Controversial
40. Poison: ‘Open Up And Say… Ahh’ Is the second studio album by American glam metal band Poison, released in 1988 through the Enigma label of Capitol Records. The album, which ultimately sold eight million copies worldwide, proved to be the band's most successful release. It spawned four hit singles, which are "Nothin' but a Good Time", "Your Mama Don't Dance", "Fallen Angel", and their only number one single to date, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". The album is widely considered a classic in the glam metal genre. The original front cover of the album, which featured model "Bambi" dressed as a luminous red demon with a protruding tongue (similar to Gene Simmons of Kiss), caused controversy amongst church and parental groups. In previous U.S. releases, the album was released with a censored cover in which most of the model’s face was obscured. The 2006 remastered CD release features the original cover art. Boy a model with a large tongue really scares me!
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Weirdest
40. Led Zeppelin: 'Houses of the Holy' Houses of the Holy is the fifth album by English rock band Led Zeppelin released by Atlantic Records on 28 March 1973. The album title is a dedication by the band to their fans who appeared at venues they dubbed "Houses of the Holy." It was the first Led Zeppelin album to not be, at least unofficially, titled after the band. The album represents a turning point for the band, as they began to use more layering and production techniques in recording their songs.
Although Houses of the Holy initially received mixed reviews, it has since become regarded by critics as one of Led Zeppelin's best albums. The album produced the favorites "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Dancing Days", "The Song Remains the Same, "D'yer Mak'er", and "The Ocean", and it has sold over 11 million copies in the United States. In 2003, the album was ranked number 149 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The cover art for Houses of the Holy was inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End. (The ending involves several hundred million naked children, only slightly and physically resembling the human race in basic forms). It is a collage of several photographs which were taken at the Giant's Causeway, Ireland, by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis. This location was chosen ahead of alternative one in Peru.
The two children who modelled for the cover were siblings Stefan and Samanatha Gates. The photoshoot was a frustrating affair over the course of ten days. Shooting was done first thing in the morning and at sunset in order to capture the light at dawn and dusk, but the desired effect was never achieved due to constant rain and clouds. The photos of the two children were taken in black and white and were multi-printed to create the effect of 11 nubiles that can be seen on the album cover. The results of the shoot were less than satisfactory, but some accidental tinting effects in post-production created an unexpectedly magical album cover. The inner sleeve photograph was taken at Dunluce Castle near to the Causeway.
Now, on my list, this is not a weird album cover, but in my top ten of the best of all-time. Different strokes for different folks as they say.
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Worst
40. Prince – ‘Dirty Mind’ Dirty Mind is the third album by Prince, released October 8, 1980. According to the New Rolling Stone Album Guide, "Dirty Mind remains one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history." With this album, Prince makes a decisive departure from his preceding more commercial album Prince. He seems keen to distance himself from the disco-ish light soul of "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and experiments with a New Wave-influenced, rock and roll sound. The title track, complete with a demo-like organ, is rich with punk sensibilities. The track "When You Were Mine" is full of bouncy guitar licks. However, it is the LP's second side (tracks 5-8) which gives the album its unique fusion sound and contains the tracks which were most controversial at the time, namely "Head" (a bawdy tale of Prince seducing a bride-to-be with oral sex) and "Sister" (a hyperdriven, punk-ish ode to incest clocking in at just 90 seconds). "Uptown" is the album's high point, with Prince singing about a utopian paradise where everyone is free to express themselves regardless of age, gender and skin color. This album was to set the scene emphatically for Prince's chart domination later in the 1980s. It fused black and white musical styles in a seamless fashion and showed that Prince was not afraid to push boundaries. In 2003, the album was ranked number 204 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On its list of Top 100 Albums of the 1980s, Pitchfork Media had Dirty Mind at 87. I rank it as one of the top ten worst, Gigwise is right on here.
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Best
40. The Groundhogs : ‘Split’ (March 1971) The Groundhogs were a British blues band founded in late 1963, which toured extensively in the 1960s and continued in existence sporadically to the present day. The band's blues credentials were recognised when they backed John Lee Hooker and Champion Jack Dupree on their 1960s tours of Britain. The line-up for their first album, Scratchin' the Surface, released in 1968, consisted of Tony McPhee as singer and guitarist, bassist Peter Cruickshank (born 2 July 1945, Calcutta, West Bengal, India), Ken Pustelnik on drums (born 13 March 1946, on a farm near Blairgowry, Angus, Scotland) and Steve Rye on harmonica. They remain one of the lesser known yet critically regarded bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s blues rock groups. Interesting psychedelic cover for those acid lovers.
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