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Dec 17, 2014 By Christian Koons Best of 2014

In the digital age we usually see albums before we hear them, so not only do album covers bear the weight of first impressions, they become, in our memory, the visual manifestations of the music itself. A good cover looks the way the music sounds. Here’s a list of 40 of our favorites from the year.

1. FKA twigs: LP1 (Young Turks)

2. Future Islands: Singles (4AD)

3. Iceage: Plowing Into the Field of Love (Matador)

4. Pharmakon: Bestial Burden (Sacred Bones)

5. Eagulls: Eagulls (Partisan)

6. Sharon Van Etten: Are We There (Jagjaguwar)

7. Cymbals Eat Guitars: LOSE (Barsuk)

8. EMA: The Future’s Void (Matador)

9. Quilt: Held in Splendor (Mexican Summer)

10. Run the Jewels: Run the Jewels 2 (Mass Appeal)

11. Swans: To Be Kind (Young God)

12. St. Vincent: St. Vincent (Loma Vista)

13. Chet Faker: Built on Glass (Downtown/Future Classics)

14. Sun Kil Moon: Benji (Caldo Verde)

15. The Flaming Lips: With a Little Help from my Fwends (Warner Bros.)

16. Todd Terje: It’s Album Time (Olsen)

17. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: IX (Superball)

18. Matt Kivel: Days of Being Wild (Woodsist)

19. The Roots: ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (Def Jam)

20. Dirty Beaches: Stateless (Zoo Music)

21. Skygreen Leopards: Family Crimes (Woodsist)

22. Morrissey: World Peace Is None of Your Business (Harvest)

23. The New Pornographers: Brill Bruisers (Matador)

24. Jenny Lewis: The Voyager (Warner Bros.)

25. Grouper: Ruins (Kranky)

26. Woods: With Light and With Love (Woodsist)

27. alt-J: This Is All Yours (Canvasback/Infectious)

28. Warpaint: Warpaint (Rough Trade)

29. Lykke Li: I Never Learn (LL/Atlantic)

30. Alvvays: Alvvays (Polyvinyl)

31. White Fence: To the Recently Found Innocent (Drag City)

32. Liars: Mess (Mute)

33. Bear In Heaven: Time Is Over One Day Old (Dead Oceans)

34. Wand: Ganglion Reef (Drag City)

35. Hookworms: The Hum (Weird World/Domino)

36. SBTRKT: Wonder Where We Land (Young Turks)

37. Clark: Clark (Warp)

38. Kevin Morby: Still Life (Woodsist)

39. Bill Callahan: Have Fun with God (Drag City)

40. The Fresh & Onlys: House of Spirits (Mexican Summer)

Honorable Mentions: Ariel Pink: pom pom (4AD), Ballet School: The Dew Lasts an Hour (Bella Union), Big Scary: Not Art (Barsuk), The Budos Band: Burnt Offering (Daptone), Craft Spells: Nausea (Captured Tracks), East India Youth: Total Strife Forever (Stolen), Fujiya & Miyagi: Artificial Sweeteners (Yep Roc), Glass Animals: ZABA (Harvest), I Break Horses: Chiaroscuro (Bella Union), Interpol: El Pintor (Matador), Merchandise: After the End (4AD), Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar), Spoon: They Want My Soul (Loma Vista), Temples: Sun Structures (Fat Possum), Wild Beasts: Present Tense (Domino), and Woman’s Hour: Conversations (Secretly Canadian).