Textless Album Cover

Related to Minimalistic Cover Art.

Examples of Textless Album Cover include:

Alternative Metal

• Every single album to date by Demon Hunter.
• Almost every Tool album, save for Opiate (which was an EP anyway) and Lateralus (the title is on the album jacket, but not on the actual booklet).
• The original release of Deftones' White Pony did have the album title and band name on the cover, but the reissue that added "Back To School (Mini-Maggit)" moved that text to the inside back cover, where it could be read through the clear inside tray when the case was closed.

Alternative Rock

• The albums Screamadelica and Give Out but Don't Give Up and singles "Ivy Ivy Ivy / You're Just Too Dark to Care" and "The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown" by Primal Scream.
• Nowhere by Ride.
• A Rush of Blood to the Head and (possibly) X&Y by Coldplay.
• from the choirgirl hotel by Tori Amos. Though there are some editions which have an "Explicit Content" warning stickered on.
• Most albums by Bjork.
• Lincoln and The Else by They Might Be Giants.
• Absolution by Muse.
  • Black Holes and Revelations also follows this trope.
• The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, an album by Brand New.
• Inverted with the Hipgnosis sleeve for the XTC album Go 2, in which the cover art is nothing but text, talking about how it's a RECORD (note the all caps) COVER, and how it functions in selling an album.
• Zeitgeist by Levellers.
• White Pepper by Ween.
• Weezer's Hurley - The cover is a text free picture of Jorge Garcia, aka Hurley from Lost. Once the cover was chosen, it nearly was going to be yet another Self-Titled Album, but then they decided to officially call the album what they predicted the Fan Nickname for it would be anyway.
• A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park.
• Alice in Chains' self-titled album.
• The cover of Foo Fighters There Is Nothing Left To Lose is a textless picture of the back of Dave Grohl's head. However, his neck has a temporary tattoo reading "FF" on it.
• The cover of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief can't be considered one in a traditional sense (as it does have text on it), but it opts out of having the band's or the album title's name on the cover.
• Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.
• Sea Change by Beck.

Avant-Garde Metal

• Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning and Skullgrid by Behold... the Arctopus.

Avant-Rock

• The Henry Cow Legend by Henry Cow.

Baroque Pop

• Safe As Houses, (((grrls))), and Entanglements by Parenthetical Girls.

Blues-Rock

• Blind Faith by Blind Faith, but on only one version of the cover. That one.
• Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes.
• Santana III by Santana.

Christian Rock

• Jars of Clay: Furthermore.

Drone Music

• Fuck Buttons' debut album, Street Horrrsing.
• Black One and Monoliths and Dimensions by Sunn O))).

Electronic

• ...I Care Because You Do and Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin only feature his signature creepy grinning face.

Electropop

• Some of Perfume's singles.

Experimental

• Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle.
• Every major release from the experimental drone band Growing to date have been designed without text.
• Every album by Jandek has a textless photograph as the cover; generally it's either a picture of the artist himself or a bit of still-life photography.

Folk Metal

• One of the two different covers for Moonsorrow's Suden Uni

Hard Rock

• Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album.
• "Led Zeppelin IV" (it's titleless) and Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin.
  • In Through the Out Door was originally issued in a paper sleeve with the title on it, beneath which was one (at random) of three textless photo covers. Some CD editions replicate this; conventional plastic CD cases have the textless photos on the booklet (any one of three can be displayed depending on how the booklet is folded).
• Draw the Line by Aerosmith.

Heavy Metal

• Loudness by Loudness. This cover was painted by famed artist Tadanori Yokoo. Also Once and for All and Terror Hakuri by the same band.
• Balls to the Wall by Accept. (Some CD reissues added text to the cover.)
• St. Anger by Metallica.
  • Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album) almost qualifies, because the only text is hard to see due to being nearly the same color as the background.
• Seasons in the Abyss, Divine Intervention and Christ Illusion by Slayer.
• In-universe, Smell the Glove by Spinal Tap, which is so featureless and black it could of course be none more black.
• Opeth's first 3 albums, Orchid, Morningrise, and My Arms, Your Hearse as well as Ghost Reveries.

Hip Hop

• If we don't count the "Parental Advisory" stickers as text, then majority of Insane Clown Posse's studio albums.
• Kanye West's My Beautifiul Dark Twisted Fantasy.
• Tyler the Creator's (of OFGWKTA) Goblin.
• Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West
• The Beastie Boy's Paul's Boutique, sort of: The cover depicts a few storefronts on a street corner, one of which has a sign reading "Paul's Boutique". The "Paul's Boutique" sign isn't really the most prominent part of the cover though, and the band name doesn't appear on the front at all.

Indie Folk

• In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.

Indie Rock

• It's Blitz by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
• xx by the xx
  • One could argue that the entire album art is just one big letter.
• Starflyer 59: In addition to their four monochromatic albums, there's Old.
  • Bon Voyage: The Right Amount.
• The Brothers Martin's self-titled album.
• My Brightest Diamond: Bring Me the Workhorse.
• Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective.
• Like Drawing Blood by Gotye.
• Blinking Lights And Other Revelations by Eels.
• Vehicles And Animals by Athlete.
• Wavves' first two albums, Wavves and Wavvves. Both covers also use different pictures of the same kid doing skateboard tricks in a backyard.
• Ocean Beach and Old Ramon by Red House Painters.
• Teen Dream and Bloom by Beach House.

Industrial Rock

• Year Zero, The Slip, and The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails.

Jazz

• The Japanese cover of Agharta by Miles Davis, also by Tadanori Yokoo.

Neo-Psychedelia

• Spanish Dance Troupe by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. (Also, Barafundle almost qualifies; the cover is a photo of a pin board with various pictures and objects on it, but some of those have writing on them.)

New Wave

• More Songs about Buildings and Food by Talking Heads

Noise Pop

• Treats by Sleigh Bells. There is a sticker with the band name and album name on the plastic wrap, though.
  • The follow-up Reign Of Terror also has no text. The artwork is, if anything, even more minimal - it's a pair of white sneakers (one of which is mysteriously stained red) over a beige background.

Pop

• Face Value by Phil Collins. On some editions, at least.
• Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.

Post-Punk

• Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division and Power, Corruption and Lies by New Order.
  • Several singles by New Order also had textless covers, in particular "Procession", "Temptation", "Blue Monday", "State of the Nation", "Bizarre Love Triangle", "True Faith", "Touched by the Hand of God", "Fine Time", "Round and Round", "Crystal", "60 Miles an Hour", and "Here to Stay".
  • Most of New Order’s record covers, actually. Power, Corruption and Lies has the distinction of having no band name or album title information anywhere on either front or back covers or the record spine.
• The cover of Wire's new album, Red Barked Tree.

Post-Rock

• Slint's Spiderland
• F# A# ∞, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, and Yanqui U.X.O. by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Progressive Rock

• In the Court of the Crimson King, In the Wake of Poseidon, Islands, and Larks' Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson. (Some reissues of Islands added text to the cover.)
• Traffic by Traffic.
• Porcupine Tree seems to enjoy doing this with eerily disturbing images. Metanoia, Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, In Absentia, Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet, and the Moonloop EP all feature textless covers, though each would usually feature a sticker on the shrink wrap with the band and album name. Some reissues of these have added text to the covers.
  • Also Unreleased Electronic Music Vol 1 and Insurgentes by Steven Wilson.
• Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Division Bell by Pink Floyd.
  • The Wall and The Final Cut originally had textless covers; some reissues added text.
• Technically, Anoraknophobia by Marillion qualifies; the title is not on the actual cover, but is printed vertically on the inside of the back cover, and visible next to the cover through the transparent CD case when it's closed.
• Passion, Us, Secret World Live, OVO, Long Walk Home, Up, and Scratch My Back by Peter Gabriel.
• Thus far, almost every full length album by The Mars Volta. The exception is the Live Album Scab Dates, and they're also more likely to include a band name or album title on the front of singles or EPs.

Psychedelic Pop

• Congratulations by MGMT.

Pub Rock

• King of America by Elvis Costello.

R & B

• My Love is Your Love by Whitney Houston
• Butterfly by Mariah Carey
• Survivor by Destiny's Child

Rock

• Abbey Road by The Beatles.
  • Some pressings of The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) almost qualify, because the only text is embossed and is coloured the same as the rest of the cover. (Some more recent copies have the name in grey letters rather than embossed letters, and the earliest copies had serial numbers on the cover.)
• Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, and New Morning by Bob Dylan.
• Elephant by The White Stripes.
  • And White Blood Cells by the White Stripes. And Get Behind Me Satan.
• John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band by, well, who it says.
• Propaganda and Kimono My House by Sparks.
• Pieces of Eight by Styx.
• It's Only Rock 'n Roll and A Bigger Bang by The Rolling Stones.
  • Also the covers for their first and second albums in the UK, if you don't count the record company logo. These may be the Ur Example of this trope, at least for pop music.
  • Their Satanic Majesties Request had one of these originally, although some later reissues add a title.
• Thank You by Duran Duran.
• Achtung Baby by U2.
  • The cover of their most recent album, No Line on the Horizon opts out having any text.
• The Black Album by Kino, released after the death of frontman Viktor Tsoi.
• Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix.

Roots Rock

• Music from Big Pink by The Band.
• Bayou Country by Creedence Clearwater Revival. (In its original LP release, anyway.)

Ska Punk

• Played with on Sublime's self-titled album, it's just a picture of lead singer Bradley Nowell's back... which happened to have the word Sublime written on it.

Space Rock

• Lazer Guided Melodies, Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace by Spiritualized.

Synthpop

• Joy Electric: The Ministry of Archers.

Techno

• Orbital: In Sides, The Middle of Nowhere.

None of the above

• 65daysofstatic's One Time for All Time is black with two sketchy white lines (and occasionally a compass north/true north diagram).