Best album with the worst cover?

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  • ColsCols Frets: 6953
    proggy said:
    I'd like to nominate 'Presence' Led Zeppelin.
    Just weird........
    Weird cover, but if we’re being honest not really a great album.
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    ICBM said:
    axisus said:

    I think great albums should have a powerful image - Rainbow Rising
    That's actually so bad it's almost great.
    I think it's like a good version of the Shrapnel albums I mentioned earlier in the thread.  The imagery is very overblown and - when you take a mental step back - ridiculous, but at least the painting's very well executed.

    Rainbow album covers are interesting, the style changed so much in a short time.  You've got that Wagnerian look on Rising then just a few years later the very modern-looking Difficult To Cure.  Of course the musical style had changed a fair bit too.  When Down To Earth came out there was a big ad in Melody Maker which had a painting very much in the Rising style, I was a bit disappointed when I saw the actual cover.
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  • proggyproggy Frets: 5827
    Cols said:
    proggy said:
    I'd like to nominate 'Presence' Led Zeppelin.
    Just weird........
    Weird cover, but if we’re being honest not really a great album.

    I would agree it's not their best album, but I actually really like it.
    I suppose it's all subjective at the end of the day.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    Philly_Q said:

    I think it's like a good version of the Shrapnel albums I mentioned earlier in the thread.  The imagery is very overblown and - when you take a mental step back - ridiculous, but at least the painting's very well executed.
    Agreed - it's just hilariously silly sword-and-sorcery nonsense, but it goes perfectly with the music. I actually love it :).

    Philly_Q said:

    the very modern-looking Difficult To Cure.
    That cover was originally intended for Black Sabbath's Never Say Die, but they rejected it.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Philly_Q said:

    I think it's like a good version of the Shrapnel albums I mentioned earlier in the thread.  

    Actually Shrapnel is a GREAT call on this subject. I have a bunch of them and they are all horrendous, amateur airbrush work. Really terrible covers the lot of them!
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  • ColsCols Frets: 6953
    proggy said:
    Cols said:
    proggy said:
    I'd like to nominate 'Presence' Led Zeppelin.
    Just weird........
    Weird cover, but if we’re being honest not really a great album.

    I would agree it's not their best album, but I actually really like it.
    I suppose it's all subjective at the end of the day.
    Totally subjective, and it’s actually Pagey’s favourite Zeppelin album.  You’re in good company.

    For me, it lacks the light and shade of any of the preceding albums.  No acoustic numbers, just full-throttle hard rock.  
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  • proggyproggy Frets: 5827
    Cols said:
    proggy said:
    Cols said:
    proggy said:
    I'd like to nominate 'Presence' Led Zeppelin.
    Just weird........
    Weird cover, but if we’re being honest not really a great album.

    I would agree it's not their best album, but I actually really like it.
    I suppose it's all subjective at the end of the day.
    Totally subjective, and it’s actually Pagey’s favourite Zeppelin album.  You’re in good company.

    For me, it lacks the light and shade of any of the preceding albums.  No acoustic numbers, just full-throttle hard rock.  

    I didn't know it was Jimmy Page's favourite...  Cool.
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  • BidleyBidley Frets: 2912
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    Bidley said:
    I never understood why Riot/Riot V had that seal(?) as their mascot.
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  • ReverendReverend Frets: 4974
    One of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Can't help wonder how a different cover would have changed things?
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    ICBM said:
    Steve Vai's Flex-Able - original cover. Just looks like it was drawn by a schoolboy.
    There might be a simple explanation for that. ;)

    See also;
    Fairport Convention - What We Did On Our Holidays
    Cardiacs - A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window
    Hopkins, Cooder, Jagger, Wyman, Watts - Jamming With Edward!


    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    Reminded by the other thread...



    Terrible artwork.

    Reflective of the album too, which I had another listen to - a sad end to the classic MkII lineup. (Reformed briefly for the second time.)

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    ICBM said:
    Terrible artwork.
    Could it have been a deliberate spoof/pastiche, like Strict Tempo by Richard Thompson? 
    Be seeing you.
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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    axisus said:
    One of my fave ever albums is Rush, Signals. I HATED the cover though - a dog sniffing a hydrant???? what a load of rubbish!

    I never like Moving pictures either - blokes moving pictures ....




    That's a great album cover. "Subdivisions" is one of their best tracks and it's about growing up in the suburbs in Canada.

    axisus said:
    One of my fave ever albums is Rush, Signals. I HATED the cover though - a dog sniffing a hydrant???? what a load of rubbish!

    I never like Moving pictures either - blokes moving pictures ....



    Yeah I'm not a fan of the Signals are either. 

    I can get behind Moving Pictures though with the double/triple entandres. 

    There are 5 man physically moving pictures
    The pictures themselves are well known and 'moving' (with the starman as a bit of tongue in cheek)
    The people to the right are being moved by the pictures.

    Similar stories with Power Windows.
    Dated now, but of its time.

    Moving Pictures works for me, with one of the pictures being the star man. I saw them on that tour (Deeside Leisure Centre); the tour guide had more of the pictures and there's a movie short of them moving the pictures.

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959

    Could it have been a deliberate spoof/pastiche, like Strict Tempo by Richard Thompson? 
    Much as I love Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore, I suspect that self-aware pastiche is not one of their strong points...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Anything by bonamassa... entire albums full of bad covers ;)
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  • GrangousierGrangousier Frets: 2621
    Alterlifeson said:

    There are 5 man physically moving pictures
    The pictures themselves are well known and 'moving' (with the starman as a bit of tongue in cheek)
    The people to the right are being moved by the pictures.
    And (I believe the back or inside of the cover reveals) the whole thing is being filmed for the movies. 
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    ICBM said:

    Could it have been a deliberate spoof/pastiche
    Much as I love Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore, I suspect that self-aware pastiche is not one of their strong points...
    Certainly not in Blackmore's case.

    Gillan, Lord and Paice all seem(ed) to have good senses of humour. 

    Some of Gillan's solo album lyrics are decidedly tongue in cheek.
    Be seeing you.
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    ICBM said:
    Steve Vai's Flex-Able - original cover. Just looks like it was drawn by a schoolboy.

    https://www.vai.com/site-images/aas/VAI_flexablepink_SML.jpg

    To be fair, it was self published, little more than a demo really.  It is really good to listen to though.

    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

    Feedback
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    ICBM said:

    Could it have been a deliberate spoof/pastiche
    Much as I love Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore, I suspect that self-aware pastiche is not one of their strong points...
    Certainly not in Blackmore's case.

    Gillan, Lord and Paice all seem(ed) to have good senses of humour. 

    Some of Gillan's solo album lyrics are decidedly tongue in cheek.
    Isn't Blackmore famously a bit of a practical joker?  Although I suspect his pranks would be of the cruel/bullying variety.  
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