20 Best Album Covers Of 2021

20. Chemtrails Over The Country Club - Lana Del Rey

Having just poked fun at Adele’s, it may be weird to start this list with someone whose album covers have also been, for the most part, rather indifferent. While Lana Del Rey undeniably has a poet’s ear for a well-written lyric, it’s not that obvious that she has a painter’s eye for a nice artwork.

Yet, this seemingly dull cover does come alive when listening to the album. It’s exactly the type of photograph every song seems to have been written melancholically sighing over.

You can vividly imagine Del Rey stumbling upon a similar photo in an old magazine and finding in it all the inspiration needed for her Norman !*$% Rockwell follow-up: the '60s setting would get her thinking about Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and other idols of hers from that era, hence triggering other nostalgic music memories; the appearance of a simpler time when it was all white dresses and smiling country club housewives would fuel her escapist imagination; the midwestern vibe would go brilliantly with an album she wanted to be “Midwestern-sounding”, and all-in-all, this picture would be the perfect visual companion to her work, as she continues to write her ever more important chapter in the great Americana songbook.

Before you engage with the album, this cover is meh. Afterwards, you feel like it’s the only possible one.