Which Classic Rock Act Has The Worst Album Covers (1980-Present)?

I think Queen is one of the worst offenders. Their 70’s artworks are not that impressive but they’re ok, but in the 80’s they had some hideous album covers.

Grateful Dead is another one that kind of had a cool, consistent aesthetic in their 70’s artwork and stopped giving a fuck about it in the 80’s, serious album cover downgrade in their 80’s output.

Actually in the case of those two bands it’s not just the artwork that became terrible.

don't judge a cover by its book

I really don't mind Dylan's and Young's covers, little thought or not (the music is another thing). The Stones have Bridges to Babylon, though, so yes, them.

I voted Stones too but BTB is cool imo...looks like an RHCP cover

Lol, funny I always thought the same thing about the Flashpoint cover

Bridges to Babylon is ugly to my eyes but I at least give it credit for being an attempt at album art, compared to the style of taking a random promo photo, slapping an 'interesting' typeface on it and calling it a day, a move most frequently used & abused by Dylan among these three acts. The lowest form of album cover.

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Stones for me. It's the trifecta of Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge, and Bridges to Babylon that do it. Steel Wheels is stupid, pointless, and makes me dizzy. Apparently the painting on Voodoo Lounge is by Keith Richards and it's...idk. But juxtaposed against that factory pomo font it just pisses me off so much. Bridges? I like the lion. I like the floral pattern but it doesn't make sense at all with the lion. Then the bone font inside the square black text boxes that just shits all over whatever concept they were reaching for.

taking a random promo photo, slapping an 'interesting' typeface on it and calling it a day, a move most frequently used & abused by Dylan among these three acts.

Dylan's, from the early 90s on, are just tailor-made to shelve next to the point-of-sale at Starbucks. As such, they're kinda harmless to me. I can't even see them. Except World Gone Wrong, which should have been released on Righteous Babe records.

Stones had a lot of misconceived album art even at their peak. Neil's shortcomings can constituent a style. But Dylan had a lot of iconic album covers, and most the acclaimed late-career stuff has competent packaging. As mentioned in the OP, Tempest is unforgivably awful, yet contains solid work. The design really went off the rails with the Christmas record. So him.

the Stones' "tongue" logo is sort of like Sinatra's "My Way" -- this late-period symbolic thing that's corny and dumb and has come to define them in a lot of ways despite it falling completely outside the era of their best work. And when I heard the Stones had a new back-to-basics blues album i was pretty thrilled, and it was extremely good, but that cover...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/The_Rolling_Stones_-_Blue_%26_Lonesome.png

The Who had one great cover (Face Dances), one oh-shit-the-artwork-deadline-is-tomorrow cover (It's Hard), and one oh-shit-the-artwork-deadline-is-in-ten-minutes cover (Endless Wire).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/The_who_face_dances_album.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/The_who_its_hard_album.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/Endlesswirecover.jpg

Blue & Lonesome is special in that if you didn't already know the logo you couldn't make heads or tails of it. Red snow-capped mountains with some melting glaciers and clouds?

xp I've said elsewhere on ILX that the cover of 'Endless Wire' looks like the cover of an issue of Amiga Format magazine from the early 90s.

Also I like Pete's expression on the cover of 'It's Hard'. It's almost like he's saying "Yes we know the cover is shit. We were trying to reference Tommy but update it by having him play a videogame in an arcade but it didn't work. Just shut up about it, OK?"

bruce springsteen obviously doesn't belong here because '80s, but if we were talking, say, just this century, the boss is kind of the boss of this.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Bruce_Springsteen_-_Magic.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Working_on_a_Dream.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

despite it falling completely outside the era of their best work.

It was designed in 1969, precisely at the beginning of their best era.

The Kinks have to be the winners here?

lol snoball

I dunno, I actually think the Kinks' covers hold up decently, apart from Think Visual and Phobia.

It was designed in 1969, precisely at the beginning of their best era.

― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, May 1, 2019 1:36 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i now see it was used starting in 1971 (still well within their best peak era)...

It's Hard was received at the time as a commentary on the record sales slump iirc

It's Hard was received at the time as a commentary on the record sales slump iirc

https://rocknloadmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/086806.jpg

this is maybe slightly better than one might expect from a septuagenarian in 2019, but that doesn't make it good

not a real nominee, but since we're posting bad album art by vets

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419RV53NRTL.jpg

I think Steel Wheels has a perfectly serviceable cover, with some added credit for visual conciseness. And Fork in the Road, which I've never seen until upthread, I find quite charming. This thread made me check out Dylan's Tempest, and urgh that is bad. Too late to vote, though.