Good Albums With Bad Artwork

[the admiral 20,923]

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.

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?

Tortoise - It's All Around You

This is the half-brother of an airbrushed wolf shirt.

Beat Happening - s/t

Covers like this one are why people make fun of music geeks.

Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

You know, I actually like this whole album better than Sgt. Pepper's! "Fool on the Hill," "Blue Jay Way," "Penny Lane," and "Baby, You're a Rich Man" are better than every Pepper track except "A Day in the Life," which everyone agrees is unequivocally the best Beatles song, if not one's personal favorite (mine is "Eleanor Rigby"). But this cover, hoo boy, that's a hot mess of words words words and colorvomit.

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

Eminently listenable electropop album that looks like a poster for a really bad summer movie where things blow up.

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.

[sc49erfan15 1,665]

Not one of my favorite albums, but one of the most well-known...and I always thought the cover was crap.

Example of a cover completely being ruined by the transition to CDs:

vs.

[officeglenn 1,407]

Here's a little bit of Canadian content ...

Barenaked Ladies - Gordon

? Not terrible from a technical perspective, but so achingly ?90s that they changed the artwork on future re-issues.

Our Lady Peace - Naveed

? Great album that really helped get me into rock music in high school. But the artwork is a little creepy, with a little too much droopy old man skin for my taste (this coming from a guy who watched Ric Flair wrestle for however-many years). And I think the nipple ring is photoshopped on.

[habsfan1 3,032]

[missouri tigers 79]

...and pretty much every album by-

[drdougfresh 690]

A random mix of some of my all time faves (with awesomely bad cover art):

And a more recent choice:

Thing reminds me of a Pure Moods CD or something.

[zer0dotcom 7]

The Gotye and Alanis covers aren't that bad...could be worse, like By The Way...I remember in stores, the insert would be flipped to the goat page on the inside, stores were squeemish over the nipples on the real cover.

Somewhat dissapointed with this one...Garbage already did a G motif on a pink background in the 90's. There are lots of other things they could have done, this seems too simple

[sc49erfan15 1,665]

Yeah, the Alanis cover doesn't scream "AWFUL!" to me... just "NINETIES!"

[Cody21 1]

This:

To the Japan version:

Which ones better?

[the admiral 20,923]

It's a Sum 41 album, so it probably sucks anyway.

I was going to post that Ben Folds Five cover! That was one of the first albums I ever bought, I think the first "real" album, and it really is quite good, but even then I thought the cover was pretty lame.

The Gotye cover looks like a Phil Collins/Sting album, which is appropriate, since he sounds like Phil Collins and Sting. Who would've guessed that the guy from Genesis and the guy from the Police would somehow both end up as a couple of New Age wisps.

[ColeJ 1,203]

adore bad brains, and this is probably their best album (as long as it's the vinyl, and not the sped-up and disgusting ric ocasek remixed cd)... but that album cover is horrible, ugly, and boring. so much worse than their self-titled iconic cover.

everything artistically and "branding" related to this band is perfect, except this. just slapped together, 2 color, and the flag isn't even black. it's blue. such a disappointment considering how amazing the covers for damaged, my war, and slip it in are.

that last one is danzig 4...

on the flip side, these are my favorite covers by the same bands:

[CS85 7,927]

Arguably the worst album artwork ever, the question is whether or not the album is "good."

[waltere 405]

Pretty much any Queen album could fit the bill, but there's a special kind of trippy horror to this.

Why on earth anyone thought packaging what's basically an industrial metal album in a sleeve that makes it look like a crummy euro-dance album by the poster boys for the local gay bar is beyond me.

[leggman01 14]

Why on earth anyone thought packaging what's basically an industrial metal album in a sleeve that makes it look like a crummy euro-dance album by the poster boys for the local gay bar is beyond me.

i'm not a music afficionado, but isn't the juxtaposition exactly the point with this album cover (and maybe some of the others)?

[sc49erfan15 1,665]

Pretty much any Queen album could fit the bill, but there's a special kind of trippy horror to this.

I was going to post some Queen covers. They don't seem bad to me, just boring.

[Evan 0]

beach house - teen dream

yeasayer has some stupid artwork, but i don't like their albums.

[waltere 405]

Why on earth anyone thought packaging what's basically an industrial metal album in a sleeve that makes it look like a crummy euro-dance album by the poster boys for the local gay bar is beyond me.

i'm not a music afficionado, but isn't the juxtaposition exactly the point with this album cover (and maybe some of the others)?

There is a heavy dose of irony around most things they do, so I don't dispute that that was the point. I just don't think it works in this instance.

[Camden Crazy 132]

Came in here specifically to post Doggystyle. The list begins and ends with that one. One of the best rap albums ever released deserved a better cover than that.

[the admiral 20,923]

Du hast mich!

yeasayer has some stupid artwork, but i don't like their albums.

Well, you should. Yeasayer is pretty great.

Tortoise - TNT

I know there's a lot of Glass/Reich-inspired repetition on this album, but I don't think this artwork is effective minimalism. And I suppose one of the things that separates post-rock from progressive is that they don't take themselves quite as seriously as their nerdlinger forebears, but come on now. At least I'm only reminded of how silly this is every time I put on, y'know, one of my favorite albums ever.

[mania 293]

Example of a cover completely being ruined by the transition to CDs:

vs.

Only reason no album title is available, is because Columbia refused to release it under it's original title... Don't Be A .