Good music is more subjective than good album art, but let’s be honest… some album art is just empirically bad.
Music writer Andrew Male started one of the most unsettling Twitter threads in recent history.
He asked people to share absolutely terrible album covers for albums that are, musically, actually pretty good.
Male started it off with this meat dress monstrosity, and the people of Twitter delivered.
This sandwich
This looks less like an album cover and more like a recipe in one of those god-awful, disgusting cookbooks from the ’70s.
This Beatles disaster
The Magical Mystery Tour was definitely mysterious…
I don’t know about magical, though. More like nightmarish.
This crying baby
There’s something really strange going on here, and I don’t know what to say other than No, No, No to this Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover.
Rod, far away
What is Rod Stewart doing hiding all the way back there behind the whiskey glass? This is a Rod Stewart album, not Where’s Waldo.
The next one is a super funky shape…
More like Knob-ler
This album cover isn’t only ugly. It’s also inconvenient!
This won’t even properly fit on your shelf! No thank you.
The Queen of faces
Whatever they were trying to achieve with this album cover, well, I am afraid they just didn’t quite do it. This is creepy beyond creepy.
The tree of birds
I think what’s going on here is that the tree is supposed to be the Earth and the birds are supposed to be in the formation of the continents, but I just figured that out after a good two minutes of looking at it, and that’s how you know it’s bad.
This cheesy pic
This looks like the world’s worst Instagram-filtered pic, the cheesiest photo you can think of. You’d never believe there was good music on this album, would you?
This suggestive glance
“Eh, eh? You want to listen to some music? Come over here! I got candy. I’m nice, I swear!”
The next one is weird beyond belief…
A freaky looking baby
Here’s the thing: This baby might be cute in real life. In a different context, this baby could have the capacity to make me giggle with delight. But not right now. Not at this angle. That’s a freaky baby.
These dogs in the water
Listen, I love dogs as much as the next person (probably more, actually). But there’s something funky going on with the color of this album cover. It makes the sun look like…well, a butthole.
This dramatic portrait
This almost looks like one of those cheesy yearbook portraits from the ’80s, but it’s a little more sinister and a lot weirder than that.
This interesting beach scene
Look at the guys’ faces! They all seem to say, “I already can’t believe we’re doing this. This is definitely not going to age well.”
This unexplainable getup
Honestly, are these like, ancient Egyptians from the future trying to conquer an alien planet? It makes no sense.
But believe it or not, it might make more sense than the next one…
This strange scene
Did…did they forget to finish drawing a man? It’s just a torso, holding a guitar, floating above the water…which has a champagne bottle floating in it. You know, stuff that makes sense.
This haircut
I just cannot get over the haircut, and the hairline, and the smug look at the camera that goes with it. Amazing.
This batch of bad reflections
Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s how mirrors work. In fact, I’m pretty sure that this is all wrong.
This rudimentary illustration
This looks like something I would draw.
And I’m terrible at drawing.
This surprised cat
This looks like something I would photoshop.
And I’m terrible at photoshop.
Share this with someone who would totally get it!