I don't know what this cover promises, but I don't think it promises the music that's on the CD.
Terrible cover in my opinion, but the music isn't that bad.
I don't know what this cover promises, but I don't think it promises the music that's on the CD.
Terrible cover in my opinion, but the music isn't that bad.
Yup, Hatchet was always most disappointingly boring... but they're not the only onesOriginally Posted by PeterG
Another top contender really
Wouldn't these be counter-examples of your OP
I happen to think that the lasdt two shell out exactly what you'd expect from the cover... The Wall's title sticker over the cellophane might have best on the back cover, though.
was there ever a good Joe Walsh album, though?? A few good tunes here and there, but that's it.
Kind of a cool, interesting album cover. I bought it thinking that Walsh might be in a bit of a Tull-like mood.
The music was crap.
Wll a lot of those late 70's and early 80's AOR artworks looked much miore promising than the relative crap inside the sleeves... Though I must say that I never expected much of Journey's Pontiac Trans Am hood artworks look-alikes
Another prime candidate
While I find this one their weakest sleeve, it's still OK.... But if it wasn't for Hope and 3:47, Klaatu's generally interestng artworks would rank up there with asia and JourneyIm a fan of Klaatu but I though this album was weak
I liked the cover, though
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Not so much an album cover, but I remember seeing pictures of Gary Wright's stage set up, with gazillions of synths and half his band playing portable keyboards around their necks. And I figured maybe he was doing synth pop, or maybe even more esoteric electronic music. Turned out most of his work was snooze inducing "soft rock". Oy!
Another like that was Yellow Magic Orchestra. I actually remember seeing them mentioned in a book, which talked about how heavily they used synths in their music. So I was kinda expecting something like Tangerine Dream, or maybe at best a synth pop group. Instead, they turned out to be snooze inducing smooooooth jazz (or at least the tracks that I heard were). Double Oy!
Yes, exactly, but I wanted to give some prime examples of the opposite to show how severely some album covers fail in relation to the music contained on the album.
Last edited by PeterG; 10-31-2013 at 08:28 PM.
The King of Elfland's Daughter - great Alan Lee cover, shitty bluesy-squawking music:
Unknown.jpeg
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
That will always be this one for me:
HuGo"Very, very nice," said a man in the crowd,
When the golden voice appeared.
She was gold alright, but then so is rust.
"Such a shame about the beard."
Oh, that reminds me... someone else brought up Fleetwood Mac's "Kiln House." Christine McVie wasted a great cover!
Exactly! The best FM cover, very proggy.
I actually like that Badger album
That's a live album, though... and I prefer the inside sleeve, where ou see rearview mirrors attached to Walsh's mike stand.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Dave Greenslade's Pentateuch Of Cosmogony
Shankar/Caroline - The Epidemics
Looked like a typically mysterious ECM cover, but the music was PURE UNLISTENABLE CRAP despite the musicians involved (Percy Jones, Steve Vai, Shankar etc). The vocals were like a screeching bird on helium, horrifically dated drum machine stuff, Percy buried in the mix and other annoyances, best left where you found it.
Never play slap bass around bears, you'll make them VERY angry.
I don't care what the music sounds like -- I want to see the video!!!
Best/worst example: the Dschinn album. The cover is an incredible Dali-esque freakout, but the music is totally pedestrian hard rock. Meh!
Allow me to put in another vote for Uriah Heep. The covers suggest some sort of epic prog fantasy trip, but their music is epitomized more by songs like “All My Life” and “Spider Woman.”
Other cool album covers that did not fulfill their promise:
- Bloodstone: Unreal
- Clear Blue Sky: S/T
- James Gang: Newborn (speaking of Dali)
- Bob Johnson & Peter Knight: The King of Elfland’s Daughter
- Magna Carta: Lord of the Ages
- McKendree Spring: Spring Suite
- Pacific Sound: Forget Your Dream!
- Paladin: Charge!
- Space Needle: Moray Eels Eat the Space Needle
- Stray: Saturday Morning Pictures
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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
N.P.:“Underground”-Sparks/A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing
Last edited by Progbear; 11-01-2013 at 09:08 PM.
Gabriel Bondage - Another Trip To Earth
Great name. Intriguing album cover. Alriiiiii... uh, no.
Yes perfect. Such a cool cover. Lame music esp compared to Future Games and Then Play On.
I might get some disagreement on this, but I'll go with this one.
But I love this cover -
cover_95213332007.jpg
But the music was only so so. Not horrible, mind you, just did not live up to the great cover.
And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell
Yet another Roger Dean cover to add to the mix:
1219512939_Natural%2520Avenue%2520-%2520front%2520(full).jpg
Wow.. that's a blast from the past.. I bought that solely based on album cover.. bonus was record was orange.. music... it had one long track as I recall. and David Bedford had something to do with them perhaps? I bought tons of stuff in cutout bins back in the day based on artwork / guest appearances etc.. sometimes you hit a home run others.. you held onto for years then dump them at yard sales etc.
I really like that album, so I’ll disagree. Incidentally, the original LP had an offer where you could send away for the poster to hang on your wall. I wonder if they followed through on that, or if it was “dead letter office” à la the illustrated lyric booklet for England’s Garden Shed.
-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
N.P.:nothing
I think that every band that's not prog that uses a Hipgnosis album cover is not fulfilling the promise of the album cover. When I see an Hipgnosis album cover, I expect to hear prog rock.
I love this album! Music lives up to the picture, imho.
Dig the Omega record too!
[Space Needle: Moray Eels Eat the Space Needle]
I actually had this on cd when I was in college. I admittedly bought it because of the Roger Dean cover. A guy I went to school with apparently knew a guy in this band. It's true one of the tracks on here(I believe it was the one called "where the fuck's my wallet") was pretty much pure noise and virtually unlistenable (and it was about ten minutes long too if I remember)but most of it was really not that bad. I remember liking the track "never lonely alone." Still, I no longer have it and I can't really blame you for putting it on the list.
Last edited by Digital_Man; 11-02-2013 at 12:02 PM.
The album's themes of "Victoriania", e.g. sexual repression, alienation, and violence, are very much reflected in the cover art.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Re: Nursery Cryme
By the time I had seen the cover of Nursery Cryme, I already knew what to expect, so there was never any thought of "What to expect based on the cover". Personally, I was more impressed with the fact that the cover was based on The Musical Box. And I was also impressed when, years later, I read that building in the background is actually Charterhouse, the school where Peter, Ant, Mike, and Tony all first met.
I've heard it said that a lot of people saw some of the Grateful Dead's album covers and associated artwork, and expected a heavy metal band, which they're obviously not. I dunno, I guess before i saw any artwork, I saw a picture of Jerry Garcia, and he looked like a country musician to me. But then I saw a picture of Phil Lesh, and he looked like a jazz musician. Then I spotted in the band's name in the closing credits of the 80's era Twilight Zone revival (they did the new theme music, which basically was a mid 80's "space" jam with Jerry playing a couple bars of the famous guitar riff from the original show's opening at the end). So by the time I finally got to hear some of their actual music, I didn't know what to expect it to sound like.
And I've also heard people say they expected Kiss to be "more evil sounding", whatever the frell that's supposed to mean. I guess they expected something more like Iron Butterfly or Black Sabbath or whatever. (shrug)
I wonder how many people bought some of the late 70's ELO records, especially Out Of The Blue and Time, expecting to hear something more "sci-fi" orientated. Likewise for Jefferson Starship or Boston.
I like some of the Jefferson Starship records, but when I saw the cover of Spitfire (the one with the Asian lady riding the dragon on the cover), I think I expected it to sound different from what it actually sounded like. I believe I've told this story before, but my initial reference point for Jefferson Starship was their appearance in George Lucas' one big regret he wishes he could go back in time and prevent from happening:
So I expected the rest of their music to sound like that, and album covers like this:
300px-Jefferson_starship_spitfire_lg.jpg
Put an image in mind that didn't really jibe with most of what I heard from them subsequently.
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