Album Cover Art

Continuing our look at Gigwise.com's list of the most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers (as put together by their staff), we are now in the top 5!

Controversial


5. Brujeria: ‘Matando Gueros’ – The debut album from this Mexican heavy metal crew shows a hand holding up mutilated, decapitated head against a white background. Add to this content that talked mostly of killing white Americans and crossing the border, resulted in the album being banned in many stores. Gee, I wonder why.

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Weird


5. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: 'Trout Mask Replica' (1969) The third studio album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. The album was produced by Frank Zappa, a friend and former schoolmate of Beefheart (also known as Don Van Vliet), and was originally released on Zappa's own Straight Records imprint in 1969. Combining blues-rock, psychedelic rock, free jazz, and other apparently disparate genres of American music, it is regarded as an important work of experimental music and appears at number 58 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Schenkel created the artwork and design for Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, described by the BBC's DJ John Peel in these terms:

"If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work."

And the critic Steve Huey wrote that the album's influence "was felt more in spirit ...as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless experiments in rock surrealism to follow, especially during the punk/new wave era."

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Worst


5. Europe – ‘The Final Countdown’: As Gigwise wisely states: "Everything about this cover wreaks of Eighties cheese and tackiness. The Swedish hair rockers may have produced one of the songs of the decade, but their artwork left a lot to be desired."

Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest and guitarist John Norum. Although widely associated with glam metal, the band's sound incorporates heavy metal and hard rock elements. Since its formation, Europe has released seven studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and seven videos.

Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with its third album The Final Countdown, which became a high commercial success and sold over three million copies in the United States. Europe was one of the most successful rock acts of the 80's and sold over four million albums in the United States alone and over 10 million albums worldwide. The band has achieved two top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (The Final Countdown and Out of This World) and two top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart ("The Final Countdown" and "Carrie"). From 1986 to 1992 Europe sold over 20 million records worldwide, making them the 4th most successful act from Sweden in history.

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Best


5. The Strokes: ‘Is This It’ – The album that has probably defined indie music since the turn of the millennium more than any other sports a cover of simple cheekiness.

Is This It is the debut album by the American alternative rock band The Strokes, released in 2001. The Strokes were the first band to break into the mainstream as part of the turn-of-the-millennium garage rock trend. After signing with RCA, the band went on the opposite way of recording adopted by traditional rock bands. Instead of doing their full-length debut in a professional studio, the Strokes instead opted to record in a basement on Manhattan's Lower East Side, to which they put the name Transporter Raum Studio.

Is This It is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 2000s. It was ranked 89th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 367 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In June 2005, the album was ranked number 100 on Spin's list of the "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". In July 2006, the album was ranked 48 on The Observer's list of 'The 50 Albums That Changed Music.' In November 2007 Q magazine rated it at 21 in "21 albums that changed music" In addition to being ranked among the greatest albums of all time, the non-U.S. version of the album cover has been ranked as one of the greatest album covers of all time. The U.S. cover is different; it features a photo of particle collisions in the Big European Bubble Chamber.

We have seen this cover before, why they (Gigwise) choose to 'recycle' covers for their list, is beyond me, I can think of a hundred covers better than this one.