Album Covers featuring Yawnsomely Literal Cover Art in regards to said album's title.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd100/d108/d10892b99cw.jpg

"Bleach" features no bleach, "Cartoon Heroes" features no cartoon heroes (at least none I recognize),

Also, the "Water Babies" cover is actually an ironic twist on the Victorian concept; "Danse Macabre" is similar, a hipster reinvention of the graphic tradition. "Moving Pictures" is not "yawnsomely literal" because it employs a pun. Ditto "Rocks"--ok, it might not be Shakespeare, but it is sure trying harder than "The Raven."

Looks like AC/DC are the champions here!

"Cartoon Heroes" features no cartoon heroes (at least none I recognize)
If you are saying that Aqua aren't cartoon heroes, you haven't watched music videos for the past eight years.

"Bleach" features no bleach
Well, the photo is reversed, or, in a sense, bleached. Good enough for ya?

Note "in a sense"--i.e. not literal. Figurative. I would say that it doesn't even work very well, since the usual figurative sense of "bleach" is to whiten/make pale/washed out. But this image is simply a negative, with blacks as well as whites.

"Cartoon Heroes" features no cartoon heroes (at least none I recognize)
If you are saying that Aqua aren't cartoon heroes, you haven't watched music videos for the past eight years.

Evidently not enough of them, since I have no idea what you're talking about (and have never heard of Aqua till this thread). But I'm guessing they're actually a band. Either you're joking (i.e. it's not literal) or they are only cartoon heroes in a certain sense, or to a certain viewership, in which case "yawnsomely literal" is not going to cover it.

I also heartily object to the Betty Davis above--where is the literalness there...

Well, that explains a lot. How old are you? Are you telling me that you don't remember 'Barbie Girl'? Or 'Dr. Jones'??? Or The lawsuit against them from Mattel Inc.? The girl sings in a squeaky voice and the guy growls along. Cartoon Heroes if there ever were any.

Re. the 'Bleach' thing: The photo is clearly a tiresome and obvious pun on the title. That's yawningly literal enough for me.

Re. the literal thing - are you then saying that the Tom Waits cover doesn't apply either, because the people sitting in the diner are not actual hawks as in the bird?

You're right, at a certain point the figurative comes into play in all of language, nothing is purely literal. But I still see significant differences here.

Waits: "nighthawk" commonly means night owl, the album depicts people in a diner, presumably late at night. The idea is, teh title is "Nighthawks at the diner," let's show some nighthawks at a diner.

Joel: He wants to call the album Glass Houses, the suits say, great! Let's show you ready to throw a stone at, see, an actual glass house! Because that's the saying, you know! So we make the symbolism literal! Cool!

AC/DC: the phrase "Blow up your video" makes no sense at all, but the image is of a TV, with Angus Young on it, who could conceivably be in a vide being shown on that TV, and the TV is blowing up. It is a very lame attempt at a literal depiction of a silly idea.

In each case there is a phrase that is depicted visually in concrete terms.

Aqua: the thing is, they don't look like they're in a cartoon in that picture! I haven't seen the printed album, maybe it's different, but in the jpeg it looks like a photograph of the band. THey could have had them dressed as Superman, Power Rangers, whatever. So to see them as "cartoon heroes" I guess you're saying you need to rely on things you've seen in the past, subtexts, in which case we're clearly beyond the literal.

Nirvana: You're right, the image attempts to make a visual pun on the name. They don't say, "ok, bleach, let's show some bleach"--instead they think, how can we make a visual analog for "bleaching"? Let's use a negative image of the band performing live. YOu find this obvious--I don't since it inverts shades rather than erasing (bleaching) them--but literal it ain't.

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/9f/bb/84842-resized200.JPG

spot on!

No, see. Angus did in fact blow up his video. Once his video blew up, well, that's when the TV went too. The above poster's comments are akin to saying that Timothy McViegh didn't blow up the Murrah Federal Building. Why, all he did was blow up a Ryder truck!

But what's really interesting is what some of these covers say about what the bands and/or record companies think of their audience! Esp. since album covers are often this moment of sophistication (since, when, the late 60s? early 70s?), semiotic complexity, whatever, where the relationship between word and image is a game or puzzle... and then there's AC/DC's "Flick of the switch"! (or the one above, a great example!)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Letyourhairdown.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ntcTpXTCL.jpg

which Billy Joel cover is everyone talking about upthread? i can't see the picture my end and now i really want to.

i'm guessing glass houses. he has two literal covers:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Billy_Joel_-_Glass_Houses.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Billy_Joel_-_Turnstiles.jpg

actually he has a load of these.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Billy_Joel_-_Songs_in_the_Attic.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Billy_Joel_-_River_of_Dreams.jpg

The River of Dreams cover was painted by Christie Brinkley!

http://www.recordsale.de/cdpix/t/the_mekons-the_quality_of_mercy_is_not_strnen.jpg

I know, but there isn't a thread called "Album titles that make no sense unless you see the sleeve picture"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Hillage_Fish_Rising.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Steve_Hillage_Fish_Rising.jpg

lol at all the argumentative nitpicking upthread from somebody calling themselves "no opinion"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41662fb5TYL.jpg

http://img14.shop-pro.jp/PA01076/467/product/39520755.jpg?20120204195037

Pilot's second album, can't look at this without imagining the designers spending all of five minutes coming up with that title/cover image, and then sloping off to the pub for the rest of the day

oops

http://img14.shop-pro.jp/PA01076/467/product/39520755.jpg?20120204195037

though it doesn't feature an actual pilot, so I guess it's more 'yawnsomely unimaginative/uninspired' than 'yawnsomely literal'

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QjlWxeXKL._SY300__PJautoripBadge,BottomRight,4,-40_OU11__.jpg

ok the "autorip" kinda kills it

I think a lot of those are illustrating a visual pun on the title so not Yawnsomely Literal. Might have been thought of as quite imaginative at the time but got dulled by familiarity in the interval years.
Not like somebody's come along and generically botched something up as a bad advertising company might. Seems to be some thought put into what has been illustrated and how.
Also seems that a couple at least may have had the image in mind before naming.