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Good Albums With Bad Artwork


The_Admiral

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Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

This is the Zeppelin album that endures long beyond The High School Classic Rock Phase, just like Animals with the other half of those twin towers. But what's the with bubbly text and psychedelic splattering? I know "Tangerine" is the Zeppelin song everyone's girlfriend likes, but no album with "Immigrant Song," "Out on the Tiles," and "Since I've Been Loving You" should look this wispy and doodly.

FAKE EDIT: boy, don't do a google image search for this one, it kinda messes with your eyes. Not sure what I thought was going to happen.

Don't know if you have the actual "album" and already know this, but it should be noted that this was inside the front cover of Led Zeppelin III...

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The pictures inside the circles on the front cover could be changed with a simple "spin of the wheel." You can see where the wheel could be spun halfway down on the right side of the cover.

FAKE EDIT: In my opinion, Physical Graffiti also endured beyond "The High School Classic Rock Phase."

 

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I had forgotten all about that! Such are the consequences of a digital world. Still too rainbow-y and psychedelic for me.

Physical Graffiti is another good one, so is Houses of the Holy. I can't touch the Brown Bomber again, though, yeesh.

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I had forgotten all about that! Such are the consequences of a digital world. Still too rainbow-y and psychedelic for me.

Physical Graffiti is another good one, so is Houses of the Holy. I can't touch the Brown Bomber again, though, yeesh.

Yeah, if anything, the picture wheel just makes the cover that much worse. Plus, it's awfully gimmicky for a band like Led Zeppelin. I'd expect a picture wheel from a Partridge Family or Osmonds album. Not so much from Led Zeppelin. Makes me wonder who convinced them that using it was a good idea.

Led Zeppelin II and IV did not age well at all. Where are you on Presence and In Through The Out Door? I still like Presence. In Through The Out Door was...well...let's just say it was indicative of the times.

We should start a great artwork on lousy albums thread as a companion thread to this one. In fact, I'm going to start one now.

 

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"Achilles Last Stand" makes a bid for best Zeppelin song ever, but the rest of it is utterly forgettable. To be fair, they were no condition to make that album; I'm surprised they squeaked one epic track out of it.

I like In Through The Out Door more than most people do, which is to say "Fool in the Rain" is really good and "Carouselambra" is a nice little novelty. Letting John Paul Jones drive the band's creative direction was kinda like when Spinal Tap went on a freeform jazz odyssey, though.

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Panic! at the Disco - A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

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The catch is that the album has to be good, so anyone who posts Ken: By Request Only, Big Bear: Doin' Thangs, or any of the other greatest hits gets thrown into a Burmese tiger trap.

But both of them aren't actually half bad. Big Bear is a bit too lengthy, though.

I agree with Cookie Mountain having terrible artwork though. Must be that large tacky font.

My votes:

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All of The Field's albums

YLT:

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^Take out the red on this one and it'd be perfect.

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Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works, Volume II

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Green Day - Dookie

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That's a great album cover.

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The catch is that the album has to be good, so anyone who posts Ken: By Request Only, Big Bear: Doin' Thangs, or any of the other greatest hits gets thrown into a Burmese tiger trap.

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TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

First half of this album + "Things You Can Do" at the end is such lights-out awesomeness that we can forgive the rest of it being just kinda meandering noise. It's not a very good cover, though. I can't pinpoint why, but I really don't like it. Maybe it's that Edwardian script they use on the title (and otherwise use for their name on other covers). I don't know. It's just dreary and messy. Incidentally, it is no longer 2006; do people still have strong feelings on TV on the Radio?

Whaaaat? I didn't think the cover was too bad. It was distinctive and unique, like their sound. I'm not a fan of their Dear Science cover. Too plain for my liking. And yes, people still love TV on the Radio (at least I do). :grin:

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Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I

I LOVE THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN

though I'm not sure about that cover and it may be worse than I'd like to admit

I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One's cover is just fine. It's very Blue Note.

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I don't mind the Continuum cover. Nice, clean, simple. The only thing I roll my eyes at is the "Music by" part. It's not a bad album, though, once you can get past John Mayer himself being really annoying and totally unlikable.

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Without the tattered letterboxing and the ugly type, it'd be an all-time classic. As it is, it's messy and amateur.

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I don't know why, but I really dislike this cover a lot. The obvious choice for bad Neil Young cover would seem to be Zuma, but no, the hand-drawn sloppy nature of it fits perfectly with a Neil Young who could barely stand to live. This is just murky Pensive Singer-Songwriter junk, not befitting of what's probably his best studio album.

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The award for the absolute worst album cover ever SHOULD go to the Scorpions for the original artwork to the album "Virgin Killer" I don't want to see it again, so a quick Google search should suffice.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR PUBLIC!!!

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Haha holy crap. That's unreal.

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Without the tattered letterboxing and the ugly type, it'd be an all-time classic. As it is, it's messy and amateur.

Just realizing Eazy E is pointing a gun downward at you belongs in the "What you just realized for the first time" thread.

Agreed on the cover...I don't think it's bad as it is - you nailed it with "messy and amateur" but considering rap album covers, you can definitely do worse.

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The award for the absolute worst album cover ever SHOULD go to the Scorpions for the original artwork to the album "Virgin Killer" I don't want to see it again, so a quick Google search should suffice.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR PUBLIC!!!

What makes that cover even more disturbing is how some of the band stood by that cover for a while. Over time they have lessened their "support" but still...

 

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