Hey Dale,
You can definitely do this with particular (and that's how I would do it)
to set up, you would
put all your album covers in a precomp.
Make them all 1 frame long.
Select them all, right click and choose keyframe assistant->sequence layers (make sure overlap is NOT checked)
make the precomp length so that it ends after the last frame of album covers (so there is never any blank in the precomp)
put the precomp in your main comp and turn the eyeball off so you dont see it)
in particular for particle type choose sprite (stupid name)
just below particle type is texture. twirl that down and for layer select your precomp layer, and time sampling choose random still frame.
That should do it (and way easier than doing it by hand), now you just need to play with the emitter and particle systems to make them behave the way you want.
Good luck!
Mike Cardeiro