Misleading Album Covers

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http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002JS2.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Can't speak for everyone, but I always felt this album cover (Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by ye olde AC/DC) looked more like something akin to the "New Wave" acts of the time, rather than the ballsy boogie metal contained therein. Given the manequin like figures (with identity-shielding black porn bars over their eyes), it always reminds me of Upstairs at Eric's by Yaz. Also, missing the band's signature font logo, the art direction seems very of a kind.

What other examples of this phenom can you cite?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre100/e139/e13977kdbe4.jpg
Which is also one of the worst album covers I can think of. Doesn't seem to shout out whatever you call the style that Calexico play

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:37 (twenty-three years ago)

The new Calexico cover is kinda weird too, but having spent some time in their home city of Tucson, I can say that their covers are very Tucson, although I can't say exactly what it is.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005N53G.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

What were they thinking?!! A psychedelic olde-worlde folk-rock album and they stick a tin of I Can I Can't on the front! The cover on Gorky5 was pretty rubbish but this takes the fucking biscuit. It looks like a fucking Pepsi Max advert aimed at Brat-Punkers. I thought their other covers (Barafundle especially) represented the music perfectly. Gorky's are oaken and knotted, not shiny and aluminium! Plus the title "How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart" is a. uncatchy b. rubbish and c. is too melancholy for that kind of cover.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is that ACDC cover from the US?? Down under it's a http://www.acdccentral.com/discography/ddddcaus.jpg

― Bill E (bill_e), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:38 (twenty-three years ago)

That forearm always looked way out of proportion to me, but I like l'il Angus giving it the old Harvey Smith

― Bill E (bill_e), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:39 (twenty-three years ago)

That Gorky's cover looks like early '70s Europrog, by a third-tier Canterbury or Kraut band or something. I can't put my finger on it.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:41 (twenty-three years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf200/f267/f26726js8yd.jpg
and its Swans live album!

― rex jr., Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I've seen that (the orig. Dirty Deeds... cover). Wonder why they bothered changing it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:09 (twenty-three years ago)

The latest Coldplay... it looks like something I'd enjoy, but when the music plays it's nothing but frowns and disappointment all around.

― Bobby D Gray (bedhead), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 23:15 (twenty-three years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre900/e958/e95849bv73v.jpg

So...you're saying this isn't the new Puffy Ami Yumi record?

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 06:41 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004Y6O7.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I remember my step-father looking at this cover after I'd been playing it on the living room stereo, and he commented that it looked like something he'd like (guessing it was Medieval Madrigals or something). It just doesn't speak to the album's content at all. I mean, yes, there is a guy getting punched in the face ala "Mean Street", but it looks like a Breugel painting....not the sort've thing that would normally grace a hard rock/heavy metal sleeve.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 19 June 2004 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003C4N.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://orbita.starmedia.com/~subhumans/grupos/throbbing_gristle/20jazz.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I put this in the dishwasher but it did nothing!

http://www.rossoalice.it/alice/musicstore/image/47/47484.jpg

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Some of these aren't so much misleading as, uh, "ironic." Or arty. 'Fair Warning' was their dark/weird album, right? So the cover kinda fits there.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Ironic and misleading are not mutually exclusivel terms.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Fair Warning is certainly a dark album -- or at least dark by VH terms -- but I wouldn't call it "weird".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)

That was obviously Swans 'bit of previous'

http://www.darkanddeadly.as.ro/Swans/Albums/whitelight.jpg

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Blimey, almost forgot.....

http://www.southern.com/southern/band/KILLD/pics/07943L.jpg

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I always found the SWANS covers of that era (the White Light from the Mouth..) era to be more surreal than anything else. I mean, yeah, it's certainly misleading, but it isn't like that Killdozer cover or 20 Golden Greats. There's definetely something very wrong with that carrot-brandishing rabbit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, consider....

http://swans.pair.com/IMG_PRODUCTS/loveoflife.jpg

. ..which is kinda more of a what-you-see-is-what-you-get sorta thing.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the Killdozer is definitely a better answer. There was that Swans with the Robert Mapplethorpe flower as well, which was just slightly surreal.

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Thursday, 14 April 2005 23:03 (twenty-one years ago)

six years pass...

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS1643837-02A-BIG.jpg

If you knew nothing about Drexciya or Tresor Records, you'd probably imagine this to be a metal album.

― Tuomas, Friday, 12 August 2011 12:16 (fourteen years ago)

It looks rather gauzy and ethereal to me.

Re: ACDC from upthread: ALL of their alternate album covers are fucking weird.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/Acdchighvoltageeur.JPG

― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 12:27 (fourteen years ago)

When I bought this record in 1994 my techno-obsessed buddies were salivating. What would it sound like? Black Dog? Plastikman? Robert Armani?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxFRR73luyo/TZffj5roicI/AAAAAAAAFLw/TB_DhmXApzQ/s1600/Stereolab%2B-%2BTransient%2BRandom-Noise%2BBursts%2BWith%2BAnnouncements%2B-.jpg

― Dark Noises from the Eurozone (Tracer Hand), Friday, 12 August 2011 12:28 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah, 2xpost was going to say I'd imagine a slightly harder Cocteau Twins there,.

Whereas that one says "I sound like Neu boogie" to me.

― Mark G, Friday, 12 August 2011 12:28 (fourteen years ago)

Really? That totally looks like a DJ mix.

― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 12:47 (fourteen years ago)

Oh I suppose..

Then again, if it was it'd be from above the record, not below.

― Mark G, Friday, 12 August 2011 12:51 (fourteen years ago)

I wouldn't have thought that Stereolab album to be a techno record or a DJ mix back in 1994. Few techno and mix albums looked that artsy and minimal in 1994, they looked more like this:

http://www.technodisco.net/img/tracks/d/dave-angel/17757-dave-angel-trance-lunar-paradise.jpg
http://img12.nnm.ru/8/4/4/9/8/84498df9886249384978846a6efbdd35_full.jpg

― Tuomas, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:06 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah, I didn't get into techno until 97 or so, so I missed all that crap.

― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:10 (fourteen years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Soundgarden_Telephantasm_cover.jpg
http://bsides.myx.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/311-Universal-Pulse.jpg

― MarkoP, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:29 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/images/album-Nick-Drake-Pink-Moon.jpg

This album of strange orchestral swellings, daliesque exclamations and surreal dialogue and lyrics oh hang on....

― Mark G, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:32 (fourteen years ago)

What's the album with the goat?

― Tuomas, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:50 (fourteen years ago)

If you are referring to the Bighorn Sheep, that's the new 311 album.

― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 13:51 (fourteen years ago)

Okay, I've never heard of 311, what do they sound like?

― Tuomas, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:06 (fourteen years ago)

mmm, Maroon 5 / nickelback style soft rock.

― Mark G, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:08 (fourteen years ago)

Except with more reggae and rap/funk metal influences. They've usually been linked in my mind with being closer to Sublime than the bands mentioned, but I might wrong with that.

― MarkoP, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:17 (fourteen years ago)

I'm basing it on the one track I heard, "Amber".

― Mark G, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:19 (fourteen years ago)

They have always been down, down

― Trip Maker, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:34 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.kindamuzik.net/gfx/gomez-cvr-0711.jpg

i wouldn't expect rootsy rock/britpop from this one. (more like the new SCOOTER or some other nineties dance compilation)

― Ludo, Friday, 12 August 2011 14:48 (fourteen years ago)

Nah, if it was Scooter it would need some colours, the black & white is too stark.

― Tuomas, Sunday, 14 August 2011 09:56 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.musictastershop.com/files/images/287.jpg

I used to see this album in bargain bin of the local record store, and I thought it was heavy metal... I haven't actually listened to it, but apparently it's rap?

Then again, metal style imagery isn't that uncommon in rap music, like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, DMX, etc.

― Tuomas, Sunday, 14 August 2011 10:03 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/worst-album-covers/41-1.jpg

Obviously an '80s new-wave band, kinda like AC/DC

― Lee626, Sunday, 14 August 2011 13:17 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=throbbing+gristle+20+jazz+funk+greats&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=GShsMWruFocIcM:&imgrefurl=http://amputeearms.blogspot.com/2009/02/throbbing-gristle-20-jazz-funk-great.html&docid=f16MKkEA3WduEM&w=300&h=300&ei=SctHTu-IBcHB8QOrg9SUBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=901&vpy=76&dur=23&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=109&ty=102&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=135&start=0&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0&biw=1440&bih=732

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 14 August 2011 13:20 (fourteen years ago)

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 14 August 2011 13:21 (fourteen years ago)

html failure, sorry, but i think you know the one i mean

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 14 August 2011 13:23 (fourteen years ago)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ngk_5UhX4HA/ThLyMcgQY2I/AAAAAAAADFU/KRYM33RlTQE/s1600/bongo+date.JPG

― psioni, Sunday, 14 August 2011 14:27 (fourteen years ago)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_osaKxjJ33dE/S9iaLjzA1aI/AAAAAAAAAhg/jNshYDQFH_s/s400/579787%5B1%5D.jpg

^ Only has 49 of the first 50 singles.

― everything, Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:21 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/f/fahey_john~_letgo~~~~_101b.jpg

imo this is the saddest record cover in the world

― ogmor, Sunday, 14 August 2011 17:18 (fourteen years ago)

This cover is one of my all-time faves! Give yourself three guesses as to the genre before reading the small print....

http://musicology.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/10/wgso81763c.jpg

― Lee626, Monday, 15 August 2011 07:03 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

I suspect that it's impossible to read this album title without seeing the whole cover
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1484956/word.jpg

― Bookmark No Bingus Permalink (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:31 (eleven years ago)

Looks like "storms" - what's the album?

― Small Town Pizza Lawyer (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:42 (eleven years ago)

Correct!. I was wrong. It is Nanci Griffith's 'Storms'.

― Bookmark No Bingus Permalink (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:53 (eleven years ago)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1484956/51Q3OLTVuTL.jpg

― Bookmark No Bingus Permalink (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:57 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71op39EbQQL._SL1268_.jpg

― remove butt (abanana), Friday, 22 July 2016 00:08 (nine years ago)

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1752648874_10.jpg

― The ED, Friday, 22 July 2016 20:42 (nine years ago)

four years pass...

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-WwmD0_perbo%2FU-gsMc4BeQI%2FAAAAAAAAORI%2FrJ1LOJtQCv0%2Fs1600%2FFront%2BCover%2BOBI%2Bcopy.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Blue Cheer - Oh! Pleasant Hope (1971). Saw a NM copy of this in new arrivals at a store and until my eyes picked out the band name, figured it was some also-ran indie psychedelic band of the 2000s, somewhere in the space between AnCo and Of Montreal. It's tough to find a JPG that really conveys this, since if it yellows at all, suddenly the quiltiness registers and it belongs in the 70s again.

― this honking's on a bobo (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 30 March 2021 12:37 (five years ago)

Initially read that as "Pleasant Mode," which is probably what it would be called if it were a 2000s release as you describe

― Josefa, Tuesday, 30 March 2021 14:09 (five years ago)

Allan Clarke - Legendary Heroes. Solo album by the guy from The Hollies, rather than the epic power metal the artwork suggests.

https://img.discogs.com/oLsFQAGFNDNZT8yZ3hbDIOuFJRM=/fit-in/500x500/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1793447-1268165417.jpeg.jpg

― it's popol vu all over again (Matt #2), Monday, 12 April 2021 01:11 (five years ago)

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