Album art gimmicks you never want to see again

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-Whimsically emblazoning the word "STEREO" somewhere in the corner of your CD cover. Well, thank you for not recording in mono IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND TWO.

-Designing the package or CD itself to look like a 45, LP, CD-R or spool of audio tape.

-NOT PUTTING THE GODDAMNED TRACK LISTING ON THE ACTUAL CD SLEEVE

-Lens flares!

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 23 November 2002 20:46 (twenty-three years ago)

photos of anything on the album cover thats not the artist especially landscapes or other people

― s trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 23 November 2002 20:49 (twenty-three years ago)

photos of the band with marker-like drawing around them and on them, it looks really stupid.

― webcrack (music=crack), Saturday, 23 November 2002 20:54 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.npgmusicclub.com/npgmc/features/discography/scans/diamondsandpearls.jpg

― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 23 November 2002 21:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Those fucking Positiva single covers.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm tired of the road sign trick.

― Venus Glow (1411), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

nate whats wrong with lens flares

― s trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:13 (twenty-three years ago)

having a close-up of the artists' baboon-like face "bleeding" from the nose.

also the columns of random numbers (a la matrix) is so 1999.

― dyson (dyson), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:15 (twenty-three years ago)

All musical media should be packaged in plain black sleeves with white lettering announcing artist, album title and track-listing (on the front.)

― Ian Johnson (orion), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate the blank sheets of paper. Or the wax paper you get with some cds. Like what am I supposed to do with this? Bake a cake?

I still love the- Band hanging out in front of a brick wall with the "Yeah, we don't give a fuck! We're standing here!" attitude. Classic.

― Juan (Juan), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

yes ian then we would all like your shitty boring bands instead of music we only pretend to like because we want to fuck britney

― s trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:35 (twenty-three years ago)

The fucking Mandelbrot Set. Especially from people who couldn't code it given a Cray, and half-dozen SGIs, and a research staff of twenty. I'm with Ian on this though - how can culture progress without standards?

― Dave Fischer, Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Asses, crotches, and boobs, oh my!

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 24 November 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

To the guy who said "anything but the artist," I actually think the opposite. I hate when the artist is on it most of the time. Total lack of creativity.

I also hate the album covers all the modern rock bands love, with nondescript, blurry images. NO BLURRY PLEASE.

― David Allen, Sunday, 24 November 2002 00:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sorry - what the fuck is it with me and Wizard of Oz allusions this week?

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 24 November 2002 00:09 (twenty-three years ago)

digipaks. especially digipaks that are about 1/2" bigger than a regular jewel case and don't fit in the shelves... you get consigned to the cardboard box digipak ghetto and i forget i even own you. CD "sleeves" designed like record sleeves. um, no. you go in the ghetto too. art on the CD that doesn't have the artist's name or the album name on it. form is always secondary to function, or again, i stick you somewhere and forget to listen to you.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Sunday, 24 November 2002 02:38 (twenty-three years ago)

The cover for Godspeed You Black Emperor's Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP is just soooooooo functional.

― man, Sunday, 24 November 2002 02:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr. Trife, is there any reason why an album cover oughta be a picture of the artist? Since I was a kid I've thought "why the hell do I wanna be lookin' at the artist's mug when there's a whole bunch of space with which to do cool/fun things" -- can't imagine why I'd wanna see frame after frame after frame of faces faces faces while I flipped through my collection

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Sunday, 24 November 2002 03:10 (twenty-three years ago)

ripoffs of Blue Note or Sub Pop Singles Club sleeve designs

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 24 November 2002 03:23 (twenty-three years ago)

You can usually tell an album's genre by its cover:
Techno = something spacey w/lots of crappy Photoshopped effects, Rock = a photo of something obscure/disgusting, etc.

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 24 November 2002 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, I'm glad nobody else has ever tried doing this sort of thing:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc100/c105/c10560xqpot.jpg

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 24 November 2002 03:28 (twenty-three years ago)

-Whimsically emblazoning the word "STEREO" somewhere in the corner of your CD cover. Well, thank you for not recording in mono IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND TWO.

Heheh. The Hi-Pointe movie theatre in St. Louis uses, when appropriate, a one-piece thingie that says "IN COLOR" under a movie title on its marquee. I found that charming.

-Designing the package or CD itself to look like a 45, LP, CD-R or spool of audio tape.

I don't mind this in cases of re-issues of old records, so you can see what the circular label on the record looked like (as long as the cover art is maintained). On the other hand, I have no love for album art based on the reel-to-reel tape boxes (like in the Velvet Underground boxed set). It is not visually interesting to me to see scribbled/typed song titles and track lengths.

Wasn't there some album that had one of those "magic eye" 3-D things on the cover. That certainly dates it, doesn't it?

I might earn some disdain for this, but I actually like the gimmick of the Tortoise TNT cover (cartoon guy drawn in Sharpie on a blank CD-R cover).

Nobody's mentioned the "indie rock collage" (Sebadoh, Pavement...) yet?

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 24 November 2002 04:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, I'm glad nobody else has ever tried doing this sort of thing:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f572/f57253pa3g8.jpg

Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it.

― llamaskool, Sunday, 24 November 2002 04:45 (twenty-three years ago)

track-listing (on the front.)

Nooo! Not on the front. It takes me five minutes of staring at the back wondering why it isn't there to remember. Admittedly if every CD ever did that I might remember faster.

Anyone not putting the tracklisting on either side is just evil. No, I don't want to take out the inlay and open it up to find out what I'm listening to, and I definitely don't want to have to stop the CD, eject it and stare at the disc itself. Plus putting an incorrect tracklisting on the back and the real one on the CD is stupid and confuses every mp3 ripper and cddb contributor ever, but this is mercifully rare.

― Rebecca (reb), Sunday, 24 November 2002 04:51 (twenty-three years ago)

d'oh!

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 24 November 2002 04:52 (twenty-three years ago)

The Forever Changes cover looks nice.

― man, Sunday, 24 November 2002 05:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's another one: Digipaks and/or 2+ CD sets that fold out in an over-elaborate fashion and have all sorts of flaps and cardboard bits and booklets falling out just so you can get at the CD itself. This is extremely annoying when you're riding on the bus with some guy next to you who is more fond of flailing his elbows than Bill Laimbeer and you're trying to balance the case, CD and discman in your lap while the bus itself is doing 70 down the interstate. ARGH x1000

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 24 November 2002 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Cardboard slipcases that scratch the disc up, ie. No Code by Pearl Jam - my copy was unlistenable by the time I thought to transfer the disc to a jewel case, by which time I realised the album was crap and I didn't care anymore. Still, it's the principle of the thing.

― Poppy (poppy), Sunday, 24 November 2002 07:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, CD listings that don't provide track numbers, especially ones where the track names are arranged in a circle with no discernible place to start counting.

― Poppy (poppy), Sunday, 24 November 2002 07:40 (twenty-three years ago)

stereolab's 'aluminum tunes' fold-out cardboard double CD digipak is like everything annoying on this thread put together. damn you, fold out cardboard digipaks held together with cheap glue. damn you.

― geeta (geeta), Sunday, 24 November 2002 07:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Ugh, yeah, the central circles fell off my Aluminium Tunes the second I opened it. Actually I was thinking the other day that I haven't seen it for 4 years and I guess it fell down behind somewhere in my first year uni room but I thought it was crap anyway so I'm only actually annoyed at having rushed out to buy it new and full price like an idiot rather than at not being able to hear it again.

Maybe it's just me being a clumsy idiot, but it seems that with any jewel cases with transparent CD trays manufactured before about, ooh, '96 or so, the central bit to hold the CD in breaks and dribble tiny plastic crystals everywhere when you first try to get it out and then it never clips in any more and slides around the case, but mercifully that doesn't seem to happen nearly so much now. Just as well, since nobody uses the opaque trays any more.

― Rebecca (reb), Sunday, 24 November 2002 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Ugh, yeah, the central circles fell off my Aluminium Tunes the second I opened it.

AAAAARRRRRGGGH. yes. aluminum tunes may have the worst packaging of any record i've ever owned. not to mention that the text is almost impossible to read.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 24 November 2002 16:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Anyone remember the Shellac 1000 Hurts limited edition that came in a horribly designed metal box that was designed to hurt you when you opened it? They released 1000 of them. Witty.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Sunday, 24 November 2002 17:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Those card sleeves that go over the regular CD jewel case: why?

― DavidM (DavidM), Sunday, 24 November 2002 18:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Because they beat the hell out of having to pull off those adhesive labels, and you have something you can tape to your refrigerator!

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 24 November 2002 19:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, those Rykodisc cardboard flaps stuck over the top of the jewel case = like the cardboard outer sleeves over the jewel case only 5000 times more annoying and pointless (but at least I don't feel so bad when they inevitably fall off and get trodden on and lost). Why?

I am on this thread too much. I should stop being so grouchy.

(The cardboard-sleeve-over-case thing made me forget that the Underworld live album also had an inlay card when I sold it, so if anyone has an inlay-less copy I've found it now. Well, I had, I've probably lost it again now. Slight unidentifiable grease stain, mm.)

― Rebecca (reb), Sunday, 24 November 2002 22:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the clear cd cases with extra pictures behind the holder thing.

― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 24 November 2002 23:09 (twenty-three years ago)

the thing is that most of the things being identified on this thread as "annoyances" are exactly the things I like in CD design and I suspect I'm not alone in this...is Douglas here?

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Sunday, 24 November 2002 23:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, I like digipaks and the oversized cardboard cases as well. I generally like most anything outside of the normal plastic case because I irrationally hate them now after having broken so many of em over the years. And the oversized cardboard cases are nice because they become separated from the rest of my collection! They stick out more this way, I think.

Well, more than anything I do hate when the circular grips on a digipak crack while being shipped in the mail and then can't be replaced since they are part of the packaging! This happened to my Modulations and Transformations set. GRRRR.

― original bgm, Sunday, 24 November 2002 23:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Alan: ME TOO! I bought a used copy of M & T for a friend, and it was all busted up too! And my Rechenzentrum CD, as well. THAT was a great CD, though, so I forgave them immediately.

― matt riedl (veal), Sunday, 24 November 2002 23:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I love album art gimmicks. Answer to my quiz on another thread: In Through The Out Door and Bark both came in brown paper bags! Alice Cooper's Muscle of Love came in a cardboard box, and included a book cover to put on a schoolbook! Sigue Sigue Sputnik's (i hope it was called this who wants to sell me a copy) Flaunt It came in a big cardboard box with cellophane windows; packaged like a toy.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Wasn't there some album that had one of those "magic eye" 3-D things on the cover. That certainly dates it, doesn't it?

Insert of Poster Children, Tool of the Man.

Somebody ripped off the Forever Changes cover, but thankfully I can't remember who.

― hstencil, Monday, 25 November 2002 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

in through the out door won a grammy for best album art: again, a great business idea from a bad industry point of view -- supposedly the led zep collector had to take his chances buying the paperbag covered sleeve, with the sleeve containing one of eight alternative scenes

― george gosset (gegoss), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I am unashamedly rockist about album packaging. I like mine to be in PROPER CD cases that I can replace if they get fucked up (honorable exception - Geogaddi). I especially dislike little cardboard sleeves (Godspeed You Black Emperor! I'm looking at YOU) and my Amnesiac book is a pain in the arse.

I generally dislike pics of the artist on the front cover as well, dunno why. This especially applies to hip-hop and r'n'b records.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 25 November 2002 17:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Magic eye:

http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~phoenix/reviews/thepromise.gif

Does this make you think:

a) John McLaughlin is a really switched-on hip and happening dude.
b) They used to sell those posters in shopping precints years ago.

I saw this in a shop once, I think if you squint hard enough it says "you got it". In Comic Sans font, too. Profound!

― Andrew Norman, Monday, 25 November 2002 20:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i already thought (a) so (b) i guess

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 25 November 2002 21:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Another vote for NOT showing the artist on the cover:

http://www.coolandstrange.com/CoverArt/ThoroughlyModernBig1.jpg

― Curt (cgould), Monday, 25 November 2002 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Negativland's album art gimmicks seem to annoy a lot of people, but at least they completely change the gimmicks every time... (well, most of the time).

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Too bad they don't change their music gimmicks.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:35 (twenty-three years ago)

???

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean, ok, I don't expect everyone to keep tabs on Negativland here (except Sinker of course), but "Deathsentences" is a pretty radical change, or sidestep at the very least.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Do they actually admit to liking music this time?

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, thank you for not recording in mono IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND TWO.

haha My friend has this special commemorative CD reissue of Piper At the Gates Of Dawn with special packaging, holographic artwork, beautiful booklet, etc. And, as is proudly marked on the packaging, it's a special MONO EDITION.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 00:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, more than anything I do hate when the circular grips on a digipak crack while being shipped in the mail and then can't be replaced since they are part of the packaging!
I always thought I could make a killing selling little kits helping you replace that little middle grip section of the digipacks. Just break the rest of the tabs off, and stick on a self-adhesive grip section! Voila! Of course, since I don't have the time or motivation to actually get into plastics, I am still as broke as ever.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 01:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Do they actually admit to liking music this time?
It's essentially prolonged blasts of static and noise mixed with sound effects etc, if you call that admitting to "liking music".

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 01:04 (twenty-three years ago)

They liked it so much they destroyed it. Great album.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 02:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Do they actually admit to liking music this time?

Aw, Nate, don't make me the found-sound ethan here.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 02:51 (twenty-three years ago)

(blatant "look at me" post)

Dave, does this mean that because I made this, I can put a Mandelbrot set on my album cover?

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 03:44 (twenty-three years ago)

even if it does, please don't

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 03:45 (twenty-three years ago)

worst thing ever - collages/montages of band polariods, gig tickets,
japanese fan art, ephemera and stuff. see james' greatest hits inner, house of love best of inner, gene's 'see the lights' inner, etc etc.

only original use was by orlando where they put in
bits and bobs by other bands/artists they liked - an unspooled carpenters tape, a jimmy webb 7 ", fave teen fiction etc.

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 12:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Re. "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" mono mix:

This isn't as pointless as it's sounds. The mixes are completely different; in fact they've even got different edits. Listen to the end of Flaming on both versions to hear the difference (those nice chords at the end of the stereo version just aren't on the mono version).

It's a mildly interesting case because unlike most 1960s albums there are some tracks that actually sound better on the stereo mixes (contrast with 'Revolver').

― James Larcombe, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 14:37 (twenty-three years ago)

six months pass...

Am concerned at just how much my heart sinks when an eagerly-anticipated record is released and it has a cardboard digipack sleeve, this has progressed from minor irritant to Quality-Of-Life-affecting issue and really you'd think I had more important things to worry about but apparently not. I got some little clear plastic sleeves from Piccadilly Records in Manchester which were about 12p each but they don't quite cover the whole thing and a centimetre or so is left exposed and therefore at risk from FADING or FLUFFING or SCUFFING or whatever. This really really troubles me.

ALSO: those new-ish roundy-cornered jewel-cases which don't click shut satisfactorily and can't be replaced, like on the My Computer album and I think the Gold Chains one. Maybe I just hate variety.

― Alex in Rotherham (Alex in Doncaster), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

line drawings of trendy girls and boys

― minna (minna), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Digipacks- heinous things! They don't last, just get horribly dog eared after a few months.

― russ t, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, guess no one here worked in an indie store circa 1994-97. Otherwise, the words CHILDHOOD PHOTOS would have appeared somewhere upthread.

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't like band photos on the cover much. Sometimes they're interesting, but usually I just tend to look at them and think how vain and dorky it is to get just the right attitude you're looking for to appeal to the crowd you're shooting for. If everyone just looked stoic like those old-timey portraits, I suppose it'd be alright, but quite boring, too. And besides, there's no way everyone would do that, so whoever did it would look like a tosser.

― Scaredy cat (Natola), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

the Metalhead bands name chiselled into
a) Steel
b) Granite
c) Marble
d) Concrete

Now, if they were to chisel it into Meringue, that might be cool.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

It was The Make-Up who ripped off "Forever Changes."

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc900/c967/c9674672e1c.jpg

― chris smith, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

And the 80s B-Line Matchbox Disaster are yet the latest to buck the Forever Changes trend. And they're too young to probably even be aware who Love were! Sigh, kids today...

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

and haven't we seen enough of tasteful-yet-bland lowercase-helvetica op-art/"meaningful"-photo postrock/emo type covers?

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Baked Bean Teeth, did you get your name from William Burrough's "Ticket That Exploded"? BTW, nice observation. As a designer, I love that look while at the same time hating it.

― Scaredy cat (Natola), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Scaredy cat, sorry, the name is from a "Seinfeld" episode, where George and Jerry are describing their horrible high school gym teacher, who brown teeth "like little baked beans."

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Interestingly, 80s MBLD are actually quite big Love fans, they were all at the Arthur Lee gig at the RFH a few months ago. Not that that justifies their appaling cover art... having said that the artwork for the "Forever Changes" live album takes self parody to new depths...

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

http://sealevelrecords.com/music_photos/kennedy_cd_large_thumb.jpg
another rip-off

that whole blurry abstract image thing (american indie, shoegazer ca. '90) is just people unable or unwilling to pay for photography.

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

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