I like Mike Oldfield's Crises cover. Clean, very reduced, yet it makes you curious for the story told in the picture.
And Sinéad O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, too, for similar reasons. It is difficult to have an interesting photo of the artist as the album cover that is not run off the mill.
Finally, Tori Amos's Under The Pink:
Display MoreI like Mike Oldfield's Crises cover. Clean, very reduced, yet it makes you curious for the story told in the picture.
And Sinéad O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, too, for similar reasons. It is difficult to have an interesting photo of the artist as the album cover that is not run off the mill.
Finally, Tori Amos's Under The Pink:
Excellent choices and yes I too like the 'clean' unfussy approach. In many ways it's more exacting as there's less material to be creative with so you really have to make it work. A bit like some prog bands who seem to think more stuff = good, ie longer songs with superficial complexity and album covers crowded with supposedly meaningful imagery are somehow better. For those sorts of reasons I don't get on with (eg) those early Marillion album covers at all.
Would this be up your alley? Just curious.
Hate to disappoint you, but no. Especially since it has Nad Sylvan on it. More like this:
Excellent choices and yes I too like the 'clean' unfussy approach.
Mind you, I also enjoy the "kitchen sink approach". Sgt Pepper has already been named, and I'd add The Doors's Strange Days to it. More often than not, those cluttered album covers make me want to tidy up my room, though.
Hate to disappoint you, but no. Especially since it has Nad Sylvan on it.
Not disappointed... I believe in the distant future if we have self destructed and gone extinct, some alien species will come across the ruins of our civilization, see that album cover and go "ah, that's what happened".
You have me going on this one
Pink Floyd generally take this prize but there are so many.
My favourite by a whisker is Jethro Tull
with thick as a brick. Passion Play also . Both have a mention of the fictitious Derek Small who popped up a few years later as the pretentious pipe smoking bass player Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap. . Never saw Ian Anderson much with his pipe after that.! Also love Songs From The Wood, where its so hard to tell if it's a photo or painting , it could be both at the same time.
For the worst cover of all time. Scorpions win it easily. Virgin Killer. Is picture of a picture of a naked 13 year old girl provocative pose with glass front cracked which obscures her genitals!
Could it be a question of it was 1976 and ok for then ? Err no.
For the worst cover of all time. Scorpions win it easily. Virgin Killer. Is picture of a picture of a naked 13 year old girl provocative pose with glass front cracked which obscures her genitals!
Could it be a question of it was 1976 and ok for then ? Err no.
Ah, good ole Scorpions. Almost 50 years and people still freak out. Job well done, RCA. Also, I'd say Blind Faith's album had more questionable album cover. And there are a whole lot more worse covers out there. Check out this metal band called Riot. It's just... bad.
One of my least favourite covers is my third favourite album of all time, Dire Straits' Making Movies. I get that it is supposed to look like a frame from a movie reel, in which case red & blue are the wrong colours (which they should not be, as they are the colours of my rugby league team along with white). It's just boring. Knopfler's The Ragpicker's Dream is also a terrible cover.
For the worst cover of all time. Scorpions win it easily. Virgin Killer. Is picture of a picture of a naked 13 year old girl provocative pose with glass front cracked which obscures her genitals!
Could it be a question of it was 1976 and ok for then ? Err no.
That is bad. Makes me cringe.
I like Nirvana's Nevermind
[Blocked Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg]
Loving this story that the baby on this cover is now suing the surviving two members of the band and Courtney Love on the grounds of child sex abuse. The lawyer has said the image "clearly depicts the baby as a sex worker" and - my favourite bit - that the baby "didn't sign a release for the image".
The lawyer added, "My client has issued the following statement: 'Googoo gagaga.' He won't be taking questions at this time as his nappy needs changing and he's then due for his afternoon nap."
Loving this story that the baby on this cover is now suing the surviving two members of the band and Courtney Love on the grounds of child sex abuse. The lawyer has said the image "clearly depicts the baby as a sex worker" and - my favourite bit - that the baby "didn't sign a release for the image".
The lawyer added, "My client has issued the following statement: 'Googoo gagaga.' He won't be taking questions at this time as his nappy needs changing and he's then due for his afternoon nap."
Annnnd the band’s legal team pulls out a waiver his parents signed the day of this photo shoot releasing the band from any indemnity. Game. Set. Match.
Annnnd the band’s legal team pulls out a waiver his parents signed the day of this photo shoot releasing the band from any indemnity. Game. Set. Match.
Not only that. He has spent his entire adult life recreating the photo in various ways, and apparently has a tattoo of the album title.
Not only that. He has spent his entire adult life recreating the photo in various ways, and apparently has a tattoo of the album title.
Not only that. He has spent his entire adult life recreating the photo in various ways, and apparently has a tattoo of the album title.
Yes it's tattooed across his chest.
I'm glad this thread bobbled back up. Because I will never not break into unstoppable fits of side-aching, unable-to-speak, struggling-to-breathe laughter whenever I see the cover for Nad Sylvan's spiritus Mundi or whatever it's called. I suspect the people outside my office think I'm crying 😂
I'm glad this thread bobbled back up. Because I will never not break into unstoppable fits of side-aching, unable-to-speak, struggling-to-breathe laughter whenever I see the cover for Nad Sylvan's spiritus Mundi or whatever it's called. I suspect the people outside my office think I'm crying 😂
It's hilariously bad. But while I don't like him as a performer, I gather he's a very nice fellow (see Dean post above) and I like to think he enjoyed very knowingly and intentionally doing that terrible cover.
If you go back you can see that I said I thought REM & Fleetwood Mac albums covers are bad, as I did in the Genesis solo albums thread. I have never liked the covers of Fleetwood Mac & Rumours - I find them pretentiouus & off-putting, and yet they are better than Tusk, which is awful. As for REM, the cover of Automatic For The People is dreadful, but so is Out Of Time (which I will always consider a better album).
Most of Paul McCartney's & Elton John's covers are good. The cover of Band On The Run & Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are etched in my brain.
Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys - overrated album & horrible cover.
Bob Dylan - most of them are dreadful, except for Highway 61 Revisited & Desire.
I would imagine that if I mention Love Beach by ELP you will all know what I am talking about. Apparently it's also a bad album.
Frank Zappa did some good covers - Broadway The Hard Way where he's just smiling, unexpected.
Those are just a few examples of both good & bad.
I likely posted this cover somewhere else at some point in the last five years, but I really like it. It's the cover of Relatives in Descent by Protomartyr, one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. The woman was an American actress born in the late 19th century, apparently. There's something direct and unsettling about it, that matches the music well.
