Classic Album, FUCKING TERRIBLE Cover Art

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I've always hated HATED how the Lips were portrayed on In a Priest Driven Ambulance. it makes then look like some Guitar Center employees and their stoner friends forming some sort of Guns N' Roses/Jane's Addiction type rip-off band. (Although Wayne Coyne has admitted to ripping off GNR before! Although by this phase, the Flaming Lips were pretty much at their peak.)

donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I guess I also don't like how pouty the Lips look here, when Wayne is one of the least pouty rock stars ever (for better or worse)

donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link

dear god we've got people listing new order and '70s funk albums' on this thread WTF

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link

blount OTM, especially re: 70s funk records!! wtf indeed. I like a lot of the album covers on here (Soft Cell, Flaming Lips, GbV). That Junior Murvin cover tho - yeah I dunno if its great or terrible. It's a great *image* but the style it's executed in is really goofy.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:11 (nineteen years ago) link

mainly in comparison to its bretheren

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:13 (nineteen years ago) link

any Neil Young album

Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:14 (nineteen years ago) link

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:15 (nineteen years ago) link

any neil young album without his handwriting or him on the cover maybe

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:16 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.musicmatic.de/R/Rollers2a.jpg

Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link

re: Neil Young, uh no. After the Gold Rush, Tonight's the Night, Time Fades Away, American Stars and Bars (designed by Dean Stockwell!) are all great.

Landing on Water is awful tho.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link

classic albums with classic covers disturbingly replaced on the cd could fill the thread but this one's always annoyed me the most

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link

urrgh yeah that's a travesty. the original flag/daisy design is soooooo classic.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link

In the 90's especially, there were a ton of hack-job Photoshop renderings that made their way onto album covers. An example:
http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/c0/53/85429-resized200.JPG

Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Jessie SO OTM regarding Let Love In. Henry's Dream was pretty crap too.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:26 (nineteen years ago) link

At the risk of being misunderstood, I'm talking SOLELY about their cover art. Both those Cave albums are utterly classic.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:27 (nineteen years ago) link

i don't mind let love in so much but god the henry's dream art was awful.

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:28 (nineteen years ago) link

This classic album used to have a classic cover, until it was replaced by this rather pointless photo:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002P5U.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:35 (nineteen years ago) link

the lame nude chix cover was conceived by some suit. hendrix hated it, for good reason. that's not great (the only hendrix cover i luv is axis), but at least he looks like he's on fire and it fills the frame which works well with the album.

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:37 (nineteen years ago) link

o god some the "psychedelic" hendrix photos that were on the covers of the cd reissues briefly during the nineties were awful and deserve a namecheck here. thankfully you could flip the book around and get the original covers.

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link

oh come on the Are You Experienced? album cover is damn near perfect.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:42 (nineteen years ago) link

but the axis cover is perfect

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm not that crazy about shot from beneath a person, i think the 'give it away' video traumatized me.

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link

has anyone ever realized that De La's album cover has them making a PEACE SIGN with the typography & their heads???? LOL. Brilliance.

u guys really are contributing sum quite unterrible covers, by the way, (including the De La, the Soft Cell & the Peter Gabriel,--the first & last being easily be argued as sum the BEST ever) & also throwing out quite a few NOT-VERY-CLASSIC MUSIC SELECTIONS as well...

but personally, gigantic co-sign on the Brian Wilson SMiLE cover, same with the original intended cover as well. complete lazy non-happy-effect-giving, non thought out, non-anything C-R-A-P. what the hell happened??
http://wsucr.no-ip.org/smile.jpg

& though I fully disagree bout the very iconic & fully greatly-designed Day-Glow Hippy Peace Sign cover, I always though De La's second album: cover hindered me ever really accepting the album
http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/d/delasoul~~~_delasouli_101b.jpg
just never actually wanted that shoddy cover in my collection. Never bought the record. Buhloone Mindstate was arguably worse, but with the much improved cover (Best De La cover award??) then I think it's impacted me much further listening & appreciating it.

Also, the second Pharcyde album cover is very mediocre, but especially the back cover. just sh*tty looking... bad photoshopped(?) gritty bitmapped purple lighting, & just bad general type & layout & everything. Especially compared ta the magnifincence of the first LP cover.


And not that anybody here'll likely know what I'm talking bout--Sticky Fingaz Black Trash Autobiography cover with him alternately in the fake braids & in the spiked-leather-jacket, running away from the cop car, with the sh*tty "red glare lights" just always looked real reallll disgustingly chunky bad turrible ta me. Never quite felt right leaving it on the display shelf though it's arguably a should-be-classic.

Cavebaby Jesus, Friday, 15 April 2005 00:34 (nineteen years ago) link

this one PWNS this thread:

http://www.musicmatic.de/Z/Zappa__7a.jpg

Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 15 April 2005 00:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Eisbar so OTM that I have to go donate my innards to science.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link

gary numan's ghost is definitely not a classic, but it's NOT awful.

the cover, though -- yikes!

http://www.songlyricscollection.com/lyrics/g/gary-numan/exhibition-tour-1987-ghost/exhibition-tour-1987-ghost.jpg

Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Late to thread as always but I really like Anton Corbin's cover on Henry's Dream. I'll give you Let Love In though, Nick is much better served in a suit.

I always had a problem with this cover. It takes a nanosecond for something like that to automatically look dated:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000272N.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:04 (nineteen years ago) link

oh, but ned's gonna hate me now!

http://www.wishville.co.uk/chameleons/images/sotb0001.jpg

Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:17 (nineteen years ago) link

i put most nick cave album covers in the AWFUL category on principle, for that AWFUL mullet he used to sport.

Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link

One of my favorite albums of all time.....but the cover is laughable....

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002KHH.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link

The guy on the front of Paranoid reminds me of my 6-year-old self playing Star Wars in my back yard with a glow-in-the-dark lightsaber.

Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh man. That cover is BRILLIANT. He's p a r a n o i d !

Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:39 (nineteen years ago) link

No, actually, they're War Pigs (the original title of the record). Geddit? Pink? Weapons? War Pigs? Geddit?

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:44 (nineteen years ago) link

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd800/d862/d86291nkvl6.jpg

a great great album, but the covers always bugged me

m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:56 (nineteen years ago) link

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004TUFG.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

- (smile), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:33 (nineteen years ago) link

i mean, he looks like a geek. you can't wrap about not gamblin with sneaks when you look like a geek. love the album though.

- (smile), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:34 (nineteen years ago) link

rap*

- (smile), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Paranoid's cover really is a classic WTF. It makes you wonder if Black Sabbath was just as surprised when they saw it. Did they complain to their manager? Was it the band's idea? If so, were they having a good laugh? Were they so fucked up they though it wasn't hysterical? Did they think they're album would be so huge, the cover wouldn't matter? Or that the cover would attract so much attention because it is so fucked up?

Lemonade Salesman (Eleventy-Twelve), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:36 (nineteen years ago) link

http://homepages.tesco.net/~beautiful.day/images/ellipse.jpg

(I don't think Bardo Pond have ever had a good album cover)

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:43 (nineteen years ago) link

The thing about Paranoid is that for a record that was so heavy and dark and angry and scary and...er..paranoid, it suffered from a sleeve that looked cheap and silly.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:46 (nineteen years ago) link

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000240JU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

all their cover art is pretty damn bad now that I think about it.

jason., Friday, 15 April 2005 02:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Alex, I agree 100%. When I first saw it, it was the stupidest cover I had ever seen at that time. I laughed and chalked it up to "back when things were lame and stupid" (back then I thought the 80s were the best decade ever and was way into Metallica).

Lemonade Salesman (Eleventy-Twelve), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I liked their first two album covers, but this is just bland
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003BGM.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

jason., Friday, 15 April 2005 02:59 (nineteen years ago) link

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I was about to post Giant Steps.

Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Friday, 15 April 2005 03:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Paranoid's cover is a letdown, yes. As are the aforementioned brilliant Nick Cave album covers.

It gives me great satisfaction though to see Ride's Going Blank Again here, though, because even though I don't think it's a "classic" album, the cover will always be much, much worse than its aural contents, and I think someone really did need to point out just how bad that cover is.

The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Friday, 15 April 2005 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Also...

they fired original sleeve designer Mike Coles.

Which means they will burn in hell I hope.

The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Friday, 15 April 2005 03:10 (nineteen years ago) link

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000691TH.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

It's not so much that it's a visually bad cover....it's got an interesting design (cribbed from French film poster, i want to say....), but it just has zero to do with (a) the album, (b) the band. Sometimes -- as with the example of Junkyard -- that can be compelling. Not in this case.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 April 2005 03:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Paranoid's cover really is a classic WTF. It makes you wonder if Black Sabbath was just as surprised when they saw it. Did they complain to their manager? Was it the band's idea? If so, were they having a good laugh?

No, they hated it.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 15 April 2005 03:15 (nineteen years ago) link


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