The best, and worst, album covers in your collection.

As above, really. It’s not about the musical content here, just the sleeve art.

For me, I think this is probably the best.

Very much of the time, but also somehow captures the mood perfectly. A very serene, yet surreal image.

This, however….

So much wrongness.

One of my favourites as I find the original photo quite powerful.

Cheating but I also love this one.

Then literally any ManoWar album cover.

Obvz this is in there..

And
This..

One of the best:

Sulphur Aeon: Gateways to the Antisphere

One of the worst:

Cracking album, and the cover would have been good: However, they chose to use the artists draft mock-up, rather than the finished artwork, which sucks.

I know it’s a “homage” to a Presley album, but my fave is

Luckily lost-

I suspect there’s many many more entries on the “worst” category than in the best

Someone post up “unknown pleasures” and close the thread

worst dont have any that are truly shocking

Best, I think currently I would favour Dummy by Portishead.

Worst, Kick Ass soundtrack, which just doesn’t work without the movie.

A favourite from my collection

My mate created this.
Comes up regularly as v v poor. He’s proud tho.
But not on my shelves.

Most metal bands can provide you with candidates for the worst

Most metal bands can provide you with candidates for the worst

And the best.

There’s no competition for the worst. Absolutely beyond unforgivable…..

And I’ve re-thought what the very best is….

Absolute genius!

Van Halen featured heavily in my collection, until the gawd awful Cherone period.

So..this

And (dear God) .. this.. what were they actually thinking ? Scrub that, they were clearly pissed.

My favourite:

The worst – Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam:

Best, front and back:

Worst?
Hmmmm, I’ll have a look…….

Always liked the inlay from Prodigy Jilted Generation album. Thought it reflected the time quite well.

This a favourite

Jesus this thread needs some balance..

Or almost any of the Peter Saville covers for Factory. Low Life by New Order was a very nice thing in its original vinyl issue.

I forgot the worst. It’s pretty bad but not in the same league of terrible as the hair metal examples above!

binners has already posted my best and worst, so just in this room, cds include this which is extremely bad (and muscially iirc)

And this, which I always liked.

(prob won’t work as from a blog)

I’ll be back with more tomorrow if the threads still alive!

Love just about any by Storm Thorgersen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Thorgerson

Don’t like any with just a word or a set up photo of the band.

did someone delete my Pixies album?

Oh come on……if so I demand that Kevin Rowland one is deleted too. And those Monowar ones. They all have the same thing on.

I stick with it, Surfer Rosa is an amazing cover, as were so many of the 4AD ones.

Link

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/009/MI0002009636.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

I’ve got a fair few 4AD albums, by Pixies, Breeders, Belly, Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donnelly, and I’ve always loved the artwork and graphics, but it’s so difficult to pick a favourite.
One that isn’t necessarily a great design, and isn’t really my favourite, but is one that really formed my musical tastes for the rest of my life, after a schoolmate brought it in to school then let me borrow it, and it changed forever what I thought music could be.
Up to that point it had been whatever I’d heard on the radio, Beatles, Stones, a bit of Jethro Tull, mostly the pop chart stuff of the 60’s.
Then I heard this:

21st Century Schizoid Man utterly blew my mind, and even better, my folks hated it!
I can really only think of this one as the worst, there are probably worst buried away somewhere, but I can’t think of any at the moment, crap sleeves tended to put me off the band; “if that’s the best they can do for the sleeve, well…”

One of my absolute favourites, is this one:

It’s an album that Kris put together of poems by people who’s work she loved that she put to music, a broad range from all over the place, and as soon as I saw the sleeve design I just fell in love with it.
I’ve managed to get hold of one of a very limited run of hand-printed posters that Kris had run up by the artist for some US shows, and which she signed for me.
It’s sitting across the room now, framed up and waiting to go on the wall.
And I highly recommend Kris as someone who anyone who appreciates fine singing and songwriting should check out.

Not sure about best but a very powerful one for me was by a band in my home town called The Depraved. Their album ‘Stupidity maketh the man’ featured a shocking photo of a crowd of people stood around a tree from which two black men hang, from lynching. Horrible image that has stuck with me.

Always quite liked Jesus meets the Stupids, by The Stupids as a skater yoot.

meh

I remembered this one when I shut my computer down last night!
Actually framed the sleeve on my wall (and had the t-shirt 🙂 )
Awesome:

Can’t really think of any ‘worst’ album covers – although I am sure there’s plenty in my collection if I had a look through. There’s certainly some bland ones…..

My favourite’s are probably, in no particular order:

The Black Crowes: Amorica

Pantera: Vulgar Display of Power

The Almighty: Powertrippin’

The Wildhearts: Earth v’s The Wildhearts

Actually – the worst from a pretentious nonsense point of view from a band that should have known better (IMO) was Metallica’s album cover for Load. It’s a ‘piece of artwork’ called blood & semen and is apparently bovine blood mixed with the artist’s semen….and the album was a bit meh, too….

Meh

Daughter’s ‘Not to disappear’.
Beautiful cover, beautiful album.

Best

Worst (little known local band from Harrogate that *nearly* made it).

Quite surprising that people over the age of 10 like Iron Maiden covers. Always thought they were naff in the extreme.

theotherjonv –
Did someone delete my Pixies album?

STW censoring artwork? Pretty odd if it’s true.

Another t-shirt I had –

based on real art

or is it porn?

Only a 45, but I like it..

Quite surprising that people over the age of 10 like Iron Maiden covers. Always thought they were naff in the extreme.

The later ones got a bit crap I agree (but see them live and you know they are really quite self-depreciating) however the original ones (the Derek Riggs stuff) was generally very good.

This is pretty cool; on holiday in Ireland we wandered into this place in Kinsale where the bloke prints posters on white canvas. The colours are super-dense and bright. You can actually build a collage of your favourite CD covers taken from iTunes:

https://www.thecanvasworks.ie/products/personalisedprint-music

Nice that Globalti. I’ve signed up for a Kickstarter thing where you can hang your albums (8 albums iirc) on the wall in a display. Easy to change and/or remove to play. Will pass the link on if anyone interested.