{"id":193994,"date":"2025-12-20T22:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193994\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T22:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:11:10","slug":"2026-grammys-revive-best-album-cover-with-wet-leg-djo-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193994\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Grammys Revive Best Album Cover With Wet Leg, Djo, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe first time an album cover won a Grammy, the trophy went to Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. Now, a whole new crop of artists are vying for an honor that the Grammy Awards ditched in the Seventies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2026, the awards show is reviving the Best Album Cover<\/a> category, with Tyler, the Creator, Djo<\/a>, Bad Bunny<\/a>, Perfume Genius<\/a>, and Wet Leg<\/a> battling it out: The award will ultimately go to the album\u2019s art directors. \u201cMusic is so ephemeral \u2014 like the air,\u201d says Mary Banas, who was nominated for Best Album Package in 2019 for Mitski\u2019s Be the Cowboy. \u201cWhen people make a photograph, or they make a design for something, and it\u2019s additive to the world, I think that\u2019s really joyful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe asked Banas and noted photographer Danny Clinch<\/a> to eye up 2026\u2019s five contenders.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMoisturizer \u2014 Wet Leg\t<\/p>\n

\n\tMary Banas: \u201cI\u2019m super excited about this one. It\u2019s kind of uncanny. I read this image as almost like these two figures are the same person. Like two sides? Are there just two aspects of the same person?\u201d \u2014Hester Chambers, Ellis Durand, Henry Holmes, Matt de Jong, Jamie-James Medina, Joshua Mobaraki, and Rhian Teasdale, art directors<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tChromakopia \u2014 Tyler, the Creator\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDanny Clinch: \u201cI\u2019m a fan of the record covers of Tyler, the Creator. This one is interesting because it is so simple, and in this day and age of digital everything \u2014 and people looking on their phones \u2014 it\u2019s a graphic and strange image that you could stare at for a while.\u201d \u2014Shaun Llewellyn and Luis \u201cPanch\u201d Perez, art directors<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tGlory \u2014 Perfume Genius\t<\/p>\n

\n\tClinch: A successful album cover, be it a design or a photograph, captures attention, Clinch says. \u201cYou want to draw people in, like, \u2018I want to hear this record.\u2019 What is going on there? Is this person in distress? What\u2019s happening outside the window? It\u2019s a striking image.\u201d \u2014Cody Critcheloe and Andrew J.S., art directors<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Crux \u2014 Djo\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBanas: \u201cYou\u2019re getting a lot of narrative from the scene. It reminds me of the Beastie Boys [cover for Paul\u2019s Boutique]. [It\u2019s] another artistic experience that connects with the music itself \u2014 something tangible that you can give [listeners] for this thing that\u2019s pretty intangible.\u201d \u2014William Wesley II, art director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos \u2014 Bad Bunny\t<\/p>\n

\n\tClinch: Clinch says this calls back to the Nas Illmatic cover, which he shot, featuring a childhood photo superimposed over a city block. \u201cHe wanted to show where he was from. Bad Bunny could have done a \u2018Hey, look at me now\u2019-type situation. And he didn\u2019t.\u201d \u2014Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, art director<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time an album cover won a Grammy, the trophy went to Frank Sinatra Sings for Only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[27813,120394,120395,120396,156,46109,157,111,139,69,120397,114363,120398],"class_list":{"0":"post-193994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bad-bunny","9":"tag-best-album-cover","10":"tag-danny-clinch","11":"tag-djo","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-grammys-2026","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-perfume-genius","19":"tag-tyler-the-creator","20":"tag-wet-leg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}