Worst looking CD/LP artwork

[Peter Power Pop]

But that shirt, man, he looks like a private in the Army or something. He didn't have anything nicer than that?

Maybe not that day.

When I saw what Eddie was wearing, I thought he might have been sporting The Kim Jong-Il Look™:

[Peter Power Pop]

I think this is a mess:



1. The black text is mostly readable, but there are two problems with it:

    a) the orange strips behind the text don't help because they're competing with the splashes of orange in the painting;
    b) the orange strips don't cover the text vertically, making the tops of the letters sometimes seen, sometimes missing. It all depends on where the black text is in the painting.

2. The colour chosen for the "SCENE" text underneath the MDG logo is just plain wrong. Wrong!

3. And speaking of the MDG logo, the red dot above the "M" is actually part of the logo, and not part of the painting – or a sticker from the music store. ("This week, all red dot sticker CDs are half price!") Again, that colour is wrong. Wrong!

4. But for me, the worst part of that cover is the beginning of the composer's name, where the white bits in the painting clash horribly with the white "H" and "E". Ugh.

What a mess.

[Wendell_E]

2. The colour chosen for the "SCENE" text underneath the MDG logo is just plain wrong. Wrong!

3. And speaking of the MDG logo, the red dot above the "M" is actually part of the logo, and not part of the painting – or a sticker from the music store. ("This week, all red dot sticker CDs are half price!") Again, that colour is wrong. Wrong!

Both the "SCENE" and the dot are part of the logo for their "SCENE" series, and are the same color on all CDs.  They've also got a "GOLD" series  (with the color you'd expect) and a couple of others, each with their own color.  They'll sometimes change the color (I've seen a couple black "GOLD" series).  Here's one they really should have changed, but didn't:


There is a "SCENE" there.  I swear!

[Moonfish]

This cover qualifies for this thread! Yikes!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Apparently this...





...is housed inside the below. Good thing they covered it.

[EigenUser]

I don't really think that this is a bad cover at all, but the more I see it the more I think it looks like a selfie.
[asin]B000058BGZ[/asin]

[Peter Power Pop]

This cover qualifies for this thread! Yikes!

Egad!

[Peter Power Pop]

Both the "SCENE" and the dot are part of the logo for their "SCENE" series, and are the same color on all CDs.  They've also got a "GOLD" series  (with the color you'd expect) and a couple of others, each with their own color.  They'll sometimes change the color (I've seen a couple black "GOLD" series).  Here's one they really should have changed, but didn't:


There is a "SCENE" there.  I swear!

Jeepers.

Considering the colour of the logo stays the same, I don't know why the graphic designers don't think more about what kind of pictures they're going to have on their covers. Don't these people work as a team, or is it one person in charge of the logo, one person in charge of choosing the paintings, and neither of them ever speak to each other?

I found four other instances of this image on the Interwebs:

     

The largest one comes from the MDG website itself, so presumably that's the colour the cover is meant to be. You can differentiate the colours, but only just.

Note to MDG: What's wrong with changing the colour of the logo text? Or, if you're going to be stubborn about the logo, how about changing the background colour so you can see all of the logo easily?

By the way, that MDG cover is of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's Christmas Oratorio. MDG, bizarrely, released what could have been a 2-CD set as two separate single CDs ("Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2".) Which leads me to...

Question to MDG: Why release the Christmas Oratorio as two separate CDs? Why not wait until the second one was ready and then you could have released the whole thing as a double-CD? Or is your company defiantly anti-double-CD?

Update: Oops. After reading the Wikipedia article on Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, I discovered his so-called Christmas Oratorio is simply a collection of cantatas. So MDG released the first lot of cantatas on the first CD, and then the rest on the second. That's fair enough. I cheerfully take back my previous paragraph.

But getting back to those images...

Here are the two covers, from MDG's website, side-by-side:

 

That blue background doesn't make things better. (Ever tried to read red text on a blue background? It hurts.)

MDG must be a small label, because the quality of both those images, as presented to the world, is sub-sub-par. The MDG website is bare-bones as well, so I'm guessing the words "MDG website" and "decent budget" aren't thrown together too often.

All of the above leads me to catch MDG's attention by going into "Hey MDG" mode...

Hey MDG: I'd be happy to help in your graphics department. I can choose paintings and colours so they don't clash on your covers.

Hey MDG: Do you want someone to help freshen up your website? I can be that someone. I can update your HTML, and replace all the covers with much higher quality ones. Your website would then look more appealing.

Hey MDG: You don't have to pay me much. (You're probably like most small record companies in that you have close to zero dollars to work with.)

[Peter Power Pop]

This cover qualifies for this thread! Yikes!

I just realised the top-half of that cover is the inside of the harpsichord's lid.

Wow, that's bad.

[Peter Power Pop]

Apparently this...



...is housed inside the below. Good thing they covered it.

Ugh.

Usually, when there's this kind of elaborate slip cover (e.g., Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, The Rolling Stones' Some Girls), the bit inside is interesting.

Not here.

By the way, that outer cover reminds me of:

[Peter Power Pop]

I don't really think that this is a bad cover at all, ...

I do.

...but the more I see it the more I think it looks like a selfie.

Yep.

What I like about the photo: I think the pose is nice 'n' casual (for a couple of terribly serious musicians).

What I don't like about the photo: What bothers me is that the subjects are on an angle. If there's one thing that gripes my cookies*, it's people on an angle in photos. They always look to me like they're going to slide out of the picture.

And the text box is at an angle. Grrr.


(*Or you can insert your own "what annoys me" phrase.)

[Peter Power Pop]

This cover qualifies for this thread! Yikes!

I went looking for more information about that album (mainly because the backwards painted text on the harpsichord has me puzzled, and I'd like to know what's going on there), and discovered the album has an alternate cover:



I'm not sure that's an improvement.


Harpsichord at the Holidays: Christmas Carols past and present
Elaine Funaro, harpsichord

Elaine Funaro website
Arabesque Records

Amazon.com
CD Baby
iTunes

Early Music America review

[Moonfish]

I went looking for more information about that album (mainly because the backwards painted text on the harpsichord has me puzzled, and I'd like to know what's going on there), and discovered the album has an alternate cover:



I'm not sure that's an improvement.

Harpsichord at the Holidays: Christmas Carols past and present
Elaine Funaro, harpsichord

Elaine Funaro website
Arabesque Records

Amazon.com
CD Baby
iTunes

Early Music America review

Hmm, somebody must be a very creative harpsichord painter...

[Peter Power Pop]

I went looking for more information about that album (mainly because the backwards painted text on the harpsichord has me puzzled, and I'd like to know what's going on there), and discovered the album has an alternate cover:

Hmm, somebody must be a very creative harpsichord painter...

Yes indeed.

This is the harpsichord:



"Opus 333, owned and commissioned by Elaine Funaro, built by Richard Kingston and painted by Lisa Creed."

[Text and image from http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/event/north-carolina-h-i-p-music-festival/]

And there's a photo gallery over at Flickr:

Harpsichord Unveiling

[Peter Power Pop]

This cover qualifies for this thread! Yikes!

... the backwards painted text on the harpsichord has me puzzled ...

Ah, so that's what the backward text is. It's "Richard Kingston", the harpsichord maker's name:


(Image © Lisa Creed.)

[kishnevi]

Baroque era harpsichordists has instruments covered with 18th century art.  Why not cover modern instruments with modern art.

[Ken B]

Yes indeed.

This is the harpsichord:



"Opus 333, owned and commissioned by Elaine Funaro, built by Richard Kingston and painted by Lisa Creed."

[Text and image from http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/event/north-carolina-h-i-p-music-festival/]

And there's a photo gallery over at Flickr:

Harpsichord Unveiling

C'mon guys, admit it. If you owned that harpsichord you'd use its picture too! It's a great look; imagine the Falla or Glass concerti on that puppy!

[Peter Power Pop]

Baroque era harpsichordists has instruments covered with 18th century art.  Why not cover modern instruments with modern art.

C'mon guys, admit it. If you owned that harpsichord you'd use its picture too! It's a great look; imagine the Falla or Glass concerti on that puppy!

It doesn't bother me at all how anyone wants to paint a harpsichord, but I think one criticism that could be levelled at Lisa Creed's artwork is, in this case at least, it's anachronistic. A harpsichord, even a newly built one, is an instrument from a bygone era.

In other words, just like the lute, theorbo, baryton, arpeggione, and the viola da gamba, no matter how new they are, they're old.

[Moonfish]

Check this out:
Elisabetta Lanzoni - harpsichord painter!!!   
I think I will drop this in the harpsichord thread as well.....

http://www.elisabettalanzoni.com/index.htm

Lots of examples. Here is one:

[Peter Power Pop]

Check this out:
Elisabetta Lanzoni - harpsichord painter!!!   
I think I will drop this in the harpsichord thread as well.....

http://www.elisabettalanzoni.com/index.htm

Lots of examples. Here is one:

Wow.