The Worst Album Covers Of 2008!

• Wednesday, December 03, 2008
• filed in: Metal Dance Indie

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40. PJ Olsson: 'American Scream' – We've seen some weird album covers over the years, but this ranks amongst the worst/best of them. A giant flying cherub presumably about to pick his nose with the Empire State building whilst flanked by smaller angels, it's a car crash of an album cover that's also strangely beguiling.

• Lindsey Buckingham released an excellent album this year (Gift of Screws), but the artwork is terrible. Should be on this list...

  ~ by Paul-O 12/3/2008

  

• i like the Chinese Democracy artwork

  ~ by dan 12/3/2008

  

• huh, chinese democracy has a fantastic album cover....based on the name of the album, it fits perfectly. and i'm not even a fan

  ~ by steve 12/3/2008

  

• i have to agree, Chinese Democracy's album cover suits the album very well, its a masterpiece

  ~ by Paul 12/4/2008

  

• Chinese Democracy's cover is totally alright, one who chose it for the bad covers chart probably didn't even listen to the album.

  ~ by sopostelnik 12/4/2008

  

  • seeing as how its a list of bad covers, not bad albums I don't see how that's relevant

    ~ by Sean 12/5/2008

• ...this list is really ridiculous.you obviously have no experience in the trends of art and culture and the relevancy to music art. instead of choosing lovely music with decent covers, you should have taken more of a look at the truly awful stuff. I expected more from this.

  ~ by altbroad 12/4/2008

  

• How can you not get The Charlatans' album cover (#27)? The album title is "You cross my path" and the artwork is of five black cats...because it's unlucky for a black cat to cross your path. That doesn't make the sleeve any less crap, just less mysterious crap.

  ~ by elperdedor 12/4/2008

  

• WTF? The Kooks album is great!

  ~ by Willie 12/4/2008

  

  • Not this one. It's pap.

    ~ by Marianne 12/5/2008

• i think they are all pretty cool covers actually

  ~ by daddy 12/4/2008

  

• Dig Out Your Soul should be on this list. It's hard to say what the hell Noel means with that cover.

  ~ by Duke 12/4/2008

  

• A lot of these aren't bad but I had to stop reading at Delays 'Everything's The Rush' because it looks more like a list of "Albums That Annoyed Me" rather than dealing with poor design. It makes me question what the author thinks is good. Perhaps you were looking for more things to look like Creed's My Own Prison?

  ~ by Rob 12/4/2008

  

• I can't believe Axl Rose waited 17 years to a) put out an album called Chinese Democracy and b) have this be the album cover. Its amazingly bad and hard to believe/take seriously.

  ~ by Chinese Democracy Fails 12/4/2008

  

• the MGMT digital album cover is not a man meeting an angel; it's the two songwriters in the group. but the acid comment is probably accurate

  ~ by lalala 12/4/2008

  

• Didnt expect to see bands like in flames belphegor and messugah featured, damn, i really like the in flames one actually, so much so in fact i bought the t shirt, not to mention the album being amazing. and the belphegor one is suppose to be as vile as possible, come on, with a title liek that you have to be.

  ~ by Sronpop 12/4/2008

  

• What is this "we think not!" crap? Who is addressing me? Sounds like the disembodied voice of a collective crapshoot into the world of top something-number lists. Don't you wish you could walk with the big guns of top something-number lists, like Cracked.com or People Magazine? Maybe it's time for a different niche, Gigwise. Hey, you might be on to something: pretending to be indignant works great! Thanks Gigwise. Whoever you all are.

  ~ by Ralph 12/4/2008

  

• you guys are morons. so album covers that stray from conventions are abysmal now? all i can say is: easy out for an article. but i shouldn't be surprised. this is coming from guns n roses fans.

  ~ by aprilswedge 12/4/2008

  

• oh my, thank you for the laughs!!

  ~ by nikki 12/4/2008

  

• The charlatans, are cats!!!

  ~ by LoveCrash 12/5/2008

  

• I think Konk is a awesome album, Its not a nightclub there standing outside of, its the studio they recorded the album in.

  ~ by blaahhhhh 12/5/2008

  

• Sorry to interrupt the bashfest (which is good fun, btw), but #13 of 40 - The Courteeners 'St. Jude' isn't a painting of Audrey Hepburn. Its Judy Garland. Judy...St. Jude. Probably still a shit cover, but at least it makes more sense.

  ~ by chuck 12/5/2008

  

• Not sure if Chinese Democracy deserved to be at the top of the list but it is a naff album cover, definitely deserved to be in there somewhere. I think I would put Visiter at the top. That crayon album cover is actually sub-par to your average 5 year old.

  ~ by Tom 12/5/2008

  

• Can I get the 10 minutes of my life back I spent looking at this?

  ~ by Chet 12/5/2008

  

• IN FLAMES is an obvious trib to The Wall...

  ~ by Roy Rogers Oldenkamp 12/5/2008

  

• The RUBY SUNS is an obvious trib to Henry Darger...

  ~ by Roy Rogers Oldenkamp 12/5/2008

  

• Worst. List. Ever. You're completely out of touch with design trends and you write like a pretentious high schooler. How many times can one use the word 'profound'?

  ~ by jared 12/5/2008

  

• Y'all really phoned this piece in. Stop acting like nothing is cool and say something real. By the way, phrases akin to "it's like ____ on acid" or "this is ____ after too much acid" are great examples of lazy, juvenile, unfunny writing. If you want to sound like you're "past it," at least broaden your horizons.

  ~ by Nema 12/5/2008

  

• that's funny, most of these are actually quite good. maybe you're just not used to covert art not found in wall-mart. for info, about the dodos: i went to see them in concert, and the singer said the covert art was actually drawn by a kid who mispelled 'visitor' when the band went to play at his school.

  ~ by barsanuphe 12/5/2008

  

• you can totally tell this "hipster" website threw in Chinese Democracy just to slag off Axl...I love this album cover

  ~ by Dad 12/5/2008

  

  • DAD! Stop looking at may favourite websites! This is a cracking list of sh1t album covers - you know nothing Daddio.

    ~ by Daughter 12/12/2008

• the kooks are NOT standing outside a nightclub idiot! theyre standing outside the studio. How can you not know this when youre critisizing.

  ~ by feee 12/6/2008

  

• I'm not a huge fan of the artwork, but surely GnR was only chosen to shovel another spadeful of dirt on the current incarnation of the band's career. It's not nearly as bad as most on the list.

  ~ by Trailer 12/7/2008

  

• Wow, this list sucks.

  ~ by None 12/8/2008

  

• I think if you examine the IN FLAMES cover, the 'boy in the hat' is looking from the inside out at a vaginal opening. That 'hardcore' enough for you? Truly bad... VERY bad.

  ~ by MT_Ad_Guy 12/8/2008

  

• GnR is the worst waste of art opportunity in the last 10 years.

  ~ by cw 12/9/2008

  

• The GnR album cover is so weak that they had to incude a total of 3 references to the bands name! Lame in the extreme..if they had the balls and confidence in thier product, they wouldn't have referenced their band name anywhere at all!

  ~ by Weedfreer 12/10/2008

  

• chinese democracy rivals only kevin federline for "worst album of all time", regardless of whats on the cover...

  ~ by ted 12/10/2008

  

• As far as the actual covers, the one that looks like it was done in paint ms should have been 1.

  ~ by Pfffffffft 1/1/2009

  

• I think it is actually a Bald Eagle that their faces are merged with. anybody know for sure?

  ~ by Baldy 1/2/2009

  

• I like this cover!!

  ~ by Astrapto 2/14/2009

  

• its not a night club, it's the studio where they recorded the album. Do your research people. Although yeah, its crap

  ~ by DanJ 3/3/2009

  

• I was definitely expecting Oasis' 'Dig Out Your Soul' art to be featured in this list, given the general hate geared towards particularly garish sleeves. I'm the biggest Oasis fan I know, but that album is just bad, even compared to their more recent efforts. Shock of the Lightning was a kickass tune, however.

  ~ by Biji-o 4/3/2009

  

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