Music Album Covers with Surreal Imagery (including Salvador Dalí)

Composite image of 16 album covers featuring surreal imagery.

What makes an image surreal? One answer is that the image tends to be dreamlike and taps into your unconscious, presenting ordinary elements put together in unexpected ways.

Here are 16 album covers featuring surreal imagery. Three of the covers feature artwork by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí (1904 – 1989), who also appears on one of the albums. The remaining album covers are reminiscent of artists like Dalí and René Magritte (1898 – 1967). The latter is covered in a separate post Music Album Covers Featuring the Surreal Imagery of René Magritte.

We left out many albums to come up with this group of 16 covers. It’s very much a subjective choice. Stay tuned for a possible part two of surreal album covers.

Biffy Clyro - Puzzle (2007)
Jackie Gleason - Lonesome Echo (1955) - cover by Salvador Dalí
James Black - Friends That Break Your Heart
Klaus Schulze - Timewind (1975)

Liz Green - Haul Away! (2014)
Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972)
Nick Hakim - Greem Twins (2017)
Ray Lynch - The Best Of (1998)

Rufus du Sol - Surrender (2012)
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush (2020)
The Answer - New Horizon (2013)
The Curtis Fuller Sextette - Imagination (1960)

Various - Dalí - The Endless Enigma (1990) - cover by Salvador Dalí
Various - Dalí in Venice (1962) - cover by Salvador Dalí
Wilsen - I Go Missing in My Sleep (2017)
Yanni - Keys to Imagination (1986)