ARTICLE JUMP
Another year, another poor collection of excused for album sleeves. Without any further ado, let's dive in.
Morrissey - Years Of Refusal
This poor kid. Number one, he's in close proximity to Morrissey, which means the grumpy singer probably lambasted the kid for eating non-vegan baby food or something. Number two, Morrissey is touching his gooch. This cover does have the advantage of broadcasting the fantasy that Morrissey's female fans want to imagine: him as the father of their child. Not even Justin Timberlake could get away with that one - kudos.
Capital - Blind Faith
The font on this looks like a Cyndi Lauper record, and the photo makes it resemble a 1983 Irish Nationalist LP consisting of covers of Arthur McBride and The Fields of Athenry.
NOFX - Coaster
Very clever, very postmodern. It still looks ugly as sin, though.
Gallows - Grey Britain
Come on guys, this had potential. You could have had a bleak shot of a grimy council estate somewhere up north, but instead you picked the White Rose of York and a 'grungy' Union Flag. This probably took a Photoshop kid about two minutes to throw together and looks cheap and lazy. Sorry.
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
A poor man's Banksy. Next.
Rancid - Let The Dominoes Fall
While you'd be a fool to expect Rancid to do anything surprising or out of character, let's face it: you could have drawn this record sleeve with your eyes closed six months before it came out and you'd have got it spot own, down to Tim Armstrong's fucking cobweb tattoo.
Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot
Are we in 1999 again? The nu-metal backwards letter thing seems to be back. As for using your band's not-very-original logo as the sole artwork for your album: 0/10 for effort.
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
It wouldn't be a SPB bad covers article without a Mars Volta entry, and this one is no exception. Maybe I'm not into psych rock enough to 'get' it, but this looks like the dreams of a six year old on acid.
Death By Stereo - Death is my Only Friend
I don't think any words are necessary.
(Matt)