Though we live in an insouciant age, where shock and consternation are but the sensibilities of a bygone era, we can’t help but feel a little, say, distaste at some of the album covers those musical reprobates have sent to try us. While some are so deeply inappropriate we daren’t publish them here, others, like the above cover of the album Smile a While, by German heavy metal band, Brainstorm, leave us simply unnerved, bemused, or smiling a while.
Millie Jackson – Back to the S..t
We’re not smiling at Millie Jackson’s 1989 Back to the S..t album cover, though. We defy anyone not to recoil at this sight of Millie on the dunny.
Betty Staples – Organ Fantasy
The smile, the balloons, the party hat in Betty’s hair, the innocent pairing of the words ‘organ’ and ‘fantasy’. We love it!
Keith Rowland – My Beauty
We’ve nothing against men in feminine attire, but in Keith’s case, we’re just not sure he pulls it off.
Barry Louis Polisar – I Eat Kids
There’s a palpable incongruousness between the title of this album and the happy-homestead snap. Barry, we’re baffled.
Paddy Roberts – Songs for Gay Dogs
From the days when ‘gay’ meant ‘happy’. Still, ‘Songs for Happy Dogs’: it’s a strange concept.
The Frivolous Five – Sour Cream and Other Delights
Who put them up to this?
The Brothers Johnson – Light up the Night
Here are The Brothers Johnson, a band consisting of the musicians, and brothers, George aka ‘Lightnin’ Licks’ and Louis Jagger Johnson, aka ‘Thunder Thumbs’, displaying brotherly love.
Orleans – Waking and Dreaming
They look like they’re enjoying themselves.
Jim Post – I love My Life
Does this look like a man who loves his life?