Recently in Search for the Worst Category

This is the ninth installment of Search for the Worst here at the AlbumArtExchange Blog. I am taking my time when in comes to selecting album covers for this category. I want to make sure that my list of the worst album covers of all time includes nothing but the most vile and disgusting and not album covers that are simply bad.

The cover that I've chosen this time is for a 2001 album by French death metal band Arkhon Infaustus called Hell Injection. The album cover is so heinous that is has a "censored" cover for use on online stores (right).

Of course, the cover is intentionally disgusting. It is exactly what one would expect from a band whose lyrics deal with Satan worship, sex and sado-masochism.

These days, if a death metal band wants to shock the public with a controversial album cover, the best thing to do would be to use an image of a unicorn flying over a rainbow. While my generation was shocked by horror movies like The Exorcist, kids today have seen everything. They shoot demons with shotguns in video games. A transexual Jesus is hardly going to impress them.

Over the past few months, my search for the worst album covers has focused covers that feature bizarre images of cannibalism, coprophagia, defecation and dead animals. The cover that I'm featuring today is a 2003 album by experimental rock band Xiu Xiu.

The cover for A Promise features a nude man posing on a bed while holding a baby doll. I have chosen to post the censored version of this cover. If you want to see the uncensored version, click the image to go to the AlbumArtExchange gallery.

Using nudity doesn't mean that an album cover should be considered a bad cover. There are plenty of album covers with beautiful and artistic nudes. This album cover is just plain creepy. I don't know what the story behind the photograph is and I suspect I would regret finding out. The problem with an album cover like this is that many people will view it as exploitative. It looks like something found under a serial killer's pillow.

This is the time of year when website and blogs start publishing their “worst of” lists. This year is notable because it marks the end of a decade. I have already read a few lists that name the worst album covers of the decade. A couple of list include Walking On A Dream by Empire of the Sun (right) and other likely candidates such as Brooke Hogan’s The Redemption.

The one thing that I always notice about these list is that they often include far too many recent covers. It seems that people have a very short memory when it comes to album art. This often results in the worst album covers being forgotten in favor of ones that were released in the last year or two of the decade.

I am not going to create a list of the worst album covers for the decade. There are simply too many to list. It would be very difficult to narrow it down to just 10. However, I am quite certain about which album cover should be named the worst of the decade.

The worst album cover of 2000 to 2009 is the original cover created for Party Music by The Coup. The album cover features members of the band blowing up the World Trade Center buildings. The album was set to be released shortly after September 11, 2001 and had to be delayed while a new cover was created. Unfortunately, promotional albums had already been distributed with the original cover.

In my opinion, nothing compares to this album when it comes to qualifying as the worst of the decade. The Empire of the Sun album cover may be corny and clumsily executed and the Brooke Hogan cover may be the result of a huge ego, but at least neither cover rises to the level of infamous bad taste and incredibly poor timing exhibited by The Coup’s Party Music.

The reason why I began my search for the worst album covers ever created is that many of the previous lists published online have included album covers that are far from the worst. Many lists include classic album covers like Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica (right) and Frank Zappa’s Weasel Ripped My Flesh. While these covers may be avant garde, they are certainly not as bad as they come.

However, one album cover that is included on almost every list of “worst ever” covers belongs without question. R&B singer Millie Jackson’s 1989 album Back to the S__t! features Jackson sitting on a toilet with her panties around her ankles and a straining expression on her face.

 This album cover is so crass, it can’t even be viewed as being campy or ironic. It fails on every possible level. With tracks titled Love Stinks and Muffle That Fart, one would mistakenly assume this was a comedy album.

There have been a few other album covers featuring people sitting on Toilets. This year, The Bloody Beetroots used an illustration of a masked character sitting on the toilet while reading a newspaper. Because it is an illusttation rather than an actual photograph of the artist, I do not think it is as bad as the Millie Jackson cover. Imagine an album cover with Rihanna or Beyonce sitting on the pot.

A few weeks ago, I added an album cover featuring a dead raccoon (right) to my list of those worthy of being included on my forthcoming “worst ever” list. I feel that The Real Feel by Spiral Stairs crossed the line by putting roadkill on their album and using it as some kind of sick and misguided joke.

Now, Swedish rocker Olle_XXL has gone one step further by using a photograph of a cat with the mangled carcass of a bird in its mouth. The album is titled Great Tit & Grey Pussy and the cover is certain to provoke a universal reaction — UCK!

Anyone who has ever owned a cat knows the horror of having their pet drag mutilated animals inside. My friend Cliff has a very sweet cat named Shadow that has a habit of bringing him disemboweled gophers. Do we really need to see this on the cover of an album? I would hate to see this become a trend.

One of my ongoing endeavors is to compile a list of the worst album covers ever created. Unlike other lists, the AlbumArtExchange blog will not include covers that are simply avant garde or parodies of other album covers.

Yesterday, I came across an album cover that is a genuine contender for one of the worst album covers of all time. The cover of The Evolution of the Homo by Homo Erectus features a pair of gorillas mating. That alone doesn’t qualify this cover as one of the worst. What makes the cover rise to that level is that is coupled with a title and concept that slurs gay people.

The bio from the Homo Erectus (a.k.a. Dimitri Papas) MySpace page makes it all too clear what this album is all about:

In his early years, Homo Erectus first discovered electronic sounds by distorting the sounds of the Organ he was forced to play, not realising that this was going to spawn him into someone different. Duran Duran, Devo, Brian Eno and Depeche Mode were some of his influences during this time. Recording and experimenting on cassette tapes was his only way of expressing his thoughts and feelings.

[…]

At the same time Homo Erectus discovered the Homo Sexual. The delicious scents, muscularity and manjuice of this specimen were too much for Homo Erectus to resist. Desires for the Homo Sexual became fulfilled and his quench for manjuice was satisfied.

If this is supposed to be satire, it really misses the mark. The concept for this album is certain to offfend people regardless of their sexual orientation. It is crude, childish and trite. Didn’t this type of thing die with Beavis and Butthead? “Heh, heh. He said homo.”

The Evolution of the Homo was released on October 31. You can listen to samples of the tracks from the album on Amazon.com. With song titles like Skank, Sex Machine Man and Big Thick Dick, you will know what to expect. I suppose that this kind of thing has an appeal to a certain type of dance club fanatic and those with immature tastes in music.

For me, this is about as low as it goes (except for the guy with the poop on his face). Fifth grade humor combined with a photograph that degrades two beautful and endangered animals puts this album cover in a class by itself.

When I created the “Search for the Worst” category on this blog, my goal was to feature only the most universally offensive, horrible album covers ever created. So far, I’ve selected an album that features a bloody illustration of cannibalism and another that is a photograph of a dead raccoon.

Today, I discovered an album that features a portrait of the artist with what appears to be feces smeared around his mouth. Coprophilia is not something that I believe would sell albums to anything except a very small segment of the population. Yet, here is an album cover with the revolting image and a suggestive title that attempts to do just that.

I looked up the artist’s bio online and here is an excerpt of what I found:

Barry Lawton is a singer songwriter, hailing from the sprawling metropolis that is Crewe, South Cheshire. He has released two albums, ‘Enough To Go Around’ released in 2001 and his 2003 release entitled ‘Brown Lipstick’.

Lawton specialises in well-crafted intelligent pop tunes with the emphasis on melody and lyrical punch. If you’re looking for mystical sojourns into introspection, then you’ve sadly come to the wrong place.

The only reason why I am including the “buy now” link for this album is so people can click through and verify that this is real. YUCK! If this cover doesn’t qualify as one of the worst of all time, I don’t know what does.

It has been several months since I’ve posted anything under the dreaded “Search for the Worst” category. This is the category reserved for album covers that I feel are destined to appear on “Worst Album Cover” lists for years to come.

The Real Feel by Seattle rock band Spiral Stairs is unquestionably that bad. It is perhaps one of the most disgusting album covers I have ever seen. The cover was designed by photographer Ashod Simonian, who writes on his blog:

I played on it and designed the packaging. Before the backlash begins, I should state that I love raccoons and I hate death. Death freaks me out. I also don’t condone pills though I have had the occasional recreational pill and have found them to be terribly awesome. I am a big fan of art and art as personal expression and I am also way into humor. I suppose you could add honesty and creativity and innovation to the list of things that I’ll stand behind as well. So step off.

So step off? No, I’m backing away slowly — like you do when you see a crazy person eating bugs and talking to himself. I don’t know why anyone would use a photograph of a dead raccoon as the cover of an album. No one is going to buy an album that is repulsive. It just doesn’t work that way.

There are lots of lists of the “worst album covers” published in newspapers, magazines, and online. Personally, I’ve always found most of them to be disappointing. They almost never include the really bad album covers — the ones that are responsible for a loss of sales and maybe even the demise of a recording career.

Over the next few months, I will be asking the readers of this blog to nominate album covers that they feel are the worst ever. I want the AlbumArtExchange list to be the most comprehensive and include high quality scans of each and every cover.

I will begin with my nominee, David Karsten Daniels’ Sharp Teeth:

Posted by: zeefritz 

Just read the review from iTunes:

Any discussion of Sharp Teeth generally begins with some mention of the cover art, which depicts a bearded, razor-toothed young man devouring the innards of a likewise hairy and sharp-toothed woman in the middle of a snowy wilderness. For better or worse, the music itself isn’t as gruesome as the cover might imply. David Karsten Daniels turns out to be a pretty gentle guy: a folky indie singer/songwriter along the lines of Chris Garneau, Sparklehorse, or Sufjan Stevens… 

The main purpose of album cover art is to sell the album. Since cannibalism really has nothing to do with Sharp Teeth and “folky indie” music in general, this cover didn’t do the job. The fact that it became the focus of the iTunes review demonstrates the problem.

What album covers do you think qualify as the worst ever? Why? Post a comment and let me know which covers should be included. Just make sure that the cover is part of the AlbumArtExchange collection.