Reports of the death of vinyl appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Despite being superseded by everything from cassette tapes to mini discs, records continue to appeal to the public and have recently reached sales figures not seen since the 1990s.

It’s easy to see why. There’s something about the ritual of placing a record on a turntable and dropping the needle that the likes of Spotify and Apple Music can’t best. Another important component of records is their physical album sleeves, which have been recognised for the last 18 years with the Best Art Vinyl Award.

Organised by Memory Box UK, the Best Art Vinyl Award shortlists 50 nominees and asks an expert panel of artists, designers and music industry winners to crown a winner. For the 2023 prize, the judges selected artist and university professor Michelle Henning for her work on PJ Harvey’s album I Inside the Old Year Dying.

The artwork, which appears on PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album, is notable for its striking composition and the apparent simplicity of a branch casting a shadow on a beach. However, the final image is, in fact, the result of months of preparation, perfect weather conditions, and a combination of multiple images and techniques.

Michelle explains: “I suddenly realised that I didn’t need a whole forest; I just needed one stick, and such a simple single object would give it the feel of the classic album covers I admire. Now I realise an unconscious influence was Polly herself because she had chosen to use drawings she had made of single twigs (‘twiddicks’) to break up the sections in her poetry book Orlam.”

The debut studio album for US soul trio Gabriels, Angels & Queens took second place and features striking black and white concept photography taken by Melodie McDaniel. With an impressive portfolio of musician photography that includes the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Cat Power and Rhianna, to name but a few, it’s no surprise that her album cover achieved worthy recognition.

She said: “It felt appropriate to focus on lead singer Jacob Lusk, considering his fronting role in the band and his strong religious background. We contemplated using a church baptismal font or bathtub, but I was really drawn to the idea of having it outside. In my mind, I envisioned capturing a river baptism would be the most powerful and evoke the feelings and culture of the South.”

Meanwhile, third place went to Mat Maitland’s cover for Sub Focus's fourth album, Evolve. Based around the image of a Nudibranch sea mollusc, it creates a lenticular LP format, which appears to animate and evolve as the viewer moves it in their hands.