Album Cover Art

Let's continue our look at album cover art and look at number 11 on Gigwise.com's list of the most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers:

Controversial

11. Royal Trux: ‘Sweet Sixteen’ Nothing like a great image of a toilet, err, I think that what it is.

Royal Trux was an American alternative rock band from 1987 to 2001, founded by Neil Hagerty (vocals, guitar) and Jennifer Herrema (vocals). Hagerty and Herrema released their first album, Royal Trux, in 1989. Then, after moving to San Francisco, Royal Trux released the experimental double-album Twin Infinitives. They're parents must be reall proud.



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Weird


11. Tripping Daisy: 'I Am An Elastic Firecracker' The second album by Tripping Daisy, released in 1995. Tripping Daisy weaves their own alterna-rock path like a weary prisoner of war from the battle for college radio and MTV dominance. The band sounds a bit like Public Image Limited morphed into Jane's Addiction.


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Worst


11. David Cassidy – ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ Makes the Gigwise 'worst' list (he does look kind of stoned), but Mr. Cassidy was a hot item at one time. "Home is Where the Heart Is" was the second album released on RCA Records by David Cassidy. It was released in 1976 and was produced by Cassidy and Bruce Johnston.

The album is notable for a strong composing contribution from Gerry Beckley of the band America. Beckley also takes a few lines of lead vocals. Some tracks from this album are compiled on the 1996 collection, When I'm a Rock 'n' Roll Star.

Now, I know I am showing my age when I say that my yearbook picture looked a lot like this. Man, I'm an old fart.

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Best


11. Sigur Rós: ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ This makes the 'best' list? Man, I thought that the staff had options. Maybe someone was hungover, but this certainly does not belong here.

Ágætis byrjun (Icelandic for "An alright start") is the second album by the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, which was released in 1999. Ágætis byrjun was recorded between the summer of 1998 to the spring of 1999 with producer Ken Thomas, and became Sigur Rós's breakthrough album, both critically and commercially. Ágætis byrjun represented a substantial departure from the band's previous album Von, with that album's Cocteau Twins-esque dream pop and extended ambient soundscapes replaced by Jónsi Birgisson's now signature cello-bowed guitarwork and lush orchestration (using a double string octet amongst other orchestral elements).

The album's title came from a friend hearing the first song they had written for the album; what would become "Ágætis byrjun". After hearing the song, he said it was "an alright start"; the name stuck.

The sketch on the cover was drawn by Gotti Bernhöft with a Bic Cristal ballpoint pen. The booklet cover for the CD edition of the album features the line: "Ég gaf ykkur von sem varð að vonbrigðum... þetta er ágætis byrjun" which translates to "I gave you hope that became a disappointment... this is an alright start." This line is a reference to their two previous releases, Von and Von brigði.

Sigur Rós assembled and glued together the cases of the first print of Ágætis byrjun themselves. This resulted in many of the CDs being unusable due to glue stains on them.