Which are some of the Best and the Worst album covers you've ever seen?


[This message was edited Thu May 13 18:43:14 2004 by Chico319]

apples & pears - ignorant.....taste!

We've already done these threads before, so how about we add the qualifier that it has to be by an artist we've heard of before. Otherwise everyone's gonna head over to bizarrerecords.com and link to their pics.

And by "heard of", I don't mean Joyce .

No. I mean actualy ALBUM ART.

Not covers of songs.

ugh, it's so boring. Especially on an album called in the zone..i mean come on already..






Master P's albums and music is horrible and this has got 2 be the worst of his collection


then it gets worse

wwooh..

now 4 the best...

Some of my faves...

Not to mention...



and

Some of my favs:





These are iconic, then and now.



The UK cover. Much sexier than the US one posted above.



I always loved this. Simple yet operatic and graceful. Just like the record within.









I never thought the Purple Rain cover was as good as it might have been. Looked too much like a movie ad to me.









Best. Blonde. Ever.





Iconic.























Delicate and mournful.











Roxy Music











The Ohio Players



This is the CD cover. It's much better than the original vinyl cover.





Can't forget The Cars.
[This message was edited Fri May 14 15:17:26 2004 by VoicesCarry]

new power soul is the worst

Now some of the worst:









For someone who's supposed to be The Next Big Thing, she sure does have some horrible album covers. I could do better than this with Photoshop. Two comments about In The Zone:

1. She had her chance to really "break out", like Madonna with True Blue. She blew it. She looks mentally retarded on that cover.

2. I can just see the designer yelling to his minions: "Monochromatic, I said!".



Speaking of Madonna, I always thought this was a really lame cover. She looked ugly. And there were such beautiful photographs from that session. I always thought this would have been perfect:





What's wrong with this cover? He doesn't LOOK "Bad". He looks lame.



There's a kind of "oh, shit" mentality at work here. As in "oh, shit, we have to make Michael look human on the new album cover!". They didn't.



This looks like a poster advertising the second act at some cheap Las Vegas brothel.



"OK, people, Cher wants it as gay as possible!"



Another shot of this bitch at the piano. What a surprise.



Spice Girls went to great lengths to ensure us that this wasn't just the first album repackaged. But it looks like the first album....repackaged.



Yes, Pink, you are badass.



Then there's this little chestnut. Smokey Robinson's new one, released on some cheap-o label. It reminds me of a Colgate commercial or one of those late night "preacher Smokey will save you if you'll only send $100 to....." TV ads. Someone should also tell Mr. Robinson that two earrings definitely don't suit him.
[This message was edited Fri May 14 15:28:21 2004 by VoicesCarry]

VoicesCarry said:

I actually bought the album and thought it was a really gay cover.


BTW, there have been websites devoted to the worst album covers ever (of course, that is where we discovred Joyce...and then we forgot about her after SuperBoob) but I like the fact that people are actually picking ones that might own and we might recognize. I'll have to look for a few of my favorite/not favorite gems.

VinnyM27 said:

Yeah, I don't want to see novelty records. I want to see the really awful side of corporate American major label album covers.

Funny yet cool. All of their other album covers kind of sucked after this one but at least they tried.



Most of Elvis C' are very good but this one really sticks out.


Demented! I love it!



Most of her seventies covers are great but this one is inspiring, as is the album. This picture is often copied and slapped on to many of her budget collections.





See!



Simple and sexy.





One is Prince's "Black Album" and one the 1984 Spinal Tap album. Both are great musically and don't need "real" covers!

paisleypark4 said:

Those album covers will give me nightmares! Thanks!

FAVS

VinnyM27 said:

I agree. Gameface is the worst
My coner of Elvis Costello's This Year's Model is Different than the one above. On Mine he's looking into the camera, obscuring his face.
Adam & the Ants Kings of the Wild Frontier is up there, too. Yes I bought it!
Sublime's Robbin the Hood

VoicesCarry said:

Smokey why! WHY!!??


And yes all Britney's albume were bad. I liked the "Britney" cover but it is very photoshopped and it doesnt mean anything. What is that red thing behind her?? wtf?

Raine said:

Trilogy of bad covers: NPS, GCS2000, Come 2 My House.

paisleypark4 said:

Why that's Photoshop Haze Effect #239D393C
[This message was edited Sat May 15 7:06:18 2004 by VoicesCarry]

Since I am not smart enough to post pix of album covers, I'll have to list mine. Boring, I know.

I think Madonna's had some great covers to her albums: her 1st album, 'True Blue', and 'Music' come to mind. But 'Who's That Girl?' is horrendous. Garrish, too much make up; just bad.

Prince has had many good, memorable covers as well, particularly the covers when he was uber popular. I also really like the cover of TRC. Now Rave and Emancipation on the other hand...

I think Sting is hot, but I hate the cover of Sacred Love. His head looks too tapered and small. And leathery.

Seal has had some great covers too.

All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2 is great. Odelay by Beck is great.

Does anyone remember Herb Alpert's Whip Cream and Other Delights cover? And does anyone remember Soul Asylum (minor hits with "Runaway Train" and "Black Gold")? They had an album earlier in their career called Clam Dip and Other Delights which featured a pasty white band member slathered in clam dip. Funny, but disgusting.

http://allmusic.com/cg/am...j20rjac489

Ian Gillan (the lead singer of Black Sabbath on this album) said he "almost puked" when he saw this album cover.
[This message was edited Sat May 15 13:54:33 2004 by flipwilson]

VoicesCarry said:

Must be on Ricky Bell's label:

JFive said:

Love these as well. And of course Abbey Road.
[This message was edited Sat May 15 15:07:06 2004 by minneapolisgenius]

VoicesCarry said:

Oh my God you totally beat me to it with The Cars.

And Crazyhorse beat me to it with this one.





More faves.....






[This message was edited Sat May 15 15:23:37 2004 by minneapolisgenius]

James Brown - '60s
I'm gonna focus on one soul/funk/r&b artist that might have the record for the most album covers to choose from (spanning 6 decades).
Which is now making me break this thread up into decades, phew!
What startled me after I decided to do this was the number of bad album covers that housed some of his best music.

So, here we go starting in '50s/'60s era.

Worst:


Another interesting point is depending on where you look, the same album title/release date might have a different cover. This is probably dependent on whether it's on King (Papa's Got A Brand New Bag):

Awful
or Polygram (Papa's got a brand new bag):

Better (Not to mention a completely different set of tunes)

Good(?):


Glad that's over.
Bottom line, this was a really BAD period for JB album covers.

Tribal Disorder

James Brown-'70s

The '70s for the Godfather was not much of an improvement:



With a few exceptions (?):


Tribal Disorder

James Brown-'80s
It now the '80s and more bad covers for Mr. Dynamite:



However somebody finally figured out one of the necessary elements for a decent JB cover:


Tribal Disorder

James Brown-'90s to present day
It took the '90s-Y2K era along with comps/imports/reissues for the Godfather to finally get some decent (not great but decent) album covers:




The signature JB cover should have one/all of the following elements:
A) Get the man in action.
(split, slide, scream, mic trickin', camel walkin', knee dropin', processed hair flying in all directions, anything involving a cape, etc.)

B) Tight performance head shot letting you know that a devastating...
1) barrage of unintelligible vocal syllables
2) "eeeee"
3) "Good god"
4) "Maceo"
5) "Jabo"
6) "Hit me"
7) "Lookee here"
8) "Uhh"
...is being delivered.

C) Gallons of hard-workin', stage-stormin' generated sweat.

I love this guy but the King of Super Heavy Funk probably also deserves the King of the Bad Album Cover title.

Tribal Disorder