20 classic album covers we would frame

We might as well get this one out of the way early, since it's perhaps one of the most iconic covers of all time. Sure, you won't win any awards for originality if you hang this one up on your wall, but that shouldn't take away from the understated brilliance of the album cover. The design was pioneered by the late, great Storm Thorgerson, the man responsible for the vast majority of Pink Floyd's amazing record designs, in addition to album covers for Led Zeppelin, 10cc and many others. Chances are, if you love an album cover, it was designed by Storm Thorgerson. So, in the interest of fairness, we'll try and limit his involvement in this list — not to diminish his brilliance, but to shine the spotlight on other designers as well.

Though he is perhaps best known for the cover of "Velvet Underground & Nico," Andy Warhol designed dozens of album covers in his day. And though they're all wonderful pieces of art (especially his cover for the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers"), this slick album cover for Thelonious Monk stands above the others with its unique and abstract style.

Both "Aquemini" and "ATLiens" feature beautiful and dynamic hand-drawn artwork, but the comic book style of "ATLiens" makes it really stand apart. From touches like the issue number and pricing to the logo at the top left, down to Big Boi's Braves cap, this cover proves once again that OutKast is always about a decade ahead of its time.

Sure, many will point to the amazing "Are You Experienced?" album as Hendrix's most iconic, but the fact remains that the album cover for "Axis: Bold as Love" is one of the greatest of all time. Obviously inspired by religious paintings, the cover is visually striking and would look as much at home in a museum as it would hung up on the wall of a college dorm.

In addition to being one of today's best artists, Janelle Monáe has absolutely knocked it out of the park with her album covers since her debut back in 2007. Though "Metropolis" has great artwork in its own right, her follow-up, "The ArchAndroid," surpasses it. Inspired by movies like, well, "Metropolis," and art-deco expressionism and futurism, the cover pops and crackles with energy. It also makes me want to play through "BioShock" again.

Though this design is, of course, one of the more iconic album covers ever produced, its history is perhaps even more interesting. Wikipedia notes that the cover image was sourced from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy. In short, the album cover is a visual representation of consecutive pulses from PSR B1919+21, the first pulsar star ever discovered. Even more impressive, this idea was birthed from the band itself, not an outside designer. Well done.

It's fitting that one of the best hip-hop albums of all time has one of the best album covers as well. It's obviously inspired by a B-movie/"Star Wars"/"Twilight Zone" aesthetic, and the effect is stunning.

This album cover is a lesson in symbiosis. Though, on its face, the combination of a picture of a man smashing a guitar to smithereens and bright pastel colors might seem a little off, they come together in this album cover to become more than the sum of their parts. It's also very fitting as a Clash album cover, given how the band blended both ska and punk sensibilities.

Greatest hits albums usually feature some slick-looking photo of the band to serve as the cover. Heart must have viewed that as a major cop-out, instead opting to feature a beautifully painted Rene Magritte-style piece of art to serve as the album's cover.

Speaking of album covers that art history buffs should love, the iconic album cover for Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" actually began as an old postcard. Per Diffuser.fm, designer Chris Bilheimer cropped and edited a postcard of happy swimmers, notably pasting a drum over the head of the central woman, giving the entire cover a certain direness that is not present in the source image.

A boom box, a Nintendo DS, a denim wallet, an NES cartridge, designer glasses: These are a few of Lupe Fiasco's favorite things. The manga-inspired cover of his breakthrough album, "Food & Liquor," as a kind of modern self-portrait, full of all of these tokens that are important to Lupe, is worthy of framing.

Not only is it one of the most classic album covers ever, but Nirvana's cover for "Nevermind" is also a masterclass in photography and visual composition. Fitting for an album that changed the face of music for years to come.

Though the songs on "Fragile" aren't as well-remembered as those on, say, "Close to the Edge" or "The Yes Album," the album has become iconic for its incredible artwork. Though many Yes albums feature sweeping, impossible and fantastical landscapes, the  image of a Da Vinci-esque flying machine traversing a beautiful blue-green planet stands apart. It's stunning.

Kanye West's transcendent album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" could presumably be on this list six times. In addition to the "ballerina" cover, the album was also available in other variants, one with a sexually explicit painting and another with the same painting pixelated and blurred. The album also included, as inserts, four other pieces of art inspired by the album — some impressionist; some cubist; some futurist; and each dreamlike, terrifying and beautiful.

Patterson Hood's southern rock outfit's second album is not only an epic sonic experience, but its album art is notable in its own right. Evoking images of old Grimm's fairy tales — at once fantastical and foreboding — the album art echoes the dramatic themes of the record. Somewhat more impressively, it stands alone as an art piece in its own right.

Viewed as a piece of artwork, this iconic Beatles album cover displays classic photo compositing techniques to create an image that is very much in keeping with the popular post-modern art of the day (even if it was a bit behind the curve). And though the image is visually... busy, to put it mildly, close viewers will find lots to love here.

Most of the time, when an album cover is simply an image of the artist or band, the cover ends up being forgotten. Not so with David Bowie. And though other album covers ("Low," "Lodger," "Heroes" and "Ziggy Stardust," in particular) feature striking images of Bowie, the cover of "Aladdin Sane" has transcended time, becoming the image that pops into most music lovers' heads when they think of Bowie.

You don't have to like metal to appreciate the rich history of beautiful, brutal album art from the genre. While many metal album covers depict dark, red-black hellscapes, Mastodon's covers are brutal in a different way. "Leviathan," in particular, takes cues from expressionism to create a scene of terrible, awesome power. 

OK, bear with us here. If you've never heard of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, we can't blame you. She's a Japanese musician and artist known for engaging, "danceable" pop tracks and a cartoonish visual style. Her album art is an extension of this aesthetic, inspired at once by anime and post-modern pop art. The cover for "Pika Pika Fantajin," in particular, filters Kyary Pamyu Pamyu through a Sailor Moon-style visual filter, complete with cel-shaded rainbow hair, and then further filters that through a lens of late '60s pop art — much in the same way that current artists filter and remix elements of pop culture for use in their pieces.

This album cover is what you get if you throw the the best Yes, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Boston album art into a blender and pulse until it looks amazing. While Erykah Badu has never failed to disappoint with her album covers (the Magritte-inspired "But You Caint Use My Phone" is another standout), this is her opus, a cover that would look as natural in MoMA as it would sitting beside your record player.