Worst modern album covers

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

 

I should have listed what all these are. I'll try to go back before I run out of time. This one is
Shinsei Kamattechan - Tsumanne

 

"smile naturally......no...NATURALLY.....oh forget it" (click)

 

Say what you will about that Sparks cover, it plays off several Sparks tropes. It's also directly inspired by one of the songs. The graphics might not have aged well, granted.

I nominate one of the new Jim James things.



I've never heard this band, but I'm tired of artwork that hovers just above competent but well below conveying much of anything.



"I don't really have much of an idea of what to do for the cover."
"Well, just throw something together in Word or something, the printer's deadline is today at 5:00."

 

It's not an attractive picture, but it's spot on for the band's aesthetic. Warped nerd rock.

 

The new BRMC and Foo Fighters albums are pretty ordinary.

 

One of the things I'm not attracted to (I'm general, at least . . . there are some exceptions) are covers that look like random photos from someone's photo album.

Usually in these threads the vast majority of choices are covers that I like at least moderately, and sometimes people pick covers I love. So I wanted to give a few examples of the sorts of covers I don't care for instead. That "random Polaroid" aesthetic is one thing I typically don't like.

 

The uhh, "original" cover of Ted Nugent's Love Grenade comes to mind.

 

I never noticed just how awful this is. Thank you for summing it up well.

 

The album cover for this artist has some boring "cowboy lost in the city" theme and is just as bad as the music itself. Simply strap on a hat and you're instantly a country singer.

 

This one is pretty bad, too although the rest of the booklet is more than passable!

Van der Graaf Generator - After The Flood (2015)

 

the title's worse than the artwork. What the hell kind of name for a record is "Current Mood"?!

 

He tried doing an album in his former mood, but he just wasn't feeling it.

 

wow.
what art.

 

How dare you?

 

Strangely, I actually like this one.

 

I’ve said it before, but I love the fact that Aretha looks like one of the Klumps from Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor movies nowadays.

 

His debut album is quite good (and had a better cover), but Current Mood is pretty bad.

 

Arguably not the worst album sleeves ever but still, incredibly tacky stuff from a renowned artist. These scream Y2K to me. I think Derek Riggs got a bit lost in the digital age...

 

With a few exceptions, truly artistic album cover art has been a lost art for years, but some of these are so blatantly bad that they're more interesting than the bland anti-art that graces most album covers today.

 

John is very hurt by your comments and has rushed out to purchase a new wig.



It’s more natural looking than the Christmas album one.

 

Taylor auditions for a role in the revival of Prisoner Cell Block H.