boring album covers from albums that really deserved better

i just picture confield in my head when i think of any of their late 90s / 00s albums tbh

blue note is celebrated for its design. what they did with the unique opportunity they were given here remains inexplicable, maybe offensive

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/687f0a39329929.5606aec910e5a.jpg

Quaristice and Exai have pretty cruddy artwork too. i didn't realise TDR didn't do a whole bunch of their covers

that monk/coltrane cover looks straight out of 1998 downtempo hip hop

untilted is my fave autechre art easy, it's beautiful

not so much 'boring' as 'WTF'

https://i.ibb.co/z6Mtkdh/51-FPOu-C5j-HL.jpg

I like the new Autechre sleeve designs, fits their aesthetic well

the Eno/Cale record Wrong Way Up definitely fits here. big "graphic design is my passion" vibe there

Godbluff by Van Der Graaf Generator is another one, it's not bad its just...black

I have an actual answer for this:

"Here's our hot major-label debut, full of eclectic jams and incredible songwriting... how do we make sure it looks like something even your grandmother would find too stodgy?"

https://img.discogs.com/PnwfsYlxtsub2Opn70Nl5z6gjoo=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-13077425-1547652074-1334.jpeg.jpg

They really jazzed it up for the promo poster!

https://images.eil.com/large_image/10%2C000%5FMANIACS_THE%2BWISHING%2BCHAIR-590277.jpg

how about Close to the Edge by Yes? what exactly happened there?

Roger Dean wanted to show off his new airbrush I think.

Love love love this album, but could never figure out why they let the graphic design intern into the cache of rejected promo photos.
https://img.discogs.com/u6F_qHf1fotTK7SLjapHhBtms14=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-1575508-1503244025-9512.jpeg.jpg

i actually love the wishing chair art, it makes me want to get into 10,000 maniacs

Drift Series 1 by Underworld

I liked the cover with the smiling dog, felt bold and unlike anything they've done

https://underworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Drift-Series-1-Artwork.jpg

however it was quickly noticed that there was a pretty glaring photoshop mistake (look at the "R" in DRIFT) and I think that maybe in response to that they released the boxset with this cover:

https://d1rgjmn2wmqeif.cloudfront.net/extra/2000/ReleaseFormat-418501-95991.jpg

which looks like a temporary cover, I can't believe a band with such a focus on graphic design let something like that through

oh and I guess LCD Soundsystem's American Dream deserves to be here, I was 100% convinced that was a placeholder up until the album actually came out

brad - you should get into them if you haven't! Start w/that album and "Hope Chest" (their early stuff); it's terrific, no one else has songs like that.

Something like 8 out of 10 Go-Betweens LPs deserved better covers. (Seems like the sort of thing I might have posted before, but it doesn't look like it.)

I mean, goofy cover pics can work perfectly fine for certain artists and albums, but if Pet Sounds is supposed to be a serious album, then the combination of the album title and the cover pic really don't convey that.

― Tuomas, Friday, July 31, 2009 3:56 AM

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb272/TeN523/PetSoundsCover.jpg

Also, goats aren't pets.

Did this album actually have a photo session, or did they just reuse a promo shot from the Beach Boys appearance at the state fair?

I assume that mike love was being so annoying that they all decided to wrap it up and just go home early

It is funny that there's a prominent goat's ass on the cover of one of The Greatest Albums of All Time.

(...and aside from Mike Love, it also features the posterior of a member of the Bovidae animal family)

(v proud of that joke, my Venmo user name is ____)

become one of the weirdos who has been hacked by mike love

Steve Harley - Timeless Flight

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/Timeless_Flight.jpg/220px-Timeless_Flight.jpg

https://www.markknopfler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BrothersInArms-400x400.jpg

my folks has the VHS of the brothers in arms videos and l thought that dobro looked so fucking cool and mysterious as a 5 year old or whatever

Yeah I think that’s a cool album cover, I liked it as a kid

Pet Sounds did *not* deserve better.

xp Even boring covers can be iconic and very memorable!

Also:
- Always thought Grouper's covers were meh ... Dead Deer is at least vaguely creepy but otherwise they don't do much for me
- The two 2019 Big Thief album covers could have been promo shots

Brothers in Arms is peak mid-80s "elegant, restrained" aesthetic, sorta Vaughn Oliver for the mall record store, to stand out next to the Crü and Fat Boys album also on the endcap rack. Graceland, True Blue would be other examples.

just shooting the shit here, but: what if the digital age has destroyed certain possibilities in album covers? like, small text. things that are hard to read or need to be examined closely. you can include that on an album cover, now, but no one's going to be able to read that in the corner of the corner of a streaming platform

maybe this is what autechre is getting at with their recent covers. cover art converging toward machine-readable icons