Albums referred to by alternative names

Even if the artist has publicly said what the title is, and it's cataloged with said title, fans sometimes call it by a different name, either because the album title is not present on the jacket or it's become a lovable nickname for a self-titled album (this is the usual culprit). Or fans are just dumb. What are some of those and why did they get that nickname?

Going to avoid the obvious ones and start with...

Alice in Chains - s/t. Many people call this one "Tripod" because of the three-legged dog on the cover.

Garbage- s/t. Some fans called it "G" because there's a solitary G on the cover. I emailed the band and they said it was rubbish, that the title was Garbage.

Metallica - s/t. "The Black Album"

Days of the New - these idiots released 3 consecutive self-titled albums , so fans refer to the albums by their colors (Yellow/Green/Red)

More?

Happy End had two self-titled records. The first one gets called Yudemen because there's a photo of a ramen shop on the cover, and the shop's name is written there in hiragana: yu ~ de ~ me ~ n.

Makes a person wonder whether self-titled records are really such a good idea.

The White Album

Peter Gabriel's first three albums - Car, Scratch, and Melt.

The self-titled debut albums by Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne are sometimes referred to by the writing on the cover: Song to a Seagull and Saturate Before Using.

Is THE LODGER David Bowie's best record?

Do people still refer to Led Zep IV as Zoso?

Red House Painters self titled albums (Rollercoaster) (Bridge)

Was beaten to the Gabriel and Zeppelin examples before I could hit submit

However there's a whole sea of so-nicknamed-but-not-officially-named (Colour) Albums, e.g. Orbital (Blue aside), Weezer, Planxty, Adolescents, and that Liverpool band whose examples could make the French or Dutch flag.

Genesis' s/t known as 'Shapes' or 'The Shapes Album'.

Fables of the Reconstruction - Reconstruction of the Fables

Flipper's Generic goes by three or four different names.

Seen ppl mistakenly call cale’s honi soit “British passport”

Whoops honi soit that is

lol all the examples I came up with were already taken by the time I hit post

I guess you've got TMBG's debut which is often referred to as "The Pink Album" despite the band never calling it that

No-one mentioned the Velvet Underground's Banana album?

Peel slowly and S/T

I have a feeling that SPLHCB - an ugly initialism no one uses - is usually shortened as Sgt. Pepper in text but as Sgt. Pepper's in speech. Idk if this is really an accurate observation but I've noticed it somewhere down the line.

Songs with nicknames: Bo Rhap.

lol really?

This album was originally released as Joni Mitchell because the LP album covers were printed incorrectly, cutting off part of the Song to a Seagull title (spelled out by birds in flight).[citation needed] The cut-off, as well as the publishers at Reprise Records not noticing that the birds spelled out the album name, caused the eponymous album title.[citation needed]

The jury's out on Joni

PiL, Second Edition

... probably doesn't count tbh

STP'S Purple famously doesn't contain the word Purple on it, and there's a hidden track where a crooner sings "The second album, 12 gracious melodies", plus the pic of the cake on the back with those words, so people at the time mistakenly called it 12 Gracious Melodies.

Now people just call it that for fun

xp Does remind me of a generation gap I've noticed re:the third Big Star album, in that the 'Sister Lovers' name seems to have slowly vanished and young fans seem to exclusively call it 'Third'.

Metallica fans call Load "Load of Shit"

The Yardbirds - s/t called "Roger the Engineer"

I thought the STP album says "purple" in Chinese?

I think so

one weird example of this was a guy I know who referred to King Crimson's Discipline as "Red" because it had a red cover, despite the fact that they actually do have an album called "Red"

That guy needs a talking to

This confusion was the source of their song "One More Red Nightmare" (seven years early)

George Harrison's Dark Horse (album or song) as "Dark Hoarse" because of the laryngitis

Duran Duran's second s/t - The Wedding Album

Fleetwood Mac's second s/t - The White Album

David Bowie's second s/t - Space Oddity, as used officially on some reissues

Foghat's second s/t - Rock 'n' Roll

The debut album by Tyrannosaurus Rex, My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows, is often referred to by fans as "MPWFAHSITH...BNTCTWSOTB"

I'm pretty sure I've read the 1977 Crosby, Stills and Nash release called "the boat album" or "the yacht album" recently.

Fiona Apple's second album is often referred to as "When the Pawn blah blah blah"

might be just me and one friend from school, but Dub Nob Ass With My Head Man

CaETANo VeLoso - these idiots released 3 consecutive self-titled albums , so fans refer to the albums by their colors (1968/Album Branco/London, London)

we still call it “dub nob”

Clearly artists with multiple self-titled albums lend themselves well to this trend. One unnamed so far is the Grateful Dead’s “Skull & Roses” which I believe was their second s/t.

An album that earned an alternative name even though it was to my knowledge their only s/t is Pearl Jam’s “Avocado”

A man bites dog variant: the famous Bob Dylan bootleg where the fan yells “Judas” was called the Royal Albert Hall concert so ubiquitously that when they put it out officially as part of the Bootleg Series, they kept that title even though the concert in fact took place in Manchester

Do people still refer to Led Zep IV as Zoso?

Folks still refer to Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album as Led Zeppelin IV, so maybe.

The Style Council's The Cost of Loving as "The Orange Album" - rare non-s/t coloured album

ELO's Discovery as "Very Disco" (veryDisco)

Not quite the same thing, but plenty of albums with long/longish titles get routinely referred to by the cognoscenti in shortened form that would make little sense to non-fans, here are some examples from the world of prog:
Dark Side
The Lamb
Welcome Back My Friends
Topographic
Script
He To He

Some I'm very used to: Modern Life, Atomic Bomb, Confessions, Confessions again, Fables, Automatic, Piper

Is Ziggy Stardust the only album where the informal short name isn't the beginning or end of the longer name?

The House of Love's second (similarly self-titled) LP is referred to as the Butterfly album. It was also irritatingly called Fontana when it first came out as the label's name on the cover was almost as prominent as the band's name.

Skull and Roses was also supposed to be named "Skullfxxk" too.

Bad Brains’ Yellow Album (debut)

And I think it has another nickname…?

Yeah, that one is referred to by old folks like me as the "yellow tape," because it was originally cassette-only. And the first CD version was given the ridiculous title Attitude: The ROIR Sessions.

Which reminds me— Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is often called The Purple Tape.

Barenaked Ladies (more commonly known as "The Yellow Tape"), is the Barenaked Ladies' third indie tape release

hence the source of the frequent confusion between Barenaked Ladies and Bad Brains

The House of Love's second (similarly self-titled) LP is referred to as the Butterfly album

...and their album known as "Babe Rainbow" is supposedly also self-titled (again), it just happens to have the words "Babe Rainbow" printed on the front.

Phish's self-titled self-released demo was referred to as The White Tape, a name that the band adopted when they offically re-released it many years later.

Which reminds me— Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is often called The Purple Tape.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Friday, June 5, 2026 8:34 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is news to me

1st Flying Saucer Attack record was s/t but sometimes called "Rural Psychedelia" because it said that under their name on the back

xpost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Built_4_Cuban_Linx...

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (commonly referred to as the Purple Tape) is the debut studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon

If you bought the cassette, it was purple.

I suppose it’s pronounced the same, but Primal Scream’s Exterminator is almost universally referred to as XTRMNTR.

Which I guess is a category of its own: albums whose type design is so distinctive that people feel compelled to mimic it when typing the title — though the only other example I can think of offhand is the Beach Boys’ Smile, which I often see rendered as SMiLE.

Um, XTRMNTR is called XTRMNTR. Always has been. I’ve never seen anyone or anything refer to is as Exterminator. The track is called that, but the album isn’t.

If you bought the cassette, it was purple.

is it a false memory that the CD had a purple case, or at least an early version?

Purple tray, clear case, mostly red CD.

Um, XTRMNTR is called XTRMNTR. Always has been.

Not always. I bought it the week of release and the credits read “Exterminator (c) 2000.” I do think it’s become the title for all practical purposes since then, but the copyright is under Exterminator.

(Just checked Discogs and it’s listed as Exterminator there FWIW.)