Album Cover Wall (Hall) of Fame

Album covers are just as much a form of art as much as the music inside. This blog celebrates the album art that is iconic, album art that is incredible, or album art that is amazing in a ridiculous way.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy 2024 - Day 25

Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late

Oh... boy did I pick a good year to induct a Drake album on the Wall of Infamy.

Drake has been under fire this year from pretty much everyone, from fellow musicians, to internet music critics, to casual music listeners. It is a beef that I am WAY too underqualified to even think about discussing with any seriousness.

I tend to plan these pretty far ahead in advanced, so let's just say, I had no idea all of this was gonna happen when I decided to put this album cover at the end of the list, I just wanted to talk about a lazy, boring and basic ass album cover, the kind of which Drake has been using to represent his music with such disturbing frequency in the 2020s, and yes I know this Mixtape was released in 2015.

Yeah, the mid 2010s was officially the point I think Drake just gave up trying and began coasting, like he was a big star so he didn't need to put any more effort into anything than the bare minimum.

The problem with lazy album covers like this, is that the album cover represents the music, sure Pink Floyd's The Wall looks really dull with just the white brick wall as the album cover, but open it up and you have Scarfe's illustration work, representing the themes of the album. Led Zeppelin's debut self-titled album has an image of the Hindenburg disaster, representing the shock and controversial nature of hard rock and heavy metal. Rainbow's Rising has a fist grabbing a rainbow, representing something that is both fantastical but also epic.

When I look at lazy album covers, even when they're good, they tell me that the music on this record is worth skipping over, because if nobody wanted to put effort into the album cover, than why would anyone put effort into the music. Yes, this isn't really something people consider in the era of music streaming and unlimited access to music libraries, but that is why I started this side blog, to share some amazing, and not so amazing, Album Covers.

But also, fuck Drake.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy 2024 - Day 24

Riot V - Armor of Light

Come on, I had to include another Riot album on this wall, because look at this. This is just amazing, it's like a furry Manowar album cover, equal parts adorable and badass, I bet they make baby seal sounds as their battle cry.

Okay having actually looked up what baby seals sound like, that would actually be kind of terrifying. Maybe they'd make stereotypical seal noises? Imagine that, it's like a combination of Vikings and a circus act.

Anyway, now that I have shared the best of this list, I have to share the worst of this bunch... and oh boy did I pick one.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 23

KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic

Well... the disco ball electric guitar is a... choice...

I dunno, maybe if the background was better I wouldn't mind so much, but it practically forces you to focus on the disco ball electric guitar.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 22

Arca - KiCk i

Apologies for the smaller image this time around, turns out this one was harder to find a good quality image of.

If I did a worst album covers of 2020 list, I don't think this would be at the top of the list, honestly it might not even rank in the top 5, but it would make the list because... wow.

I... kind of get it... I think... honestly looking through this artists discography, this might be the tamest album cover in her catalogue. This was shot by Spanish photographer Carlota Guerrero, who is apparently known for exploring themes of femininity and bodily autonomy according to Wikipedia.

I guess I'm more befuddled by this album cover than anything else, but it did give me a chance to talk about the actual artist behind the cover, so that makes this worth it.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 21

Tyler, the Creator - Goblin

The jokes just write themselves, it's an Image Macro format, it's a set-up for a Deez Nuts joke, like... it's the Three Stooges in a pie factory here, come on. Heh...

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 20

Godsmack - All Wound Up

Drop shadows... the very least you could add is a circular drop shadow, that would have elevated this from super crap to just crap.

Not like the image itself would become good with that change though, it's like... almost P.O.D. levels of trying to be badass, and do I want to know why their is a bin of tissues there... I'm not one to kink shame but uh... that might not be something you want on your album cover.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 19

death's dynamic shroud - I'll Try Living Like This

More visual clutter, this time it looks like a combination of a crystal ball and an apartment building... actually I think that exactly is what it is.

Really though, it's the face with a quarter of it being eaten by Willy Wonka's full course meal chewing gum, that's the part for me that really puts it here.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 18

Bullet For My Valentine - Fever

First of all; Would.

Second of All; Hear Me Out

Third of All: Shockingly, I don't know if women with crab claws was really what the audience for this band was really looking for... but then again this was like, literally one of the first CDs I ever bought myself so... Look I too went through my edgy music phase and "Your Betrayal" absolutely scratched that itch.

Also that song was in a playlist of music that inspired this Creepypasta Fanfiction I really liked, yes I went through a Creepypasta phase too, judge me if you dare.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 17

Lil' Flip - The Leprechaun

Screw it, we needed an actual example of bad early 2000s hip hop album covers.

Sometimes with these things, I am just at a loss for words. There are things I can point out, like the random sparklies, the face Lil' Flip is making, the... fact that it is meant to look like a Lucky Charms box, look if people mistook Green Day's Dookie for a kids album because Sesame Street's Ernie was on the back of the album, I can't imagine what people were thinking seeing this in the record store.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 16

Misantropical Painforest (I swear I am not making this name up) - Winds Saturate With Inhumane Longing

...

I mean...

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 15

JHope - Hope World

I'll give it this, it doesn't remind me of the ugliest cartoons in the world, but this album cover really does have that mid to late 2010s kids cartoon feel to it. You know, shows like Uncle Grandpa or Secret Mountain Fort Awesome that would just throw any random shapes and colours on screen and hope it worked because they horribly misunderstood Adventure Time.

At least it doesn't look like The Problem Solverz.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 14

Faye Webster - Atlanta Millionaires Club

Chocolate, used correctly it can be delicious, enticing, wonderful, but used poorly it can be really gross. Honestly, there is an idea for a really good cover here, but the melted chocolate around the mouth is just... no.

Anyone else remembering that bit from The I.T. Crowd?

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

at this point should i just rewrite ' ragatha being ambiguously gay ' to ' ragatha being gay ' because she's not beating the allegations at this point . girl it's okay to say you're jealous

also this is the opportunity for you guys to add the gloink queen in ragatha's harem

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This and the line taken right from the Raggedy Ann movie were Ragatha's highlights this episode!

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 13

Finally back on track... anyway

The Mummies - Never Been Caught

I mean... I mean... I MEAN... I think this is one of the funniest album covers ever, like it's a bunch of guys wrapped in mummy costumes playing Garage Rock, how is this not one of the most beloved hilarious album covers ever. Honestly, I don't even know if it is truly "bad", but like... the image is so freaking hilarious I couldn't NOT induct it onto the wall of Infamy.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 12

William Shatner - Captain of the Starship... or Maybe it's Captain of the Starship; William Shatner Live!

Apologies for the lesser quality cover used here, I try to find as good of quality images as I can, but uhh... this particular cover doesn't appear to be on any streaming service... I can't imagine why.

Anyway, this album cover... yeah, it's lame. It's literally William Shatner holding a tripod of some kind like a sci-fi laser blaster, like come on, was a toy ray gun at the dollar store too much to look for? Also, I find it hilarious that this is from a company called "Imperial Music", like, taking the easiest joke I could make with this, Wrong Sci-Fi franchise.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 11

Herbie Mann - Push Push

Look, I'm all for men trying to achieve "Sexy" in an album cover... but it doesn't quite work this way. It feels less inviting and more Buffalo Bill, and it is entirely the shadows. Shadows are like candles, a little is nice, a lot is concerning, and too much is dangerous.

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Album Cover Wall of Infamy - Day 10

Judas Priest - Jugulator

Okay, so you probably know the story about this one, but if you don't, here it is. This is actually zoomed in piece of a much larger image, which is why the image is so blurry and low quality, allegedly this was because big retail chains like Wal-Mart refused to sell the album with the full sized cover, which doesn't really make sense to me because this ugly thing is the most offensive thing about this album cover.

Honestly, I don't even really like this design, it's very... 90s edgy, like imagine this thing fighting Spawn, it really brings that kind of 90s energy to the table. Painkiller kind of does as well, but it's like "Cool 90s energy", this one really isn't.