With the fall of physical sales and the rise of streaming for music consumption, textless album covers have become increasingly frequent to the point of practically becoming the norm for US pop music by the 2020s.
See also Minimalistic Cover Art, a style of artwork that often accompany albums without cover text.
Examples (may also count as Minimalistic Cover Art and/or Design Student's Orgasm):
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Alternative Metal
- Almost every tool album, save for Opiate (which was an EP anyway), Lateralus (the title is on the album jacket, but not on the actual booklet), and certain prints of "10,000 Days" and "Fear Inoculum".
- "Extreme Behavior" by Hinder was based on the cover for a sex advice book by Candida Royalle, except in front of the woman are photos of the band, with neither their name or the album title in sight. The CD/DVD combo simply had a single picture of the band with their logo and the album title above.
- 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.
- The cover of Ohms is simply a pair of eyes rendered in dots.
- The cover of private music is a white snake over a green background.
- Staind's "14 Shades of Grey" had the band logo, albeit barely visible, on a grey background.
- System of a Down's self-title debut has no text and instead features an anti-fascist poster by German artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany in 1928.
- Stone Temple Pilots: "Core", "No. 4" and "Perdida" have both the band's name and album title, "Purple" had only the band name, "Tiny Music" had the album title but not the band name, and the 2010 self-titled album and "Shangri-La Dee Da" had neither.
- Three Days Grace: The cover of One-X is a paper doll chain where most have a checkmark beside them but one seemingly arbitrarily has an X, with no other text. Digital prints have the band name and album title.
- Mudvayne's 2009 Self-Titled Album is an interesting example. At first glance, the cover, both front and back, appear to be entirely white. However, shining the album cover with a blacklight (some releases even come bundled with a free blacklight for this purpose) reveals the actual album art
◊, still textless, which was printed via blacklight-reactive ink. Digital versions of the album still use this art, but add the band's logo underneath◊.
- The cover for their 2002 album, The End of All Things to Come, is a far more straightforward example, featuring only an abstract, alien-looking symbol.
Alternative Rock
- A Rush of Blood to the Head, (possibly) X&Ynote , Music of the Spheres and Moon Music by Coldplay. Ghost Stories kinda counts (the artist and title are on the tray art◊).
- 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.
- 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 fans would call it anyway.
- Foo Fighters:
- The cover of 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).
- Sonic Highways just shows a composite skyline of the eight cities in which the album was recorded.
- Concrete and Gold simply features an "FF" logo in gold on a concrete background.
- Strangers to Ourselves by Modest Mouse, which instead opts for a satellite photo of Venture Out RV Resort◊ in Mesa, Arizona.
- Depending on which printing you got, Everything to Everyone by Barenaked Ladies featured the band holding either a blank white flag, or one with the title and name of the band printed on it.
- Eat the Elephant by A Perfect Circle features the band's circular logo, but no text.
Blues-Rock
- Derek and the Dominos: Their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, featured a painting of a woman’s face, half obscured by a bird and clouds. This brings to mind Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" which they cover on the album.
"Well she's walking through the clouds…"
Death Metal
Electronic
- ...I Care Because You Do and Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin only feature his signature creepy grinning face.
- The cover art of Tri Repeatae by Autechre is just a brown square. That's it.
- SOPHIE's album OIL OF EVERY PERSON'S UN-INSIDES consists of an artistic photoshoot of Sophie herself, with the title nowhere to be found. The only text present is the word "NOTHINGNESS" stuck onto her right arm, and it's only half-visible due to the angle.
Electroswing
- Caravan Palace's album <I°_°I>, aka "Robot" or "Robot Face", just features the band's mascot represented in ASCII art.
Experimental
- Most albums and singles by Björk. Vespertine takes it a little further by having no text on the sides of CD edition either, with only a removable white sticker on the back identifying the artist and album title, alongside a track-list and copyright information.
- 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 Rock
- Gordon Lightfoot's Sit Down Young Stranger (a.k.a. "If You Could Read My Mind") have some very early copies without an artist and title on the cover and later copies do have the artist and title on the cover.
Hardcore Punk
- The anthology album for The Germs MIA simply had the germs blue circle logo.
- Turnstile's GLOW ON and NEVER ENOUGH are pictures taken to the clouds and a clear sky, respectively.
Hard Rock
- 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 six textless photo covers depicting a man sitting at a bar. Each cover showed the same scene from different angles. Some CD editions replicate this; conventional plastic CD cases have the textless photos on the booklet (any one can be displayed depending on how the booklet is folded).
- The vinyl album cover for Presence showed the first of a series of photos with a mysterious object, called The Object in liner notes. Initially had the cover had band name and album title embossed, but the same colour as the rest of the album cover, so it was not easily visible.
Heavy Metal
- Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled 2007 album has a black Deathbat with an all-white background, contrasting the very busy cover of their previous album City of Evil − just like the album itself contrasts it musically.
- The cover of Danzig's third album Danzig III: How the Gods Kill is a piece of artwork by H. R. Giger
- Both Blood of Gods and The New Dark Ages by GWAR are without names or titles. They are also the first two albums released after Dave Brockie's death, implying that Brockie himself may have had some level of creative input for their past album covers.
- Metallica:
- Slipknot:
- The original release of the band's self-titled debut album and All Hope Is Gone have no text with the album title or the band's name. In the former case, releases of the album since the reissue do feature the band's logo.
- Zig-zagged with both the standard and Special Edition covers of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). The former cover normally has text while the latter has none, but plenty of releases have them the other way around.
- In-universe, Smell the Glove by Spinal Tap, which is so featureless and black it could of course be none more black. The actual movie soundtrack album by Spinal Tap, This is Spinal Tap used this same blank black cover.
- Iron Maiden released a Greatest Hits Album titled Edward the Great that only included a sticker outside the packaging on the LP to identify the album.
Hip Hop
- Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
- Yeezus takes this to absurd levels. Not only is there no artwork on the album itself, there is no artwork for the CD or disc at all either—it's all blank, and the only things keeping it from being too blank are a square and the PA sticker on the packaging and a sticker displaying the writing credits of the album on the back.
- Donda takes this even further as it's just solid black album cover.
- All of Tyler, the Creator's albums (except for Call Me If You Get Lost) have some versions of cover without text, although only Flower Boy plays this trope straight (as in no text on the "main" version).
- Beastie Boys' 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.
- Every album by Run the Jewels, the covers for which are all variations on the band's iconic Arc Symbol.
Indie Folk
- Though some versions of it have text written on the left side, Ys by Joanna Newsom has no text on both the vinyl cover and the version on her Bandcamp.
Indie Pop
- Cults' Offering simply has a person's arms raised up into the air with the hands cupped together as if they are to receive an offering.
Indie Rock
- Wavves' first two albums, Wavves and Wavvves. Both covers also use different pictures of the same kid doing skateboard tricks in a backyard.
J Pop
- The CD-only cover for Perfume's third album, "Triangle". Unless the giant, 3D triangle they have tilted around them counts.
Neo-Psychedelia
- Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Barafundle is an example in spirit: its cover is a photo of a pin board with various pictures and objects on it, some of which have writing, but none of it is relevant to the album.
Noise Pop
- Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror has no text. The artwork is a pair of white sneakers (one of which is mysteriously stained red) over a beige background. Some editions of the album have the band and album name though.
- Treats. There is a sticker with the band name and album name on the plastic wrap, though.
- Bitter Rivals also opts out of having text.
- PREY//IV by Alice Glass. The cover is an homage/Take That! towards Crystal Castles first EP cover.
Pop
- Prince:
- The soundtrack album for Batman (1989) only features the movie's logo taken directly from the poster; fittingly, the original VHS release of the film itself features no text on its cover.
- The Black Album is a pretty extreme example, as the outside packaging is completely black with no text beyond a catalog number and copyright information from Warner (Bros.) Records — there are also no inside liner notes aside from a track-list printed on the CD itself, and the name of the artist or album isn't printed anywhere.
- Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. A special edition has Katy Perry's logo and a logo for the album name.
- Madonna's True Blue album originally just had the cover be a picture of Madonna's head from the side.
Post-Punk
- New Order:
- "Temptation" does have the title on the front, not printed, but embossed. Camouflaged by the multi-coloured background, it's almost invisible unless you tilt it at exactly the correct angle to the light.
- 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.
Post-Rock
- Slint's Spiderland.
- F# A# ∞, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, Yanqui U.X.O., 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, Asunder, Sweet, and Other Distress, and G_d's Pee at State's End! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
- Sigur Rós' albums Von, Ágætis byrjun and Kveikur.
- Cult of Luna has Vertikal, which is dreary grey dripping paint. The Vertikal II EP does the same thing, but has it through a small semicircular window.
Progressive Rock
- 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.
Punk Rock
- The Protopunk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids re-recorded lead guitar and vocals, and re-released their album Destiny Street as Destiny Street Repaired with an all new textless cover, unlike the original.
R&B
- Kali Uchis:
- Por Vida and Red Moon in Venus are both textless photos of Kali's face.
- ORQUÍDEAS is an image of her lying naked on a glass pane from below with flower petals for censorship, and no text.
Rock
- The Beatles:
- The iconic cover for Abbey Road simply has the Beatles crossing the road with no words.
- 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.)
- Played with in regards to ★, the final album from David Bowie; while the album cover lacks any sort of text on it, the five stars on the bottom are missing points in just the right places to read "BOWIE."
- Several by Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (a photo of him against the wall of a New York building, wearing a coat and scarf), Nashville Skyline (a photo of him in the woods holding a guitar), Self Portrait (a painting by Dylan of the face of a man, which is presumably supposed to be him), and New Morning (a close-up head shot of him looking at the camera).
- The White Stripes: Elephant has Jack and Meg resting on an amp in a red room. In an interview, Jack White said the pose was meant to vaguely look like an elephant's head from both front view and in profile, just barely enough that someone could look at it for two years and only then make the connection.
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.
Soundtrack
- Homestuck:
- The cover of Symphony Impossible to Play is a textless illustration of a giant violin hovering over a forest being besieged by meteors.
- The cover of the Album Single Act 7 is a textless still from the comic's final act.
- One of the album covers for Silent Hill 4 features a ghostly, pale-faced figure with a dark, shadowy background.
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).