I'm really surprised this thread hasn't happened yet, considering how popular the metal one is. Same rules as the other, obviously.

Rules from other thread: Images that are NOT SAFE FOR WORK / NSFW need to be labelled and also have spoiler tags
We don't really need 'shock images' just because they are on an album cover: 2 girls 1 cup or tubgirl etc is what I mean
You can expect to be banned for a week or more if you ignore this, hence why it's in red bold.

A few to get this started.

That Steve Hillage album is dope as feck and can't be considered a bad cover simply for the fact that there's an electric guitar in the picture.

Not posting any pictures but ones that come to mind...The Walker Brothers 'No Regrets', the second and third Cure album covers were boring, Tull's 'A'....plenty others...

En Esch - Cheesy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesy_%28album%29

Even by the standards of "nothing but the artist's face" covers it's bad.

ALL of jazz/prog solo artists have terrible artwork, ALL of them.

Obligatory

Not to mention Krautrock. Very rarely do I see one with a good album cover that isn't a horrible, ugly mess.

I always thought the cover for Kate Bush's Hounds of Love was really ugly. Not only is the picture itself a bit goofy, but the ugly font choice and decision to place it in the middle of a plain white background baffles me.


Some other not so good ones:


I'm not sure I understand Kveldulfr's comment. There's a lot of good jazz artwork and even the albums that just have photographs of the musicians are typically inoffensive.

Most of them are either terrible or utterly boring shit:

Alright, yeah, that's pretty fucking horrendous. I was thinking more of older stuff like this:

Cartoon SSBBW nudity (if you don't know what SSBBW means, google it. ):

Birth Control - Hoodoo Man


Kai Hansen named his current band after one of the songs from this album, as well as covered said song on the Insanity & Genius album.

Sorry, this one is awesome. I agree that all the others are pretty atrocious, though.

That guitar is so bad, everything else looks janky as hell

Excellent thread already. I have so much to give. Internet does not comply with loading or uploading times currently, but what I can provide if I didn't live in Australia (we have VERY SLOW net here) will make many porngrind fans blush.

Two words: The Fall

Too many to embed, so here's some links.


Oddly The Cure got a bit "Fallish" with some of their [awful] 90s albums too. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/The_Cure_-_Wild_Mood_Swings.jpg

there was that list of the "Ten Worst Album Covers of All Time" that was floating around the internet a few years ago. That Ken Snider album above was on that list, along with a bunch of obligatory bad 60's gospel singers in matching plaid polyester, and...


...this atrocity. I almost feel sorry for this guy, with all the creepy dudes that probably hit on him afterwards. Almost.


Here are some of Tino's fans.

To be honest this thread seems a tad redundant. Metal and hard rock has generally been the only genre where it's common for any real effort to be put into album covers, most pop/country/rap/soul/jazz/blues/classical/whatever covers are usually very shoddy and half-assed. If anything it would make more sense to have a thread for good non-metal album covers, because they're as rare as rocking-horse shit

The terrified look on those kids faces..... lol

This always gets me jesus christ

Love this album but what the fuck is this thing on the cover?

Chewbacca jumping off the high dive. I dunno.

you people never seen a Neapolitan ape before? Jeez....

Always thought this one was terrible.

"Anniversary" by Topp Dogg immediately came to mind. Granted, it's just a single, but damn, it looks so cheap and tacky.

Cold - Cold



Ugly in the way only late '90s cover art tends to be

Looks like a toothpaste label.

Edit:
Or rather

What a half-assed effort...clearly missing a) tracklist, b) barcode, c) list of respective country's distributor and d) preordained bargain bin tag

It's like they tried to rip off Meantime by Helmet, but just got as far as the logo

Great idea tbh. Maybe someone can make this a reality?

If I didn't know the artist beforehand, I'd be convinced this was a still frame in the opening moments of a vintage porn video.

I don't see too much wrong with Miles or Herbie's covers posted above, and nothing at all wrong with the John Coltrane. [shrug]

This is the most horrendous album cover of anything I own a copy of:

The options are endless for this thread, but this is the first that came to mind:



It's crazy that a band as mainstream/popular as them were able to get this past EVERYONE on their team and got it released. I love the edit someone made, entitling the record "Butt Hurt" and adding a crack to the heart. I can't find the image now.

Speaking of that Top Dog cover, you could include really nearly any rap album cover from like 1996-2004 or so. For some reason even the big name rappers started getting really ugly, garish, badly-photoshopped album covers.

Hahahaha!

This has to be where ol' Kirk Van Houten got his inspiration from.

Is that the Mike Keneally from Dethklok?

I've been getting into Weezer beyond just Pinkerton lately, and during my journey further into their discography I happen upon these:



I actually thought that second one was a piece of vandalism on the Wikipedia article, but apparently not.

Early yugoslavi pop scene









there are tons of it...

John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure. I found out about it when I was looking to see what Budgie has been doing lately. He played drums on this album. The only way I can describe the music is strange.

Simultaneously on/off topic: Post Pinkerton Weezer is incredibly hit or miss. These albums you've linked-the awfulness of the covers easily match the awfulness of the music.

Green, Make Believe, and Everything Will Be All Right In the End are all worthy, and only that last one has a terrible album cover to boot.

Maladroit and Red are half decent and Red actually has one of their best ever songs in "Dreamin'". Maladroit, though, has terrible cover art.

Raditude, Hurley, White, and Pacific Daydream are all completely fucking terrible.