Music

The Needle Drop Asked For The Worst Album Covers Of All-Time, And Twitter Delivered

These artists have some explaining to do.

by Jared Richards  1 October 2020
The Needle Drop asked for the worst album covers of all-time, and Twitter delivered

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YouTube music critic The Needle Drop (aka Antony Fantano) has asked his followers for their pick of the worst album artworks ahead of an upcoming episode, and the results are pretty astonishing.

Right off the bat, people made it clear that they were judging the album purely on the (lack of) merits on the cover: one of the first responses was Talking Heads‘ debut album, a plain red background with a gaudy green title on top. As Fantano replies, it’s objectively “disgusting”.

One genre that’s clearly pulling more than its weight is the heavy world, as the clichés of dark, gothic imagery and  moody font can either age terribly, or just simply try way too hard.

Multiple tweeters nominated Iron Maiden’s cover art for 2003 album Dance of Death for obvious reasons — between the Sims-like naked bodies wearing masquerade ball masks and the Grim Reaper standing at the centre of a hellscape, there’s a lot going on. And none of it is good.

Swedish death metal group At The Gates got a shout-out too for their 1995 album Slaughter Of The Soul, a ‘generic’ mess of religious iconography and barbed wire, with a dreary colour scheme to match.

Some covers were justifiably terrible, in that they perfectly represent the album inside. See Corey Feldman’s Angelic 2 The Core.


Others leapt at the chance to talk about excellent albums with misrepresentative covers: quite a few people nominated Childish Gambino’s blank artwork for 3.15.20, thinking it a missed opportunity. Bowie’s 2003 album Reality is another, a cover straight from a JRPG that works for the album’s title but not its sound.

Of course, there’s a treasure trove of ’70s and ’80s covers out there, too.

Then there’s just the gross-outs, like Aesop Rock and Tobacco’s Malibu Ken, which we’re just going to link to, rather than embed. Be warned. Ariel Pink’s choice to pair one of his best songs, ‘Round & Round’, with a soft sketch of a dog and a man making out is certainly something, too.

One user clearly got confused, because this cover for Gucci Mane’s Trap Story is a thing of beauty.

There’s one clear winner, though. It was always going to be Creed.

Stay tuned to The Needle Drop for the video about the worst album covers of all-time and find the Twitter thread here.

And if you’re after more cringe, a few years back Guardian journalist Andrew Marle asked a similar, but slightly different question, raking in some horrific covers on excellent albums. That Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mosquito artwork still gives us nightmares, to be honest.