WORST album Cover EVER!!!

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Inspired by my "Favorite album cover ever" thread of yesterday, list your LEAST fave/absolutely unforgivable album covers here. Nothing to do with the music, mind you, just the cover art. The first ones that pop into my head:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd200/d238/d238663u703.jpg http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c414/c41448xdqw9.jpg http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d734/d7344844lwx.jpg

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

http://tinyurl.com/3jkj http://tinyurl.com/3jko http://tinyurl.com/3jkq

gazuga (gazuga), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually like Daydream Nation's cover. Starkly simple.

paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:40 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre300/e329/e3295969yd5.jpg

original bgm, Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Dammit I like that Chams cover.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Really, Ned? It looks like a poster from an 11 year old girl's wall. The only thing missing is the unicorn.

paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

http://home.attbi.com/~mrmarshallstax/photos/mbvsuck.jpg
MBV obviously didn't spend any money on a good photgrapher.

Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc700/c769/c76955x9tky.jpg

It's been 25 years, fer chrissakes! Bring back the flames!

paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Guitarist Reg Smithies designed it (and all the other Chams covers), and I just like the sense of open landscapes each of the main four pictures in the cover portrays, especially the children on a hill in the lower left. Fits in well with the concluding song "View From a Hill."

As for MBV, the former was from a video and the latter merely shows that you can do wonders with overexposure! Please note the homage given to it in Fellowship of the Ring when Frodo wakes up in Rivendell. It's true I tell you! *wibbles away*

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf600/f621/f62155kkuu7.jpg

Aaron A., Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:34 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000029F0.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Joe (Joe), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf400/f423/f42317khcg3.jpg

also the Stephen Malkmus album and then the inevitable Albarn debut!

Aaron A., Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite like that Magnetic Fields cover.


Ian Johnson (orion), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree with Alan N. That King Crimson cover is deeply irksome for some inexplicable reason.

Lord Custos Omega (Lord Custos Omega), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's the nostrils.

original bgm, Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I LOVE the King Crimson cover! Incidentally, the artist died of a heart attack (at the age of 27) within a year of its release.

Joe (Joe), Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:10 (twenty-two years ago)

could someone who's better than me
(i.e. anyone) at putting pictures onto
computers put up
'fanx, ta-ra' by sad cafe.

too horrible for words, esp. the cap.

piscesboy, Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc900/c993/c993227508b.jpg

Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

AMEN

B, Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

All the rekkid covers in this thread are all off the chain

Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d701/d701635e49l.jpg

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Poppy (poppy), Sunday, 15 December 2002 06:51 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000070TC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 06:58 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004TCQ1.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003S1Q.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000066RO2.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:05 (twenty-two years ago)

That or Pat Green has to take the fucking cake. Like what the fuck is Gary Beers pointing at? And where did Hutch get that awful fucking ring? HURRRRK. HURK.

I really only put a KJ one in there to piss off Alex so he'd call me a cretin.

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Can anyone find a more repulsive album cover than "Sweet Sixteen" from Royal Trux?

http://www005.upp.so-net.ne.jp/bach/images/sweetsixteen.jpg

Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, Poppy beat me to it!

Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 09:35 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.gregsgrooves.com/images/blindfth.jpg

chaki (chaki), Sunday, 15 December 2002 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002MIB.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 15 December 2002 10:48 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000W7U.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

JoB (JoB), Sunday, 15 December 2002 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.no-colours-records.de/bilder/releases/thors_gross.jpg
This is so wrong...

Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 15 December 2002 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.io.com/~dork/pics/recpics5/littlejoe.jpg

Curt (cgould), Sunday, 15 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

http://column.daum.net/Column-bin/Bbs.cgi/ssalad/dwn/zka/B2-kBYRo/qqfdnum/11/qqsubno/16/qqfname/visceralevisceration.jpg
A woman in a meat grinder. Classy.

Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 15 December 2002 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of these are great, though!

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 December 2002 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002JK0.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 15 December 2002 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/images/a/andrew-wk/i-get-wet.gif

dyson (dyson), Sunday, 15 December 2002 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, this thread really took off!

I love the King Crimson one, as jarring as it is. I also love..er...LOVELESS. I think it's the perfect visual accompaniment to the album (it looks like it sounds).

Tom Millar must be smitten repeatedly with a mallet, once again, for citing the Joke (not least a cover I happen to love...is Jaz laughing, crying, having a spazz out? Why aren't the boys behind him reacting?)

Black Sabbath's PARANOID's cover is so bad that it's wonderful.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Ugly ugly ugly...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002JLC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Joe (Joe), Sunday, 15 December 2002 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.ashra.com/covers/1751in1.jpg

JFP, Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre900/e961/e961663h3u3.jpg

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Always found this vaguely tasteless...but maybe that's intentional?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc300/c355/c35533ae73u.jpg

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

man, some of these are among my favourite sleeves ever! (RTX, MBV, Mag Fields..)

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 16 December 2002 00:52 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000001IRB.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:09 (twenty-two years ago)

When the above album came out (NOFX), I was writing for a crappy music mag called THE NEW REVIEW OF RECORDS (don't look for it, it's long gone), but I was sent a copy of this album and a promo poster......which is an alternate version of the cover in which the famer was 69'ing with the sheep. It was rough, lemme tell ya.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:11 (twenty-two years ago)

farmer, not famer

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:11 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc300/c308/c308112oo19.jpg

In this case, both the album and the cover were dire.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely the original sleeve to The Scorpions' "Virgin Killer" album is the worst sleeve of all time? It's so questionable that even wikipedia had a lot of hassle over it a couple of years ago.

Turrican, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 16:46 (fourteen years ago)

*Google Images it*

Gah!

jer.fairall, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:13 (fourteen years ago)

Which is to say, thanks for not posting it here (though i realize now that the replacement cover is upthread).

jer.fairall, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:15 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/atomic-jones.jpg

one word username (snoball), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:20 (fourteen years ago)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EDOGPkxLE7E/TU9rIILM_yI/AAAAAAAAABI/VusaiBWfQXE/s1600/exhumedgoremetal.jpg

jer.fairall, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:20 (fourteen years ago)

xxp:
Yeah, I would never post anything like that here, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either. VERY questionable. It's one of those things that I find it very uncomfortable knowing it EXISTS, even.

Turrican, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:22 (fourteen years ago)

I'm fairly certain it has been posted here and yeah, it's completely awful.

kkvgz, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:26 (fourteen years ago)

There should really be a separate WORST Death Metal/Goregrind album Cover EVER!!! thread. Because that Exhumed is the tip of the iceberg and most of them are very NSFW.

Cal Poxy (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 08:41 (fourteen years ago)

I think there should be different categories for covers that are aesthetically awful, and covers with questionable content. I think aesthetically speaking the original "Virgin Killer" cover conveys its concept very well, it's just that the concept itself is terrible.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 08:51 (fourteen years ago)

So "Lovedrive" would go in the aesthetically awful category immediately, then! The Scorpions are a remarkable example, actually... didn't they have something like three albums covers in a row which generated some kind of controversy?

Turrican, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 21:51 (fourteen years ago)

seven months pass...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2z7ph9kmn1r7w51xo1_cover.jpg

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:33 (thirteen years ago)

Wow, are their royalty checks really not enough to hire a legit graphic designer? That kinda looks like this:

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/658/cover_202061252009.jpg

Advanced Uncle Meat recovery system (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:45 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TER631QVL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

cwkiii, Friday, 13 July 2012 00:56 (thirteen years ago)

"I can imagine the band holding a meeting after the second LP was released...

"Hmm, it looks like the album didn't sell quite as much as the first one, even with the sublime idea of a cover we had."

"Maybe the public just wasn't ready for it..."

"Hey, I know! Why don't we make the jeans-wearing crab in the first LP our mascot? Kinda like Iron Maiden has that troll thing."

"My god, that's brilliant! They'll love it!"

actually i understand there's a backstory to that. i can't verify the truth of this at all, but it's the stuff of north carolina legend. apparently some time in the 70's, nantucket, along with 4 or 5 other bands around the country, were given some sort of "development contract" with a label, and some middling amount of money. all the other bands obligingly spent their wad of cash on a good demo, maybe some radio promotion for their demosingle on local radio stations and whatnot, etc etc while nantucket took the ENTIRE WAD and bought.... a single billboard, on a major highway running into some large nc town (winston salem? charlotte?) showing the giant lobster, and the words "coming april 14th 1975" or something. and, booked the local giant stadium for april 14th.

the record executives were like, "you're idiots and we're dropping you" but the cryptic, mysterious billboard got people in the area so riled up the arena actually sold out, the band quintupled their money and now had 20,000 new fans who thought of them as both arena level superstars and hometown heros with a clever streak, and someone else promptly signed them.

i figure it was some shmaltzy record exec who was like "enough with the lobster already!" on the second album but after sales disappointed the band was all "fuck you, we're keeping the lobster"

messiahwannabe, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:52 (thirteen years ago)

sorry, for reference:

http://www.2112online.com/nantucket/images/sleeve1.jpg

messiahwannabe, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:54 (thirteen years ago)

the post to which i refer, and all 7 album covers

messiahwannabe, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:59 (thirteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://www.dirrtyremixes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/tn-fareastmovement-turnupthelove-300x300.jpg

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 5 August 2012 11:29 (thirteen years ago)

Lovesexy is the worst album cover of all time.

Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 5 August 2012 16:25 (thirteen years ago)

mr. snrub is the worst challopian of all time

defriend the undefriendable (how's life), Sunday, 5 August 2012 16:40 (thirteen years ago)

six months pass...

http://www.themusicninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/clarity-e1349294386321.jpeg

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 17 February 2013 14:13 (twelve years ago)

seven months pass...

http://djpromotion.com.pl/image/o/3071.jpg

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 15:48 (eleven years ago)

In 1989, CBS Records had the nerve to release The Wizard of Oz soundtrack on CD with this cover, evidently drawn for a junior high school art class and bought at a garage sale for a dollar:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ZM4P4HZKL.jpg

Hideous Lump, Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:26 (eleven years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Nuclear_Assault_Something_Wicked.jpg

how's life, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 12:41 (eleven years ago)

three weeks pass...

:( and i really like lady leshurr as well, but..

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SD9fVIJuL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 15 November 2013 10:19 (eleven years ago)

eight months pass...

http://www.altnewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mastodon-once-more-round-the-sun.jpg

Shin Oliva Suzuki, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 04:37 (eleven years ago)

Cover connections!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/zyklon-b-zombie/k.jpg

Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 07:05 (eleven years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Tails_of_Illusion.jpg

I only listen to Vantablack Metal (snoball), Tuesday, 5 August 2014 08:45 (eleven years ago)

Koxbox & Fox

Barry Gordy (Neil S), Tuesday, 5 August 2014 10:20 (eleven years ago)

The last three are great.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 13:11 (eleven years ago)

Looking at a cover offerede for Atomic basie and it does look like a cheap knock off of the cover I'm familiar with it having. I have it with a picture of the mushroom cloud from an atomic blast , not with the photo of an older Basie over it.
I can't see what the image somebody claimed it looked like a cheap knock off of since the image URL is dead. Not sure fi the cover I'm familiar with was the original one but the lp's late 50s isn't it? SO it'd be likely to be one of the earlier ones using an image like that if it was.

Stevolende, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 14:08 (eleven years ago)

THere are some odd choices in the rest of this thread, the one that comes to mind is Ege Bamyasi. Thunk it was a really great use of found art myself.

I'm assuming that that was just a can of a widely available product that had been photographed and stuck on the cover. Since i thought I''d heard something along the lines of one of the band members coming across such a can with their band name which I think means 'Life'or 'ánima' or something to that effect in Turkish. & that was why there was a firm making healthy food products for presumably the predominantly turkish market of which that was an example.

Stevolende, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 14:13 (eleven years ago)

I think Nantucket are my favourite band that I've never heard.

a proclamation of tortoise intent (ultros ultros-ghali), Tuesday, 5 August 2014 18:34 (eleven years ago)

One I dont really understand is the INXS 'X' cover - its now the 90s, you're at your post-Kick commercial zenith, toured stadiums, and are proper adults and everything..

Why the fuck would you put out a cover like that?

(And I like the singles)

Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 23:22 (eleven years ago)

ten months pass...

http://i.imgur.com/qcVBnqE.jpg

Karl Malone, Saturday, 6 June 2015 00:11 (ten years ago)

Yeah, that's remarkably lol

Johnny Fever, Saturday, 6 June 2015 00:13 (ten years ago)

six months pass...

http://www.recordsbymail.com/uploads/4-7-15-2/48474.jpg

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:20 (nine years ago)

who the fuck are stoney & meatloaf btw?

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:21 (nine years ago)

shit it is *that* meat loaf isn't it? ps any good?

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:25 (nine years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Murphy_%28singer%29

And Meatloaf is Meatloaf, dude.

stupid children forever (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:26 (nine years ago)

met in the detroit production of 'hair' apparently, and listening to the music it does sound like it's born out of the theatre. wonder who mr loaf felt about being visually represented by a rissole

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:39 (nine years ago)

is it common knowledge that Meat Loaf was signed to Motown? because I had no idea.

small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:53 (nine years ago)

it was on a motown subsidiary - rare earth records (same label as 70s era r. dean taylor & toe fat)

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 21:59 (nine years ago)

ah, well that makes it slightly less strange. I know Motown diversified a lot in the '70s.

small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:04 (nine years ago)

it's not ever the original cover for the record... this is a reissue.

new noise, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:10 (nine years ago)

*even

new noise, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:11 (nine years ago)

that fucking meal looks like a reissue iykwim

seb mooczag (NickB), Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:15 (nine years ago)

just scanning through this, def some weird picks. A Farewell to Kings? Daydream Nation? really?

akm, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:27 (nine years ago)

the worst cover in recent memory is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs one for mosquito. Have they done anything since?

akm, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:27 (nine years ago)

wonder who mr loaf felt about being visually represented by a rissole

He'd be like "what's a rissole, man?" Because he's AMERICAN.

stupid children forever (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 20 December 2015 01:09 (nine years ago)

Earholes, eyeholes & pissholes iirc

seb mooczag (NickB), Sunday, 20 December 2015 01:35 (nine years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.