20 Best Album Covers Of 2021

If this was an original artwork, it would be first without question. No offense to any of the artists that worked on a cover this year: there would’ve been no shame in being outshined by a genius.

The enigmatic Mach-Hommy, one of the most exciting members of the Griselda-led new wave of East Coast boom bap, delivered with Pray For Haiti what’s possibly his best work yet. As for the cover, there aren’t many better choices, for an album that’s so immersed in Haitian culture, than to pay tribute to Jean-Michel Basquiat, the most acclaimed Haitian-American artist of all time. The artwork is a play on one of his untitled paintings, with the character being transformed into Mach himself (see the red bandana over his mouth?)

Being an imitation (in painting that’s not a pejorative), this one can’t take credit for the transcendent innovation of the style it attempts to emulate. But it’s nonetheless an elegant cover, technically skillful and full of meaning.