Album Cover Art

Let's continue our album cover art series as complied by the staff at Gigwise:

Controversial

42. Roger Waters: ‘The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking’ The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a concept album by English musician Roger Waters. Some notables assisting Waters during the recording of the album were conductor Michael Kamen, actor Jack Palance, saxophonist David Sanborn and guitarist Eric Clapton. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in April 1995.

The album concept is about a man's midlife crisis and how he dreams of committing adultery, among other things. The album takes place in real time from 04:30am to 05:12am. Its cover prompted controversy for featuring a rear-view nude photograph of the model Linzi Drew. In some regions, the album has been released with this picture censored. Sorry folks, I would have certainly stopped my car and given her a ride to anywhere she wanted to go!

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Weird


42. Bjork: 'Volta' –Volta is the Grammy-nominated sixth full-length studio album from Icelandic singer Björk, a follow-up to 2004's Medúlla and comprises ten new tracks. The Icelandic singer is always provocotive and as to what on earth she is wearing, well, you may have to ask her, I certainly have no idea!

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Worst


42. Tori Amos – ‘Y Kant Tori Read’ Y Kant Tori Read is the name of the 1980s synthpop band (and their self-titled debut album), formed by now-famous singer and songwriter Tori Amos. The band consisted of Tori, singer-pianist Kim Bullard, and future Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum, as well as long-time Amos collaborator guitarist Steve Caton and various studio musicians. Best estimates suggest that Atlantic pressed between 15,000 and 20,000 copies af the album (a typical pressing size for an unknown, untested artist), divided among LP, CD, and Cassette releases. The vast majority of the LP copies went to radio stations as promotional copies for on-air play, as only a small percentage of radio stations were set to play CDs in 1988. What happened to the rest of the copies? They were shipped to record stores for sale, but very few did sell. Those that didn't sell were recalled by the record company. There, they were turned into cut-out releases, then sold back to record stores at a discount, who then sold them to customers at a discount.

For those not familiar with record-industry jargon, a cut-out release is a release that either had too many copies made or for some reason didn't sell up to the expectations of the company. The record company buys back the releases, and cuts or somehow otherwise "marks" the CD case, LP sleeve, or Cassette case and card, not destroying the music, but making the product distinguishable from full-price product. These cut-out CDs, Cassettes, and LPs are then sold back to record stores at a considerable discount, (usually 50 percent or more of the original price) which is then passed on to the consumer. The marks are there to prevent customers from buying releases at a discount and returning them for a full-price refund.

The dominatrix outfit is scarry enough, but add in the voodooo hairdo and it makes me want to be spanked!

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Best


42. Nick Cave: ‘Henry’s Dream’ - Henry's Dream is the seventh album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, on May 12, 1992. There are possible references to John Berryman's series of poems The Dream Songs, which logs the dreams of the protagonist Henry. This album remains a big favourite amongst Bad Seeds fans, although Nick Cave himself was reportedly unhappy with the production by David Briggs. Briggs preferred a "live-in-the-studio" method he had used with Neil Young. This led to Cave and Harvey re-mixing the album, and ultimately to the Live Seeds recordings, as Cave wanted the songs "done justice". It was the first album to feature long-standing members Martin P Casey (bass) and Conway Savage (piano, organ), both Australian. The latter is a singer-songwriter in his own right and has contributed distinctive backing vocals to a handful of Bad Seeds songs; here he and Cave deliver a rousing duet in the chorus of 'When I First Came To Town'. The album is considered by some to have a vague "concept", i.e. song narratives overlapping and/or sharing characters.

The album's artwork was designed by Anton Corbijn.