The worst record covers ever

Anyway .....'tis the music we're wanting most of all, but if we hark back to LP years how we all can just immediately vision our favourite recordings by the LP cover. 

Happy days. 

P.S. Saw Mahler 9, Karajan, BPO on vinyl box set in a cafe record shop in Manchester this weekend.....£2.00! Wish I'd kept my turntable. 

Yes, the Mozart-Overtures-Alessandrini album cover was pretty appalling. Some of the Ronald Brautigam-Beethoven- Piano Sonatas covers on Bis (Pictures of Beethoven Strasse etc on a notepad!). Equally ingratiating (and rather boring) are these endless covers of new found violinists generally pictured clutching their violin with head thrust back and hair blowing in the wind. Come on!

The company with the worst album covers must surely be CPO with their abstract art, either organic or kandinsky-like. Example: the JC Bach covers of orchestral works, overtures an concertos conducted by Anthony Halstead. Good God, what is that stuff meant to be? And as for their turgid colours!

I'm also interested in the psychology of what makes people pick up one disc versus another when browsing the shelves?

I'd also like to know whether other readers will avoid a certain album if its cover is too ghastly? I confess I have. As an artist it is a matter of principle to not want to be confronted by really bad art-design everytime you put the disc. A case very much of judging a CD by its cover! ;-)

Much ado about nothing! Do you judge a book by its cover? So, what's the big deal of whatever might be the cover of a CD?

I have experienced great pain with some very artistic and well designed CDs with poor musical performances. However, on the other, I have tolerated easily some ugly, kitschy covers because of some superb performances.

Therefore, stick to the music, which is the only one that matters. The rest is...(all kind of) noise!..And nonsense (a sort of).

Parla

Parla "Much ado about nothing! Do you judge a book by its cover? So, what's the big deal of whatever might be the cover of a CD?"

Come on, Parla, its just for fun. Nobody is actually judging the music by its cover, but rather we are simply judging the cover. And its just for fun - not to be taken seriously [well, atleast I don't take it seriously] There have been many cases where I praised the recorded music on a CD, but then laughed at the CD cover.

What is the criteria for judging this?

Is it bad artwork? If so, then who else could judge but an artist?

Is it the ability of a cover to evoke an emotion? anger, repulsion, amusement? Who could judge? What scares one person, might amuse another.

Is it sheer dullness?

Is it inappropriateness?

I have looked through a fair number of the suggestions. My nomination is the Vladislav Kazevin cover. In my opinion it would fail any test; it is simply bad, bad, bad. If I had this cd because I liked the music, I would turn over the cover. Now ... what is on the back?

By the way, I rather like the urinating gazelle, and the Pfitzner cover is an ace.  

Looks rather like Ancerl himself, the morning after.

"For Karajan, [the Bruckner bird wing covers] were models of what good record sleeve should be"

p. 604 "A Life in Music"