Worst looking CD/LP artwork

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Perfection!

You're going to be giving me nightmares David!

[Irons]

Reminds me that I keep meaning to come up with a cheat sheet to have on me (or on my phone) for when I am a record store and come across old Melodiya records as I can't read Russian!  If I'm lucky, I'll at least recognize the composer or possibly the artist. 

At least some of it is in English--whew! 

Without the technical ability of most of the guys here I have come up with a formula to at least discover the identity of composer. For LPs, Melodiya always include years of birth and death on covers. I simply Google this information.

[71 dB]

What happened to his neck??

Someone who didn't like his LOUD playing for the people must have strangled him hard! 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Without the technical ability of most of the guys here I have come up with a formula to at least discover the identity of composer. For LPs, Melodiya always include years of birth and death on covers. I simply Google this information.

Do you type in "Soviet composer who lived x-z"?

And do they also do that if there are multiple composers on an album?

PD

[AnotherSpin]

Without the technical ability of most of the guys here I have come up with a formula to at least discover the identity of composer. For LPs, Melodiya always include years of birth and death on covers. I simply Google this information.

It never occurred to me that music lovers who don't know the Cyrillic alphabet might have such difficulties...

After all, Melodiya didn't publish many different composers. If it's hard to guess that Шостакович is Shotsakovich and Прокофьев is Prokofiev, you can try to make yourself a list in your phone or notebook with the names. I'd probably do that.

[T. D.]

As a chess enthusiast I had to learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet. Block capitals are OK, but I still have problems with lower-case / cursive.

[Added] Though I have to admit that it took a while to figure out Henryk Wieniawski on the most recent cover. Had to recall that "Henryk" gets translated as "Genrikh", i.e. Генрих. And I hadn't heard of Barsukov.

[Florestan]

I studied Russian in secondary school, 4 full years. Not that I can understand much today, after 35 years of non-practice, but I can read any text.

[T. D.]

Upcoming LP reissue, original had the same cover.

Pond scum and litter/pollution? The record label (Flying Dutchman) logo is the most attractive element. Although the lettering and pink border are OK.

[Peter Power Pop]

Upcoming LP reissue, original had the same cover.

Pond scum and litter/pollution? The record label (Flying Dutchman) logo is the most attractive element. Although the lettering and pink border are OK.

What an utterly unappealing photo.

[KevinP]

The Pepto Bismol border is even worse than the photo itself.

The lettering by itself might not bother me in another context, but here it just works to show there is nothing good about this cover.

[T. D.]

Actually, only the CD release had the pink border. LP cover:


Yeah, the pink made it even worse. Oddly, it seems to be considered an excellent album (if you like free jazz 
). But the cover art is incomprehensible.

[Madiel]

Let the pond scum evolve?

[Jo498]

As a chess enthusiast I had to learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet. Block capitals are OK, but I still have problems with lower-case / cursive.

[Added] Though I have to admit that it took a while to figure out Henryk Wieniawski on the most recent cover. Had to recall that "Henryk" gets translated as "Genrikh", i.e. Генрих. And I hadn't heard of Barsukov.

As Russian has no "h", they use g or the letter with the kh sound that looks like an x.
They also phonetically spell French/English names like Chopin (becomes sth like "Szopen") which can be quite confusing even if one reads the alphabet well enough.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Actually, only the CD release had the pink border. LP cover:


Yeah, the pink made it even worse. Oddly, it seems to be considered an excellent album (if you like free jazz 
). But the cover art is incomprehensible.

Perhaps the idea behind it is that this is what we have created for ourselves and where do we want to go from here?

[T. D.]

I'm going for a pond scum avatar! 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm going for a pond scum avatar! 

Somebody had too much coffee this morning! 

PD

[T. D.]

Somebody had too much coffee this morning! 

PD

No coffee yet! Lifted the idea from DavidW's avatar change.
Under the influence of caffeine I might have chosen something excessively grotesque. 

[ritter]

We'll have to start a "Worst looking avatar thread" 

[Peter Power Pop]

Seen over at the "What are you listening 2 now?" thread:



"Freedom!"

[Madiel]

Do they let tubas into football stadiums?