Classic Album, FUCKING TERRIBLE Cover Art

Some paranoid people are indefensibly silly.

http://www.dominorecordco.com/images/artists/townes_van_zandt/1024_540/tvz_ourmother.jpg

http://img6.xooimage.com/files/2/2/e/the-rolling-stone...aftermath-b1a4c7.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000272N.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpghttp://www.tonyrogers.com/humor/images/brian_peppers1.jpg

Hold on what's wrong with that Townes Van Zandt cover?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AJcpmbP_Sow/R0xUNj7voPI/AAAAAAAAAek/XxmXg2GOEFA/s320/folder.jpg

Ok, if they were a disco band this is actually fine, but they actually sound like the Bee Gees pre-disco, except for one glam rock track.

Hold on what's wrong with that Townes Van Zandt cover?

I just really hate the colors. And that border. And the yellow text.

That Stereolab cover is fantastic and the title is directly lifted from a weird Japanese film from the 70s

D- thread revive :(

the title is directly lifted from a weird Japanese film from the 70s

I think it is a question of taste what you think about the cover. I find it ugly. The colours are dirty and don't go well together, the font they use for Stereolab is laughable. The spiral, the sun and the sun rays look cheap. In a universe of bad taste that cover would surely be a classic though.

no wai - I love how wonky the spiral is, it's like own-brand novelty potato crisps. It's just always been totally visually arresting for me, very... warming and not bearing a lot of comparison with other album art I can think of. (Any OG copies on CD are going to be fucking trashed now tho cos it came in the flimsiest card sleeve ever)

ime most great albums have great cover art, here's one of the exceptions:

https://i.imgur.com/Qz6s2zR.jpg

I know they hated it but I always thought the Royal Scam cover fit the music perfectly, dirty streets and pollution and bums. and big snakes on top of skyscrapers

I love this album & think it's a modern classic but goddamn I hate the cover. Looks so 2004, ott Garden State twee, the font sucks, the drawing is shitty, the kids are ugly, the color palette is all wrong, and it just looks really amateurish, like a CD-R you'd find on a subway platform.

http://www.clashmusic.com/sites/default/files/field/image/girlpool_-_before_the_world_was_big_sm_2.jpg

Niels you’re crazy. That’s a fantastic cover!

Well said, it's great, perfect for the album.

gonna go with this

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/YMO_-_BGM_album_cover.jpg

also, both Skylarking covers

the BGM cover always makes me do a double-take and spend a little bit trying to figure out if it really is just just a toothbrush getting washed off at a sink. i like it!

the royal scam, bgm and skylarking (both versions) are all wonderful album covers, and all fit perfectly with the respective albums!

I also like this unofficial alternate cover to skylarking by Saša Markoviæ Mikrob:

http://chalkhills.org/images/fanart/Mikrob-xtc1.jpg

wtf BGM cover is great!

I liked their first two album covers, but this is just bland

― jason., Thursday, April 14, 2005 10:59 PM (twelve years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that wire cover is beautiful.

Yes, some odd choices in this thread.

xp yeah that's my favorite wire cover.

christ, the BGM cover is one of my all time favorites!!

Countdown to Ecstacy also p terrible imo:

https://i.imgur.com/JzLnp6T.png

fortunately it's somewhat vindicated by the awesome back cover photo:

https://i.imgur.com/OdX4Xrv.png

Happy to hear Royal Scam cover has its fans, to me it looks slightly disgusting and doesn't give any idea of what the music sounds like, I avoided that record for quite a while assuming the songs would not be quality, now its one of the SD albums I put on the most

It confounds me that Radiohead and R.E.M. both got to where they were off the back of having, with few exceptions, absolutely terrible cover art.

Oh yeah I was looking at Countdown to Ecstasy the other day and thinking it looked awful. Don't have a problem with The Royal Scam

Back in 2011, I wrote a piece about how regardless of the merits of the music, pretty much every Britney Spears album cover is terrible:

https://www.theawl.com/2011/02/the-album-covers-of-britney-spears-a-history/

https://img.discogs.com/Oevqitnuwa_c0t8P4xSQ7hCQ-xw=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-868-1231086401.jpeg.jpg

I like that cover. Or at least I remember liking it at the time. I never got the pun in the album title. 'snivel'?

I think Can’t Buy a Thrill is SD’s worst cover and Aja their best

Yeah, it's a portmanteau of "snivel" and "civilisation" ...

(x-post)

I like the sleeves to Aja, Katy Lied and Pretzel Logic ... I'm less keen on the others.

I think every SD album rules but only Aja and Gaucho have decent covers

I like that cover. Or at least I remember liking it at the time. I never got the pun in the album title. 'snivel'?

Variant spelling of sniffle, which is why the 'man' is blowing his nose.

Terrible title whatever the story behind it.

oh he is blowing his nose. I never noticed the hankie, just thought he was giving a thumbs-up. Oh god, it's the techno equivalent of 'I've Got My Own Album To Do'

Back in 2011, I wrote a piece about how regardless of the merits of the music, pretty much every Britney Spears album cover is terrible:

eheh, this is otm ! has there ever been such a big international star with such consistently awful album covers ??

Not really a proper classic but I really enjoyed Out Hud's music but whomever they had as a graphic designer was amongst the worst ever to practice the skill.

https://resources.tidal.com/images/e8dffaa9/a1ed/4be6/8564/8a01b48d4dcf/1280x1280.jpg

that's pretty deliberately bad though eh?

I took me forever to listen to Cat Stevens' early 70's albums because I just assumed they were private press recordings of children's folk tales:
https://i.discogs.com/6zMI2a3dnugiV_sYw25N_dEnY8rpEg9pXq4GGSjjUbw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:496/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExNzI3/NzMtMTM1MzEwNjA4/My04ODkyLmpwZWc.jpeghttps://i.discogs.com/PycZ2uK8cax6Pcu3KduZFZfudXplB8GJ0t0u0v5JxL8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ3Mzg3/My0xMTYyODE0NTA1/LmpwZWc.jpeghttps://i.discogs.com/AR_zfSl-ySfS1rNU_W6MYgsbmYsHc4GPo3Gc7sWAHls/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:500/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU1MDQz/MzYtMTQzMDk5MDMx/MC05NzExLmpwZWc.jpeg

Dammit, I like the Countdown to Ecstasy cover.

But I can't abide this one...

https://i.imgur.com/k3KAH8D.jpg

I think Mona Bone Jakon and Invisible Touch are brilliant album covers (I like Countdown to Ecstasy too) - but I'm used to liking sleeves others don't.

My favourite sort of sleeves are reasonably minimal but usually have vivacious colour schemes and some nice symbols or images on them or something.

Snivilisation is great but I think it would look better if it wasn't purely b&w

It never occurred to me before, but that invisible touch cover is pretty yawnsomely literal.

I've always thought the cover art for Led Zeppelin III is pretty terrible

Not sure if these two have been mentioned yet.
https://i.discogs.com/lyKy1z6fxwBjy-LMfZWFyFUZrAvd4JdTeIViAJprzXo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzNzU1/NTc1LTE1OTM4MTQy/ODAtMTQyOS5qcGVn.jpeg
https://i.discogs.com/-OMGBkLDpJnhQE_1bfKWqon1UVOyD8LsOVw-k2dPo0Q/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0ODk1/NTItMTUyMzEzMzMw/NC04Mzg3LmpwZWc.jpeg

I actually really like that aesthetic, though I think the illustration on Funky Kingston is stronger than the one on Livin' For You. Also the Livin' For You kind of recalls Grateful Dead American Beauty (wood grain, rose, vaguely psychedelic).

Split Enz Mental Notes is the weirdo prog-pop version of that style, and I like it too:

https://i.discogs.com/RTloqsrkDao2rDTc2lErjjmZ2yPTzoG3qeb5o9c0zn8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTkxODYw/Mi0xNDY1MTM3MTM4/LTg0MTAuanBlZw.jpeg