A new Grammy category honours album covers, and the artists that make them

Grammy Awards are displayed at the Grammy Museum Experience at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

NEW YORK — When it came time to decide the cover image for Wet Leg’s sophomore album, the British indie rock band packed items that might provide inspiration — velvet worms sewn by guitarist Hester Chambers, an oversized head of hair from a music video shoot, lizard-like gloves — and headed to an Airbnb.

“I wanted it to be something that was both super girly and feminine, but then at the same time, just totally repulsive,” said lead singer Rhian Teasdale, who art-directed the “Moisturizer” cover with Iris Luz and Lava La Rue. “That juxtaposition, I don’t know, it just creates something that’s evocative.”

The final image, inspired by a photo from that weekend, earned Teasdale, Luz and La Rue a Grammy nomination for best album cover — a category that will be awarded this year for the first time in over 50 years.

The other evocative covers nominated are Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,”Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia,” Perfume Genius’ “Glory” and Djo’s “The Crux.” The award goes to the project’s art directors: This year, the recording artists are included as nominees in all cases except for “Glory.”

In recent years, covers had been assessed as part of the best recording package category, which considers all physical materials and images. The package for “Brat,” with its pop culture-infiltrating green, earned Charli XCX, Brent David Freaney and Imogene Strauss a Grammy last year.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told Grammy.com the split is an effort to recognize the impact of cover art in the digital age. It also aligns with the academy’s goal to recognize more of the artists that shape music, Mason said.

For the creative teams, the revived award amplifies what goes into building the visual worlds of music. “When a cover in a campaign hits right,” said photographer Neil Krug, nominated for “The Crux,” “it’s part of the language and the fabric of what makes a great record a great record.”

Capturing an energy

The defining portrait of “Chromakopia” — a monochrome close-up of Tyler, face concealed by a mask — was the last shot captured. Luis “Panch” Perez, the director of photography, said the expression in Tyler’s eyes stood out.

Getting there, he said, required tapping into a shared “unspoken language,” built by pulling references for the project’s surrealist, old Hollywood aesthetic — and by years of collaboration. “Tyler knows exactly how to move his body, he’s so well in control of that. I just have to be ready for whatever he’s going to do in front of the lens,” Perez said.

Perfume Genius worked with art directors Cody Critcheloe and Andrew J.S. on the cover for “Glory.” He splays on a patchwork carpet inside a dark, homey interior, his stiletto boots extending toward a bright window. Colorful cords snake across the floor like microphone cords onstage.

He said the image reflects the push and pull he found himself exploring while writing the album: the comfort and avoidance of an introverted, private life, versus the confidence required of his “maximal” public-facing persona: “How do I have each of those things season my life?”

The goal wasn’t to capture a specific scene, or choreography. “It was mostly about an energy,” said Critcheloe, who photographed the cover.

“People have said to both of us that they can’t figure out what the aesthetic of the album cover is,” he added. “That’s the best thing to hear.”

The creature-like version of Teasdale that appears on Wet Leg’s “Moisturizer” cover — squatting, hands outstretched, eerie grin trained toward the camera — is also meant to evoke friction. “The album explores themes of love and longing. But also, there are a couple moments on the album that are so, you know, just feral,” she said.

Crafting, casting and styling a world

The pivotal setting of “The Crux” — the third album by Djo, the musical moniker for actor Joe Keery — was a fictional hotel on the Brooklyn-inspired section of the Paramount Studios backlot.

Krug, Djo and collaborator Jake Hirshland looked at dense scenes, like Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film “Rear Window” (also shot on a Paramount Studios lot), for inspiration. They considered locations in (the real) New York and Atlanta, where the artist was filming “Stranger Things,” before locking the lot in.

Next came casting the characters that make up the scene. “Anything that we could come up with, we were just like throwing it at the canvas,” Krug said. A couple kiss in a window. A man fights a parking ticket in the foreground. Djo is seen only from the back, dangling from a window in a white suit.

Art director William Wesley II oversaw production details, including designing the neon sign that bears the album’s name — an homage to iconic hotels like the Chateau Marmont. “Everything is intentional,” he said. “It’s really a sum of its parts and it’s the sum of many people’s contributions.”

A pair of white plastic chairs are the only props on the cover of “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” Art directed by Bad Bunny himself, the image by Puerto Rican photographer Eric Rojas also features plantain trees — a symbol of the island, but also of the Caribbean and Latin America overall. There is a nostalgia to the simple combination — conjuring a day at the beach, or a backyard gathering — that also mirrors the album’s diasporic, history-making, storytelling.

“Debí Tirar Más Fotos” and “Chromakopia” are also nominated for album of the year.

What makes a cover Grammy-eligible?

Official Grammy rules say albums do not need to exist physically to be considered in this category — a key point in differentiating the award from its package counterpart.

This year’s nominees, however, are all available on vinyl or CD. Krug, who has worked on covers for Lana Del Rey and Tame Impala, said the vinyl presentation is often the first point discussed.

“When you have the physical vinyls in your home or your apartment, that stuff lives with you. It’s out in your space, whether you’re having a good day or a bad day, you’re getting married or breaking up with whomever,” Krug said. “There’s this rediscovery of the art form.”

Voters must consider the cover’s creativity and design, alongside the illustration, photography or graphic elements. Trophies go to the winning art directors, and certificates to designers, illustrators or photographers, if applicable.

In a sign of the growing pains of a new category, this year’s list of nominees saw edits ahead of the voting window’s opening — a process not uncommon in other categories with multiple nominees. Djo, Krug, Hirshland and Taylor Vandergrift were added alongside Wesley for “The Crux”; Perez and photographer Shaun Llewellyn were removed for “Chromakopia,” replaced by just Tyler. Luz and La Rue joined Teasdale for “Moisturizer,” while several others — including the rest of the band — were removed.

“I was super surprised and really excited because I wasn’t aware that it was a category,” Critcheloe said of his nomination. “I love the idea of making things that are strange and subversive and irreverent, and having an audience that is bigger than it’s supposed to be.”

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Elise Ryan, The Associated Press