weird album art that makes no sense

[datawrangler92]

okay but seriously, whats the deal with bands putting out covers that look like they were designed by a 5-year-old on ms paint? like i get "artistic vision" but sometimes it just looks like they didnt even try. saw one the other day for some indie band and it was literally just a blurry photo of a sock on a table a sock. anyone else come across stuff like this and just think "why tho"? feels like theyre trying too hard to be quirky or something. idk, maybe im just old and cranky but i miss when album art actually looked like someone put thought into it. not saying every cover needs to be a masterpiece but cmon, at least make it interesting or funny. or *something*. theres a fine line between "weird for a reason" and "weird because you gave up."

also, quick sidebar: anyone into those mashups where people recreate bad album art in high-res? some of those are hilariously good.

 

[Aragon]

Honestly, I think there's a difference between minimalist and "we forgot album art was a thing."

Some of the greatest covers ever are ridiculously simple, but they still have a concept behind them. The problem is when bands start treating "low effort" as an aesthetic. A blurry photo of a sock on a table might mean something deeply profound to the artist, but if the average person can't tell whether it's an album cover or an accidental camera roll upload, maybe the message got lost somewhere.

That said, I do kind of love terrible album art. Not because it's good, but because it's memorable. I'd rather remember "the sock album" than the 500th dark silhouette standing in a foggy forest.

And yes, those high-res recreations are amazing. My favorites are when people faithfully recreate every weird detail instead of trying to improve it. The worse the original art is, the funnier it becomes when someone spends 40 hours professionally remastering it like it's a Renaissance painting.

Now I kind of want to see this sock album cover because there's a non-zero chance it becomes my favorite album art of the year.