Worst looking CD/LP artwork

[NumberSix]

As an ex-setdresser

Say that phrase out loud 3x fast! 

[Peter Power Pop]

Take a look at my piano, it's the only I got... 

Hehe.

[KevinP]

To be fair, it's the back cover. But surely they could have made it less of an eyesore. This is what the booklets are for.

[Kalevala]

To be fair, it's the back cover. But surely they could have made it less of an eyesore. This is what the booklets are for.

What an indecipherable mess!

K

[Peter Power Pop]

To be fair, it's the back cover. But surely they could have made it less of an eyesore. This is what the booklets are for.

Man oh man, that's bad. It reminds me of modern movie posters, where the credits at the bottom of each poster are all squished together.

[Peter Power Pop]

Professor X!

[Madiel]

Which reminds me of this cover:

Now you've got me thinking about the artwork for Tori Amos' album "Boys for Pele", which involves a piano on fire.

It's very small on the cover. Larger images of the piano's destruction are within the booklet.

[KevinP]

Incidentally, my favourite Supertramp album, though I haven't heard them all. Except for the bass and occasionally synth, it's bascially an acoustic album.

And Tori Amos is one of my all-time favourite pop/rock artists, certainly my favourtite among those who emerged since I was an adult.

Now you've got me thinking about the artwork for Tori Amos' album "Boys for Pele", which involves a piano on fire.

Should we mention your avatar?

[Peter Power Pop]

Now you've got me thinking about the artwork for Tori Amos' album "Boys for Pele", which involves a piano on fire.

It's very small on the cover. Larger images of the piano's destruction are within the booklet.

[Madiel]

Should we mention your avatar?

No actual instruments were harmed in the making of my avatar. Though in a very happy series of coincidences it goes well with both with my original forum name (Orfeo) and my current one, AND my original forum name is actually slightly linked to Boys For Pele.

[T. D.]

[Kalevala]

Blagh!  I'm going to have nightmares now! 

K

[T. D.]

Weirdly, the album is elegant straight-ahead jazz (as would be expected from a Tommy Flanagan group). Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWT6YICU1yo&list=OLAK5uy_k-3c-2Fpi7jA2N2z8nYQjV7Jo3nhnw65A

There have been quite a few releases, with three different covers. This one is the outlier. I don't know the story.

[NumberSix]

Blagh!  I'm going to have nightmares now! 

K

Dolls are creepy at their best.

This is not "at their best". 

[DavidW]

Dolls are creepy at their best.

This is not "at their best". 

Reminds me of the ps3 commercial, absolute nightmare fuel!

[NumberSix]

Reminds me of the ps3 commercial, absolute nightmare fuel!

If you think I'm going to click on that video, you're crazy! 

[Peter Power Pop]

I'm not especially keen on seeing someone kicking someone else in the groin, even if it is in water.

[T. D.]

That one sort of reminds me of this polarizing Bill Evans / Jim Hall album cover, which I find extremely creepy though not overly ugly.

[JBS]

I'm not especially keen on seeing someone kicking someone else in the groin, even if it is in water.

It looks to me to be superimposed images of the same person...although the watery filters aren't helpful.
But I'm not keen on an image enacting the final song of that particular cycle. And similar with the cover @T.D. posted.

[T. D.]

Weirdly, there was a 2022 Euro reissue of Undercurrent with an underwater kick. It looks to be a recent photo, not related to the original.
I've gotta believe that the HM/SWR designers were influenced by the Undercurrent cover art. Or maybe they also did the 2022 reissue cover...I'm too lazy to research.