2025 is Black and White
A collection of the classic style so far this year
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As Q1 of 2025 comes to a close, I noticed the most striking album art of the year thus far has been black and white. (I might be biased. I art-directed and designed the album cover for Dead Gowns’ February release, It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow.) Nonetheless, these covers join the ranks of John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (1965), Patti Smith, Horses (1975), The Ramones’ 1976 self-titled record, David Bowie, Heroes (1977), Adele, 21 (2011), and Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). It's not a groundbreaking trend, just a classic one.
None of these artists could’ve predicted the stark political polarization we’d be experiencing this year. Yet the lack of color on these album covers seemingly evokes this turmoil. Maybe I’m projecting, but it feels oddly similar to Abstract Expressionism, the art movement that came into popularity post-World War II. Artists like Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Joan Mitchell left traditional techniques behind to express the incomprehensible emotional state humanity had just undergone. Broad black strokes and splatters of muddled paint fill each of these artists’ canvases.
A handful of the album covers below were directed or created by the musicians themselves, adding a noticeably personal touch. Jessica Viscius of Chicago band Bnny and Benjamin Booker took self-portraits for their art. While Smerz and Kilo Kish are creative directing their upcoming album campaigns.
Find a collection of these moving black-and-white album covers below:
ICYMI: I wrote about the album cover of Japanese Breakfast’s latest record, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) for Wallpaper*. It has notes of 17th-century Dutch vanitas paintings and hints of Ottessa Moshfegh’s hit novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
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i love these choices! i would also add Sam Fender's People Watching & Backxwash's Only Dust Remains into my Q1 black & white favorites as well!
Very nice post Rachel, thanks. Were they all portraits by coincidence, or was that your curation?