Classic Album, FUCKING TERRIBLE Cover Art

I'd say this one doesn't look very promising: a clunky juxtaposition of glum photo and cheesy "Age of Aquarius" illustration:

https://i.discogs.com/2-SxdFAqR7DNnyxknTiqH83cy9s6zTj11cHuWIVJs34/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIyOTY4/NTQtMTU5NTAzMzcw/NC00Mzg4LmpwZWc.jpeg

Re: Matchbox 20. The '90s were a golden age of terrible repurposing of rando portfolio photos for album art, advertising etc.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Dolmen_Music.jpg
Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music

Always found it disappointing and drab (framing, B&W, font, everything) and wished there was actual art

This prompted me to dig through Hipgnosis' portfolio on Discogs, because I remember that a lot of their album covers were bad in an irritatingly fussy way. With bad visual puns. Which brought me to Toe Fat's Toe Fat from 1970, which isn't a classic album, but ye gods:
https://i.discogs.com/36XV6sWj5Guc--Y1FT926vUxkGXAtrqT7GXrGLXdc0g/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:586/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU0NTc0/NTktMTM5Mzg1NzE4/Ny05MDc1LmpwZWc.jpeg

bad in an irritatingly fussy way

Hypgnosis should repurpose that Toe Fat cover for the new Animals remix.

Kinks' Schoolboys In Disgrace is no classic either, but it's surprisingly excellent and concise for their 70s albums, but I reckon it is widely dismissed/ignored due to it looking like this
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510tX++V93L._AC_SX355_.jpg

My LP copy also has RCA "Nice Price" written on it, which doesn't help.

Yeah I suspect "medium-to-good album, terrible covert art" is the bigger category, and the one that's les to far more medium-to-good music going under heard and underappreciated.

RHCP reveal deliberately ugly cover art, in crassly transparent attempt at qualifying for “Classic Album” status (and thus making this thread):

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/62dd3b7e4e5e79e85598914b/master/w_1280,c_limit/Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-Return-of-the-Dream-Canteen.jpg

I feel like there are at least three elements on that cover that are supposed to represent jizz.

^^New Borad Description?

that RHCP album cover is sick, better than all their previous album covers combined

but I like 90s goa trance compilation art so wdik

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