: Helplessness Blues

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Toby Liebowitz, Sean Pecknold and Dusty Summers

Listen: Grown Ocean

Artist: Friendly Fires

Album: Pala

Record Label: XL

Designer: Phil Lee

Listen: Blue Cassette

Artist: Gillian Welch

Album: The Harrow & The Harvest

Record Label: Acony

Designer: John Dyer Baizley

Listen: The Way It Goes

Artist: The Horrors

Album: Skying

Record Label: XL

Designer: The Horrors and Alison Fielding

Listen: Still Life

Artist: Iron and Wine

Album: Kiss Each other Clean

Record Label: 4AD

Designer: Sam Beam

Listen: Tree By The River

Artist: Jay-Z and Kanye West

Album: Watch the Throne

Record Label: Def Jam

Designer: Riccardo Tisci

Listen: Primetime

Artist: Kasabian

Album: Velociraptor!

Record Label: Columbia

Designer: Aitor Throup at A.T. Studio

Listen: Rewired

Artist: Liam Finn

Album: Fomo

Record Label: Transgressive

Designer: Sarah Larnach Design by Anna Taylor

Listen: Cold Feet

Artist: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Album: Belong

Record Label: PIAS/Slumberland

Designer: Winston Chmielinski

Listen: Heavens Gonna Happen Now

Artist: Radiohead

Album: The King of Limbs

Record Label: XL

Designer: Stanley Donwood

Listen: Codex

Artist: The Strokes

Album: Angles

Record Label: Rough Trade

Designer: Guy Pouppez

Listen: Machu Picchu

Artist: SBTRKT

Album: Young Turks

Record Label: Rough Trade

Designer: Matt de Jong

Listen: Hold On

Artist: Vetiver

Album: The Errant Charm

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Nathaniel Russell

Listen: Can’t You Tell

Artist: Washed Out

Album: Within and Without

Record Label: Domino

Designer: Ernest Greene and Jeff Kleinsmith

Listen: Amor Fati

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..when we can’t dream any longer, we die..
artwork by royal art lodge

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happy new years eve! this is my own personal collection of my favorite songs of 2010. it was a tough decision to narrow down the best from out of 500 tracks, but the below addictions (in no particular order) seemed to take over my speakers for the most of this year. a collection of everything from indie rock, pop, r&b, soul, hip hop, electronica, and acoustics that made music in general feel good again. personally this year was a rollercoaster of happy emotions from moving to florida to starting a new line of jewelry to beginning new friendships to renewing a relationship with my own father, and sad feelings of my own health scares to feelings of uncertainty to an unfortunate loss of family members.  from the bottom of my heart, thank you to these artists who kept on inspiring the love of making and sharing beautiful sounds for those of us who truly needed it to get through this year. may 2011 bring us new special memories of music, art, love, light, and joy!

♥♥♥♥♥

artwork by natalie shau

be sure to check out some of these amazing 2010 lists: gvb, stg, mdm

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The Big Pink
Velvet (Gang Gang Dance Mix)

Metric
Gold Guns Girls (Mike Shinoda Remix)

Phoenix
1901 (Fredrick Carlsson Remix)

Bat for Lashes
Pearl’s Dream (Skreams Pour Another Glass of Champers Remix)

The Temper Trap
Sweet Disposition (Alan Wilkis Remix)

Fever Ray
When I Grow Up (Version by Lissvik)

Miike Snow
Animal (Peter Bjorn and John Remix)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)

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10. Daniel Fridholm – Daniel Fridholm May 2009. Unreleased

Some may remember Daniel Fridholm’s praising review earlier this year. Since then popular, Record of the Year-nomiated blog ‘Cosmic Disco’ has also ran features articles, and 2010 should be seeing more material.

‘I Need Green’ is a synthpop masterpiece that feels as at home under December’s darkened skies and drunken nights, as it does; picnics in the fleeting days of British summer. The middle eight would fail to get anyone popping shoulders, or shaking hips. Still a fantastic album.

LISTEN: I Need Green

9. Peter Doherty – Sheepskin Tearaway March 2009.

About four years ago I went to see some rather banal, rather dull comedy with an ex-girlfriend. A video montage begins and it is soundtracked by a beautiful guitar track that I recognized instantly. Years before that, running parallel to The Libertines, Peter Doherty had sat and recorded his own sessions in hotel rooms, in crack dens, in taxis, in pubs, and at home; demos that formed narratives throughout his life. Sheepskin Tearaway, was the song I recognized, and its inclusion instantly made me smile.

Grace/Wasteland was met to murky reception this year. Peter Doherty has the potential to be his best when he records alone, and Grace/Wasteland was a nice dip into an ocean that would keep him afloat. This album version is polished there is intentionally added reverb, rather than that achieved reverberating from his hollowed squat-walls of earlier days and his voice sounds fragile, yet with a pop edge that mothers could love him everywhere. This album only signals what is to come.

LISTEN:  Sheepskin Tearaway

8. The High Wire – Leave Me In Love Dec 2009. Grandpa Stan

The High Wire are a band who have been quietly bettering themselves and gaining recognition throughout the year.

Leave Me In Love, like a lot of their most recent material, fuses a sound akin to the americana-indiepop of Fleet Foxes, and a pop-psychedelia in a distant vein to Animal Collective. Yet with a lofi British edge to it, still breeding in the afterglow of 2008′s new folk revival. If this is progression of our strain of the genre, then I welcome it wholeheartedly.

LISTEN: Leave Me In Love

7.  Example – Watch the Sun Come Up Sep 2009.

One of the greatest tragedies this year was Example’s release date for Watch The Sun Come Up; released in a month that, retrospectively was admittedly one of our hottest of the year, ‘Watch the Sun Come Up’s September release just felt overdue. Example had written the hit of the summer, it was just four months too late.

With Balearic piano, and electro-house beats, Example’s white-rapping deep croon fits the music perfectly; who’d have known this was that rapper we loved, who use to rap over The Rolling Stones, Harry Nilsson, and Lily Allen back in the day. Equally as good, and certainly the biggest track he’s ever done.

LISTEN: Watch The Sun Come Up

6.  Jamie T – Sticks N Stones June 2009. Pacemaker Records

Working in Wimbledon this summer, a lot of songs are both synonymous both to working and summer; the tracks from the ‘Sticks ‘N’ Stones’ E.P. rest reassuredly in both those lists.

While his album delivery in 2009 was a letdown as a followup to 2007′s classic “Panic Prevention,” this little E.P. released just weeks before served as more than enough for fans. Fast-paced punk-inspired hiphop, reggae-inspired pop, and even the mellowed-out, featured here in just four tracks. ‘St. Christopher’ was the perfect for the lows, and ‘Sticks N Stones’ was perfect for the highs; triumphant E.P.

LISTEN: Sticks ‘N’ Stones

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