WORST album Cover EVER!!!

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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:

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:14 (10 years ago) Permalink

gazuga (gazuga), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

Alan N (Alan N), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dammit I like that Chams cover.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink


MBV obviously didn't spend any money on a good photgrapher.

Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:50 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, 15 December 2002 00:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

Aaron A., Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:34 (10 years ago) Permalink


Joe (Joe), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

Aaron A., Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

I quite like that Magnetic Fields cover.


Ian Johnson (orion), Sunday, 15 December 2002 01:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

I think it's the nostrils.

Alan N (Alan N), Sunday, 15 December 2002 02:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

AMEN

B, Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:11 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:13 (10 years ago) Permalink

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 December 2002 04:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

Poppy (poppy), Sunday, 15 December 2002 06:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 06:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tom Millar (Millar), Sunday, 15 December 2002 07:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

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


Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 09:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

Sorry, Poppy beat me to it!

Marshall Stax (Marshall Stax), Sunday, 15 December 2002 09:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

chaki (chaki), Sunday, 15 December 2002 10:08 (10 years ago) Permalink


Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 15 December 2002 10:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

JoB (JoB), Sunday, 15 December 2002 11:16 (10 years ago) Permalink


This is so wrong...

Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 15 December 2002 12:00 (10 years ago) Permalink


Curt (cgould), Sunday, 15 December 2002 14:34 (10 years ago) Permalink


A woman in a meat grinder. Classy.

Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 15 December 2002 14:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Some of these are great, though!

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 December 2002 15:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 15 December 2002 15:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

dyson (dyson), Sunday, 15 December 2002 17:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ugly ugly ugly...

Joe (Joe), Sunday, 15 December 2002 19:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

JFP, Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:22 (10 years ago) Permalink

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:24 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 15 December 2002 22:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

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 (10 years ago) Permalink

farmer, not famer

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:11 (10 years ago) Permalink

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

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 16 December 2002 01:13 (10 years ago) Permalink

just looking at the old images: nothing wrong with Sonic Old People using Richter's candles for Daydream Nation other than perhaps a light charge of pretension...

and that Geto boys hospital shot is priceless.

zoom, Saturday, 23 January 2010 12:40 (3 years ago) Permalink

yeah the geto boys album cover is the best thing ever

antexit, Saturday, 23 January 2010 14:42 (3 years ago) Permalink

PaulTMA, Saturday, 23 January 2010 15:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

Evan, Saturday, 23 January 2010 16:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

Evan, Saturday, 23 January 2010 16:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

^ "We're so rich, we can afford a dude to photoshop us into a computer-generated scene of wealthy grandeur. TAKE THAT, FIDDY!"

Did you say you were going to mangle the light? (staggerlee), Saturday, 23 January 2010 17:18 (3 years ago) Permalink

take that, Fiddy; take it to the LIMIT.

zoom, Saturday, 23 January 2010 21:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

bwoling fro suop (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 20:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

Like the cover for New Order's Technique gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Neil S, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

Grace? Really?

billstevejim, Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:35 (3 years ago) Permalink

For me, nothing is beneath this...

billstevejim, Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:37 (3 years ago) Permalink

billstevejim, Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:40 (3 years ago) Permalink

billstevejim, Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:42 (3 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

Ridiculous, cheap and offensive on so many levels. Pretty sure the music would be terrible too:

Tim. E "LazRus" Lucas (Prose b4 Hoes...and Big Hoos), Sunday, 10 October 2010 07:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

This one is pretty horrible, but it was the one it replaced which deserves the title of the worst ever:

Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Sunday, 10 October 2010 11:27 (2 years ago) Permalink

and what said concentration camp were one of the south's greatest groups in This is the thread where you can talk about Mystikal

zvookster, Sunday, 10 October 2010 18:23 (2 years ago) Permalink


"For those of you about to nap, we salute you!"

buju_stanton (Hurting 2), Sunday, 10 October 2010 18:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

I wish I could retroactively sb the person who nominated Daydream Nation

groovy-otter.gif (corey), Sunday, 10 October 2010 18:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

^ this is pretty tasteless yes?

Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Sunday, 11 September 2011 18:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

RIP

life should have a slow-moving fan (Lee626), Sunday, 11 September 2011 19:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

No butcher cover yet?

life should have a slow-moving fan (Lee626), Sunday, 11 September 2011 21:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Basie cover looks like a cheap gray-market knockoff of this classic (with the no-less-offensive cover):

shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 11 September 2011 21:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

jer.fairall, Monday, 12 September 2011 05:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 15:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

HAT.

emil.y, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

That's a great album cover, by the way.

emil.y, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

I do kind of like his mad expression and the concentric way his 'tache droops with the same degree of curvature as his HAT is drooping, but overall, um...

Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 15:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

He looks like a Conehead

life should have a slow-moving fan (Lee626), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 16:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

He looks like he is having a spiritual moment, which he probably is because he is DAVY GRAHAM.

some lady (La Lechera), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 16:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

*Google Images it*

Gah!

jer.fairall, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

one word username (snoball), Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

jer.fairall, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

kkvgz, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 17:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

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 (1 year ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

Advanced Uncle Meat recovery system (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

cwkiii, Friday, 13 July 2012 00:56 (10 months ago) Permalink

"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 (10 months ago) Permalink

sorry, for reference:

messiahwannabe, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:54 (10 months ago) Permalink

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

messiahwannabe, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:59 (10 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 5 August 2012 11:29 (9 months ago) Permalink

Lovesexy is the worst album cover of all time.

Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 5 August 2012 16:25 (9 months ago) Permalink

mr. snrub is the worst challopian of all time

defriend the undefriendable (how's life), Sunday, 5 August 2012 16:40 (9 months ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 17 February 2013 14:13 (3 months ago) Permalink


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