Re: Good albums with crummy album covers

I liked the Flock of Seagulls debut, but what the hell is going on with that cover? That’s what they all decided to go with? If they wanted seagulls on the cover, I wish they would’ve followed “Heaven up here”’s lead.

I was okay with the first couple REM album covers but they just lost me after that.

Usually good albums come with good covers (or they grow on you because you love the music). What are examples of when this wasn’t the case?

The one that stands out in my memory is The Best of and the Rest of Be Bop Deluxe. I swear, for three years, I would visit my local record store, and I'd inevitably pick up that 2-LP set and look at those four faces staring at me from that cover. Something about those four guys seemed so unappealing-- maybe the unfashionable clothes, maybe their smug expressions ... yet I felt as if they were saying, "Just take this up to the counter and put down your money. You know you're going to, sooner or later. Just get it over with."

And they were right. One winter night in 1985, I finally rolled my eyes at my resistance, succumbing to a strange compulsion that seemed inevitable, and purchased that album -- never having heard a note of it. It didn't leave my turntable for weeks.

I'll just reiterate my view from years ago:

<[trouserpress.com];

The first one I thought of off the top of my head:

Thin Lizzy - Fighting

My favorite album of theirs, but that cover is repulsive. It was their second album with the Gorham-Roberston guitar duo, and their sound was considerably tougher than the previous Nightlife album. But it would have been better for them to just let the music do the talking if this was their idea of what "tough" looks like. And it certainly didn't represent the sensitive, introspective nature of the album's best songs, "Wild One" and "Spirt Slips Away."





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2021 04:53PM by zoo.

Mistake post



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2022 07:48PM by zoo.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2022 07:49PM by zoo.

There are four excellent David Sylvian albums--Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities, Gone to Earth, Dead Bees on a Cake, and the Holger Czukay collaboration Plight and Premonition--that have, in the last several years, been reissued with completely different, and completely uninspired, cover art. It's my understanding that this is due to the unavailability of the original artwork. It that's true, then things have come to a pretty pass, indeed. It's not that the cover photographs are actually awful--on the Eighties albums in particular, Sylvian looks, as he always did in those days, not-of-this-Earth magnificent--but the new artwork is no match for the beauty and the mystery of the original album designs. The reissued Gone to Earth, for a truly appalling example, has a close shot of Sylvian sitting in a car with the door open! This is beyond crummy. Thank goodness I have the original CD's.

Black Sabbath - Born Again. I mean it is so so bad, mostly because it is so different than the music on the album. I mean a devil baby? C'mon man. The production on that offering was murky at best, I need to try and find a re-master, but I quite like a few tunes off of there honestly. Kind of a homemade vibe to it, probably not even on purpose. Weird hearing the Deep Purple guy singing for Sabbath but in some ways it worked pretty well, I bet in concert it sounded much better. Anyway, not really a TP band but the topic led me straight to that gosh awful album cover straight away.

I like that cover! Pretty creepy. Their debut had the best cover.

Now "Paranoid" on the other hand = their best album, but the cover sucked. Some guy in a bike helmet running around with a sword or sumthin? What is he, one of the Capital rioters?

If I recall correctly, the model on the Paranoid cover was the photographer's assistant. It looks like he was in the middle of asking, "What is it you want me to do again?" when the shutter snapped, and somebody yelled, "That's a wrap!"

Michael Toland Wrote:
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> If I recall correctly, the model on the
> Paranoid cover was the photographer's
> assistant. It looks like he was in the middle of
> asking, "What is it you want me to do again?" when
> the shutter snapped, and somebody yelled, "That's
> a wrap!"

And then came the hookers and blow.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Stiff Little Fingers - Listen (EP).

Sorry to revive my own thread, but The Who’s “a quick one” has GOT to be one of the most disappointingly cheeseball covers ever. Here’s a young exciting band and they come out with THIS?? This looks like a kiddy album on Pickwick Records that your grandmother bought at the grocery store with S&H green stamps. Crummy crummy cover.

Funny this topic has come up again - I've been inventorying my record collection as a pandemic project and keep coming across old LP covers picturing semi-nude women. It's kind of shocking how many bands (or labels) thought the best way to promote their music was by photographing hired boobs. Some of them are tasteful-ish, but many of them are just crude and exploitative. You could do a book of them and call it Wankers Playtime

So often it feels like a desperate bid for attention - "the music's not good enough to grab you, so hopefully this cover will make you 15-year-olds plop down your money!"

But Sunburst Finish and Country Life are excellent albums...no boobs were necessary.

I’m really not a total prude, but there’s certain album covers that there is just NO WAY I could get myself to actually purchase.

You could tell me Montrose’s “jump on it” is a top notch album... and I could even see a nice copy for $1.... but you’d never get me to stand there at the counter with that thing waiting to be rung up. Oh, the indignity!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2021 07:37PM by Bip.

I'll see you Montrose's Jump On It and raise you Uncle Sam's Heaven or Hollywood.

Don't look at this at work!

Uncle Sam was actually one of the better hair metal acts of the late 80s, not that that's saying much. Their follow-up Letters From London is pretty solid. Having a sense of humor and an understanding of how ridiculous it all was helped.

But, to your point, I can't imagine taking this to a record store counter, even with the censored cover (which had a hype sticker over the model's crotch).

Edit: sorry, not a hype sticker, but a bikini bottom over her crotch. Still...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2021 10:49AM by Michael Toland.

I kind of really want the censored US cover of "Country Life" but it's rare, now! Not sure if I want to drop $20 for an LP I'll never play. But every time I take a walk in my woods in the pre-dawn hours with a headlamp, I see that cover all around me and think of it. I find that the censored cover is even more ironic than the original one. Which was hella seedy, in my opinion.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

The thread about Pitchfork's "review" of Duke reminded me of this thread. To me, the three covers that Paul Whitehead did for Genesis -- Trespass, Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot -- look really cheap and amateurish.

Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The thread about Pitchfork's "review" of
> Duke reminded me of this thread. To me, the
> three covers that Paul Whitehead did for Genesis
> -- Trespass, Nursery Cryme and
> Foxtrot -- look really cheap and
> amateurish.

For the record, I thought "Duke" was one of the best Genesis covers. But I had to look at the covers for "Trespass," "Nursery Creme," and "Foxtrot." When I went to Discogs I saw that, OMG, I OWN a copy of "Foxtrot!" How did that happen without me knowing it? Looks like my wife bought it at the library sale…four years ago. Gosh. But I think you're right. poor covers all, though better than the budget twofer of "Foxtrox/"Nursery Cryme" I bought in the late 70s when initially investigating Genesis. All the Genesis LPs took a dive once I discovered used record stores. The cover was all black with just the logos thrown on the back void and garishly colored.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2021 04:39PM by Post-Punk Monk.

Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The thread about Pitchfork's "review" of
> Duke reminded me of this thread. To me, the
> three covers that Paul Whitehead did for Genesis
> -- Trespass, Nursery Cryme and
> Foxtrot -- look really cheap and
> amateurish.

Oh, gosh, you are correct. I don't even need to look them up, as they are pretty much etched in my brain. Definitely cheap, and in the case of Nursery Cryme, garish and creepy with the girl winding up to strike a human head with her croquet mallet. Their covers certainly got better over time. I really like A Trick of the Tail, with all of the characters from the songs depicted on the front and back (and inside the gatefold again next to the song lyrics). It's a really nice presentation front to back.

The Move's albums are choice, but Shazam has a really lame cover. Message from the Country's cover makes those aforementioned early Genesis covers look downright well-crafted. (And that takes work.)

Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Move's albums are choice, but Shazam
> has a really lame cover. Message from the
> Country's cover makes those aforementioned
> early Genesis covers look downright well-crafted.
> (And that takes work.)

I had to look those up...couldn't resist based on your comments. No joking, those are BAD! Made me laugh out loud.

I've always like the Message cover, but it's definitely of its time. The shittiness of Shazam, however, is indisputable. Guess they couldn't get the rights to the DC/Fawcett Captain Marvel (or maybe the character was still in legal limbo at the time).

Mainly because I'm listening to this one right now:

Larry Coryell - Fairyland

A live album from the early 70s from the great jazz/fusion guitarist. The original 1971 cover is fine, but the cover from the 1976 reissue (which is what I have) is just...dire. Somebody waited until right before the deadline, smoked a bowl, and slapped this crapola together in five minutes.

Michael Toland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mainly because I'm listening to this one right
> now:
>
> Larry Coryell - Fairyland
>
> The cover from the 1976 reissue (which
> is what I have) is just...dire. Somebody waited
> until right before the deadline, smoked a bowl,
> and slapped
> this
> crapola together in five minutes.

Yep.

Michael Toland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mainly because I'm listening to this one right now:
>
> Larry Coryell - Fairyland

I don't what's more offensive as a consumer...that awful cover (which at least has shock/shlock value) or that it was a full-priced live album clocking in at about 32 mins. You gotta believe he played longer than that. Where's the rest of the show?

I had to revive this thread after opening the album that arrived in the mail today...

I am the proud new owner of a sealed vinyl copy of Daniel Amos' 1985 album, Vox Humana. I ordered from Discogs at a great price and it arrived today. I already knew the cover art was bad, but as soon as I took a gander at it up close in its full-sized, 12.375" x 12.375" glory, I immediately thought of this thread. It's so BAD! But that's just the front cover. Not to be outdone, the back cover features a picture of the band with a horrible giant, spiked, red robot boot about to crush them. At least I think that's what is going on. See for yourself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2022 10:40PM by zoo.

Near as I can tell, Vox Humana was DA drummer Ed McTaggart's first go-round as the band's art director and cover designer and it definitely shows. It's like an 8th grader's attempt at a cool 80s cover. He got better, and most of DA's subsequent albums had covers that were at the very least competent and sometimes pretty compelling.

This is a funny thread.
Sonic Youth's covers started off ok ("Bad Moon Rising" is COOL), but they lost all sanity in the '90s - I couldn't even pick a least favorite.

The Replacements. Some are ok, but others...Oi. "Tim" in particular. Utterly random, nothing to do with the madness that was the 'mats.

In the non-TP world, The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" cover is so inexcusably dumb, it can almost be seen as an act of sabotage (but by who?!). In the "Sgt Peppers" vs "Pet Sounds" debate, The Beatles at least win the artwork prize.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2022 12:33AM by MrFab.

Fully agree with you on Tim: great album, but a cover that would have been rejected by the teacher as a high school art project.

I never understood who thought it made sense to have Robert Longo design a Replacements album cover. Longo was a big-time, la-ti-da New York artiste, while the Replacements were a bunch of Midwestern meat & tater drunks. Longo designing the cover for Glenn Branca's The Ascension and directing New Order videos? That made sense. Having him turn in some weird, abstract cover for a Replacements album? That made as much sense as letting him direct Johnny Mnemonic.

(For the record, I'm a big fan of Longo's artwork. And Tim is one fucking ugly album cover.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2022 11:19PM by breno.