Classic Album, FUCKING TERRIBLE Cover Art

Why did they ever switch? And why is that version no longer available? Down in history with an embarrassing cover.

No I didn't, worm.

It's an amazing record cursed with an idiotic sleeve, chosen by the record company (whom they've since parted ways with) after they fired original sleeve designer Mike Coles.

that badfinger cover is awesome!

Ah, but the argument could be made -- albeit poorly and without a great deal of merit -- that it also displays the consequences of rape, i.e. being pounced on by a big scary red robot with daggers for teeth.

I always thought it was the other robot that did the raping, as the big red one appears to be jumping over the wall at him.

http://eil.com/newgallery/Guns-N-Roses-Appetite-For-Dest-307531.jpg

xpost - that's not a skeleton?

Yes, I loved his "W" goatee.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0001WPSJ0.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://hometown.aol.com/jesusandsue2/PorkyPigTag2.jpg

However, this album always belongs in threads like this one:
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005ASHM.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

It is interesting that, while album covers from the mid 60s or earlier were usually crap, great albums such as the first three Beatles albums, Elvis' debut and Sinatras' "Sings For Only The Lonely" all had really classic covers.

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/S/soft_cell_nonf.jpg

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00000745F.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

https://static.stereogum.com/blogs.dir/2/files/2014/02/Soundgarden-Superunknown-608x597.jpg

Soundgarden - Superunknown

ps. this thread is re classic albums vs crap covers.
while i am open(ish) to the idea that rhcp vs classic album status,
no-one knows re this album.
yet.
but yeah, that's a truly dreadful album cover.

Yeah I posted it mainly as a lark & b/c this thread was active (I actually searched first for “Deliberately bad cover art,” but no dice)

Never realized how bad the cover of Superunknown was until seeing that post just now.

Never realized how bad the cover of Superunknown was until seeing that post just now.

― Meme for an Imaginary Western (James Redd and the Blecchs),

co-sign.

It's not bad, it's just very, very, very, very, very 1994.

If you squint, he looks like a molten lava version of the Joker from the old Batman: The Animated Series cartoon from the '90s

Not really a Soundgarden fan, but I was always under the impression that this was the closest they ever got to a truly superb album, albeit one that feels highly derivative of Led Zeppelin and other classic hard rock acts.

Never realized how bad the cover of Superunknown was until seeing that post just now.

― Meme for an Imaginary Western (James Redd and the Blecchs),

co-sign.

― mark e, Sunday, July 24, 2022 8:19 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Looks like its badness is becoming...

Superknown

Always thought the cover of Pearl Jam’s Vs. is pretty bad, but I get that it’s an aesthetic choice.

Pearl Jam’s Ten meets the criteria

lol I also considered Vs. while running through my memory of big 90s rock albums

The album's cover art (known as the 'Screaming Elf') is a distorted photograph of the band members, photographed by Kevin Westenberg, above a black and white upside-down burning forest.

Just remembered, Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions

My favorite of his albums, but the sleeve art…ugh

idk I always kinda liked the Superunknown title because it put me in the mind of the wendigo legend

I always thought it was a really cool cover

superunknown cover is awesome, it's the mainstream red medicine

gah, "Superunknown cover" that should be, I also dug it for being one of the CD era albums where each song got its own artwork in the booklet

miss that trend a great deal, the siamese dream booklet was amazing to me as a kid

I've never liked the Superunknown cover. I never looked into it too deeply, like a wendigo or something, which I admit is pretty fucking cool and makes me think about it differently. I only saw it as a picture of Chris Cornell showing off the magical powers of his voice and chinbeard.

I'm not much of a Soundgarden fan, so I've never given it too much thought. But that was my first impression and it has stuck with me.

It would be a better cover if it were just the trees or just the blurry image, but it’s less than the sum of its parts

Yeah, I'll admit to never having even noticed the trees until today. I just thought it was some kind of black and white pattern of wear and decay, like the picture had water damage or something.

I really like the earthy tones on Innervisions' cover. I'd rather single out Songs in the Key of Life, which does not have much for it except that it reminds me of that Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso poster.

The earthy tones are actually nice, I like those, it's just the front cover that's disappointing. I don't want to criticize it too much because I don't want to sound mean, but I just kind of wish the artist tried something else conceptually. I don't think the visual representation of the title was a good idea.

Or rather how they chose to visually represent the title.

the innervisions cover is dope

Yeah, I'm all about Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life album covers.

Music Of My Mind is the best cover, but none of them are bad.

I remember the Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants cover was embossed with braille, is that true of any of his other LPs?

Songs in the Key Of Life always reminds me of Orville Redenbacher popcorn and I can't quite work out why

I'd buy Stevie Wonder popcorn.

I can see it.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51m26bFi-LL.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1858/30713138448_cdcd67039c_z.jpg

I guess you can also see the sun in late December

The resemblance is probably stronger here.

I've always assumed that the cover of Songs in the Key of Etc was supposed to be an abstract representation of the birth of Stevie Wonder's daughter. As a tie-in with "Isn't She Lovely".

And I don't mean that as a joke, e.g. I have always assumed it was supposed to be a crap, hippy-drippy 1970s attempt at portraying the miracle of birth. What is it supposed to be? The internet has nothing to say about the cover art (the US Rolling Stone magazine thought it was cheap-looking).

I've always seen it as Stevie arriving on Saturn.

Baby coming down the birth canal, first thing it sees is Orville Redebacher

Future Sound of London - Dead Cities

https://i.discogs.com/FQHgALMFgyfvPc6LCSs4nnplRGSqtRwBzuvJOaLp7zY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4MzEz/Mzk5LTE2MjI2MjI2/OTMtMzIyMi5qcGVn.jpeg

What a terrible, dated, cover. Wasn't a fan of it even in the late 90's early 00's when I bought the CD. But it's a stone cold classic record.

Agree with both statements.

lol at first glance i thought the hype sticker at bottom left was yet another dubious 90s graphic design decision

The Stevie covers are great. Superunknown is fine, a bit generic and of its time, but not grievously bad by any means.

That FSOL cover is ghastly.

the lifeforms cover is amazing so i guess they had to immediately counter it

Tbf Stevie couldn’t actually see his cover art so at least he has an excuse.

I’d like to nominate Frank Ocean - Channel Orange, deserves a better cover than orange with some text.

i love that FSOL cover.

I dunno even the shitty art made pre-personal computers was better than a lot of the generic shit that’s popped up since. Feel like there was a period where everybody’s album cover looked like a handbill for a shitty tropical house club or something. Nb: I’m probably full of shit

agree, mark e… see even the early crude digital art was better

it's the intense over saturated colours that i love.
yeah, it is dated, but i care not (see the shamens covers from this period for some seriously dated coverart !).
i just think that the whole cd booklet suited the album brilliantly.

My recollection is that in the late 1990s there was an abrupt leap in the sophistication of CGI / early PhotoShop album art. There was the "we can do CGI" pre-modern era, with grey aliens holding a spliff / robots dancing / bees flying over a fractal landscape etc:
https://i.discogs.com/kCk40WSmGccEVa_znPsW8HonMZVq33q7OXz2lzRKYQ4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:590/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExNzA4/NS0xNTc1NjIyNTUw/LTg1MjIuanBlZw.jpeg

Then there was the modernist Buggy G Riphead stuff, which was better-executed but conceptually still in love with novelty. And then there was the post-modern Tomato / Designer's Republic stuff, which felt a lot more sophisticated:
https://i.discogs.com/thHFxphlLVWsiKEjsFGh-Y6VlCJUZ7ixCu-m49hiEoE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:595/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIzMjE0/LTExNzkzMTMyNjIu/anBlZw.jpeg

I picked those two examples because that compilation series spanned the three eras. FSOL's graphic language circa Dead Cities is odd - the visuals for "We Have Explosive" came from Run Wrake's Jukebox, which was edited into the video for the single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwPys3JQZ74

As a consequence it doesn't look like the rest of the album. In my opinion it has aged better.