Controversial
29. Birth Control: ‘Operation’ – "Operation" was BIRTH CONTROL's 2nd album and continued with their pattented hard-rock acid based style not unlike that of DEEP PURPLE. Musically, BIRTH CONTROL blend heavy guitar with heavy organ twirls, not unlike early SPOOKY TOOTH in many ways as well. Band lineup included Bernd "Nossi" Noske (drums, vocals) Bernd Koschmidder (bass) Bruno Frenzel (guitar, vocals) and Wolfgang Neuser (keyboards). Songs are genereally pretty heavy with songs like the harder edged anti-Vietnam war song "The Work is done". The second track "Just Beofre The Sun Will Rise" and the last track "Let Us Do It Now" are actually quite symphonic and show why BIRTH CONTROL were leaning in a more progressive vein than others at the time. The carnivorous cockroach (or whatever it is) caused such controversy that the album was banned in several countries. Even more scandalous: on some copies an image of the Pope was shown cheering the seemingly baby eating bug on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weird
29. Jo Jo Gunne: 'Jumpin' The Gunne' - (1973) From the front, it appears to be a 'normal' cover (yeah with the band in bed together), but when opened a 'heavy set' nude woman is floating away from the bed. Huh? There must be a reason, but I have no idea what it is. Remember, drugs were prevelant in the early seventies.
Jo Jo Gunne is a rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1971 by Jay Ferguson (keyboards, vocals and guitar) and Mark Andes (bass and vocals) after the two of them had left Spirit. With the addition of Andes' brother, Matt Andes (born California) (guitar, vocals), and William "Curly" Smith (drums, vocals and harp), the four of them were signed to Asylum Records. They had a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart with the song, "Run Run Run", taken from their 1972 self-titled debut album.
The group did not maintain the commercial momentum of their debut release. With Jumpin' the Gunne's tasteless album cover being blamed for drastically falling sales, they broke up in 1975. However they made several notable tracks, especially "Take It Easy," "Broken Down Man," "Neon City," and "Falling Angel."
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Worst
29. The Beatles – ‘The Beatles’ (The White Album): Only the Beatles could get away with this. Some have said that this was a great cover, no frills and the band certainly delivered the goods musically. That said, even with the constant bickering and arguing, you would think that the band could have sprung for a better cover.
The Beatles is the ninth official album by The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is often referred to as The White Album as it has no text other than the band's name (and, on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number) on its plain white sleeve, which was designed by pop artist Richard Hamilton. The album was the first album The Beatles undertook following the death of their manager Brian Epstein. The album was originally planned to be titled A Doll's House, but the British progressive band Family released an album earlier that year, bearing a similar title. The Beatles is often hailed as one of the major accomplishments in popular music.
The album's sleeve was designed by Richard Hamilton, a notable pop artist who had organised a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Tate Gallery the previous year. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name was discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and the cover also featured a unique stamped serial number, "to create," in Hamilton's words, "the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies."[citation needed] Indeed, the artist intended the cover to resemble the "look" of conceptual art, an emerging movement in contemporary art at the time. Later vinyl record releases in the U.S. showed the title in grey printed (rather than embossed) letters. Early copies on compact disc were also numbered. Later CD releases rendered the album's title in black or grey. The 30th anniversary CD release was done to look like the original album sleeve, with an embossed title and serial number, including a small reproduction of the poster and pictures (see re-issues).
The album's inside packaging included a poster, the lyrics to the songs, and a set of photographs taken by John Kelley during the autumn of 1968 that have themselves become iconic. This is the only sleeve of a Beatles' studio album not to show the members of the band on the front.
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Best
29. Marillion: ‘Fugazi’ Studio Album, released in 1984- Emerging as they did in the early 1980s, Marillion have endured a long reputation as a "throwback" to the original progressive rock scene. Their "original" (not quite, but let's not get too technical) lead singer, Fish, was frequently referred to as a pale imitation of Peter Gabriel, and the band itself was often regarded as a similarly pale imitation of Genesis.
I would think that the band approved the cover because it allows for several interpretations-me(?), I'm not bothered by the severed arm, the glass of blood, the lizard but I don't care much for clowns, so I didn't study it for long.
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