Every time I go to play ABB, I love the record, but I can't help thinking "what a terrible cover".... whats your worst Stones album cover? After all the great ones.. Sticky Fingers, Some Girls... they could at least have tried
john h

Steel Wheels
Flashpoint
No Security

Yeah, some things really develope in wrong direction.
Second worst Bridges to Babylon?

-Steel Wheels
-Flashpoint
-No Security
-Vodoo Lounge
-Dirty Work
-Jump back



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-28 13:43 by 1962.

Quote
johnh
Every time I go to play ABB, I love the record, but I can't help thinking "what a terrible cover".... whats your worst Stones album cover? After all the great ones.. Sticky Fingers, Some Girls... they could at least have tried
john h

Yeah, I'd pick ABB too. Every other of the weaker efforts, has at least one interesting aspect speaking for them. Like Bridges to Babylon (designed by the famous Stefan Sagmeister) which, although not to my taste, contains this lion figure reminiscent of a prancing Mick Jagger which seems quite fitting to me.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-28 14:19 by Greenblues.

Worst Artwork:

Bridges to Babylon
Steel Wheels
Flashpoint
Emotional Rescue
Goat Heads Soup

Bridges is really awful.

But - as always - opposed to many I dig ER a lot!!

Bridges is shit but Emotional Rescue and Goat's Head Soup are really great IMO.

Quite a few actually.

Voodoo Lounge
Bridges To Babylon
Steel Wheels
Flashpoint
It's Only Rock 'n Roll
Emotional Rescue
And the worst: Dirty Work.

I love the ABB cover.....

JumpingKentFlash

I actually like the Bridges cover, but Love You Live and No Security are the worst.

[www.reverbnation.com]

I actually like Brides To Babylon a lot, both the record and the cover/art layout.
Think Dirty Work, Undercover, Steel Wheels are the most boring/worst.

Everybody's in agreement here then ;^)

Love You Live? Are you serious? And how can anyone not like the yellow Voodoo Lounge guy?

The Voodoo bunny is stoopid. But the tongue is cool!

Goats Head Soup
Emotional Rescue
Dirty Work - the absolute worst of all
Steel Wheels
Flashpoint
Jump Back
Voodoo

I like Bridges and Bang.

Am I the only person who likes the Flashpoint artwork?

Flashpoint is hardly artwork. But it is an eye catcher.

I was disappointed when that came out, the title and artwork. When I first heard Start Me Up on the radio and that it was coming out on Flashpoint, it just seemed like such a lame name for a live album, especially considering the name of the previous one.

And I don't think the album is explosive by any means. After Start Me Up and Sad Sad Sad, it pretty much turns into a tepid puddle.

Strange that so many people despise the Emotional Rescue cover.

I think it's a very strong effort, perfectly illustrating the album title.
I'd even call it a "cool" artwork (if the termographic pics wouldn't suggest just the opposite ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-28 18:42 by Greenblues.

Annie Leibowitz' cover for Dirty Work with the band in Versace Miami Vice suits are as dated as the record.........

Emotional Rescue
Bridges To Babylon
I Like Through The Past Darkly

They have the greatest logo in the world...but man do they put out some crappy album covers...for a band this great...makes no sense.

And the last couple of albums...CD booklet has complete blank Black pages (ABB, LIVE LICKS, SHINE A LIGHT).

PECMAN

I have to say I find Emotional Resque quite abysmal. Maybe that's just a reflection of my opinion regarding that album as a whole. The one song I really like is "Down in the Hole".

Maybe It's Only Rock'n'Roll is a tad bad as well, but not even remotely in the same league as ER (which is downright offending). Steel Wheels is... well.

AND, of course, Black and Blue is cool and all that, but -- well -- the pictures are still not what I would regard... flattering. The boys all look in one way or another sweaty, dirty, greasy, &c. Nice and nasty! Stonesy. BUT very up-front and close and all that.

I agree that ABB cover is totally unappealing to buyers of any age.

I hate the inside sleeve cover for Dirty Work. Those cartoons are creepy.

Creepy Cartoons?! Oh, no, not creepy cartoons. Charlie's work isn't it? (Similar scribbling style to the Between the Buttons 'verse')

Not an album for the faint-hearted.
DW pulls no punches, nor does the cover.

Yes, ABB must be the worst album cover, Simply black would have been better.
ABB, (like Voodoo Lounge, and Bridges, and perhaps SW are examples of creating a name for a tour - and then giving that name to an album and creating an album cover to fit that theme).
'The Black Album'. But that's been done before - Stranglers?

"Dirty Work" is the worst. What a terrible album cover...

Quote
vudicus
Am I the only person who likes the Flashpoint artwork?

No, I think it's really cool. One of my favorites. I also like the way the artwork extends to some of the singles.

I'm not crazy about the Bridges cover, but it kinda fits with the name. And I always saw it somewhat linked with the character on the Voodoo cover.

Some of the covers are dated, like Emotional and Dirty Work, but in a weird way I like them because of that.

Emotional Rescue - varied covers (with or withour poster) and the design just does not say "The Rolling Stones" at all - forgettable

Undercover - the cover itself seems to bold, people remember the cover but do not even remember it was a Stones record - plus that over glossy cover... yuck

Dirty Work - too much gimmick, good and not too subtle cover pic that unfortunately showed the aging Stones - did not help their image as dinosaurs at the time

Steel Wheels, Flashpoint, Voodoo Lounge, Bridges To Babylon - all seem so cheap and horrible, small snapshots of a larger piece of crap - cheap looking

No Security - deserves its own place in the horrible category - beyond terrible, its the worst - was this suppose to be some kind new Stones image? Just ridiculous...

It does seem like the last 20 years have had some bad covers but I think the Bigger Bang and Stripped covers have been some of the best - although the titles are lame.

First, all covers look much much better in the LP format. Even the steel wheels cover - the first stones album that I purchased in the CD format - has a whole lotta character as an LP. It makes sense.

Maybe it's me that don't recon the novelties, but it's hard to find artwork that was studied for - and works as - cd format.

Even the old covers look lame on cd. It reminds me of those horrible casset tapes.

End of the rant and back to the topic!

Some of the earlier covers, with those funeral faces, make me laugh. Trying hard to look cool, eh! Flowers was great. Aftermath, the colors were great! Buttons, superb. Banquet - so-used-to-the-white-cover-I-can't-stand-the-toilet one! Bleed - quite frankly, it sucks. But just like an awful dress on a beautiful lady, it works! Sticky great. Exile best of the lot. The black guy with tennis balls in his mouth alone makes the prize. Goat was good too. IORR me don't like. B&B inner cover (stones playing with cigarettes) was better. Girls superb. ER superb. Tattoo superb. Undercover great (still curious if someone removed the sticker on the girl/guy's *§òk"), DW last great one. SW so and so, but not stupid.

That leaves 3 in list for the oscar of the worst. Nominees: Voodoo B2B and ABB.

And the winner is ... B2B ... that lion is AWFUL.

C

p.s. Best of the lot, suckin' the 70's!

All the covers where they are not present, except sticky fingers.