4 Album Covers That Critics (And Some Fans) Hated

Well, they can’t all be winners. Some album covers are just weird enough to be visually interesting to both fans and non-fans alike. However, there have been a few creative choices through the years that didn’t yield very good results for certain bands’ genuinely good (or at least musically decent) albums. We’re visual creatures, after all. Let’s take a look at four famous album covers that were almost universally hated!

1. ‘Ride A Rock Horse’ by Roger Daltrey

Out of all the album covers through the years that have been genuinely hated by critics and fans, we definitely understand this one. This 1975 solo album from The Who’s Roger Daltrey really isn’t all that bad musically. But that cover… There’s something about a shirtless Daltrey centaur galloping through the clouds that just rubs the viewer the wrong way. And that fist bump? Let’s be real, it’s an iconic cover; but it was absolutely a bizarre creative choice.

2. ‘The Miracle’ by Queen

The design of Queen’s 1989 album cover for The Miracle could have been better. It’s a very late-1980s cheesy design choice. But there’s something so haunting about the four members of Queen’s heads being fused together with sultry expressions on their horrific amalgamation. Designer Richard Gray did his best with relatively new art graphics technology, but this one was a swing and a terrifying miss.

3. ‘River Of Dreams’ by Billy Joel

We really don’t think this one is that bad. We understand why Billy Joel used it for his 1993 record River Of Dreams. The cover is a painting created by his then-wife, model Christie Brinkley. 

In a way, it’s a fascinating piece of surrealist outsider art. On the other hand, a lot of fans thought it looked like hot garbage when it was first released. We’ll let you form your own opinion on it.

4. ‘Time Well Wasted’ by Brad Paisley

This pick is definitely worthy of our list of album covers that are more or less universally hated, but there’s something so nostalgic about it… in a very dumb way. 

This cover from Brad Paisley’s 2005 album Time Well Wasted features the musician posing with a guitar and a few different surreal images chopped into the frame. Paisley designed it himself and insisted that credit for the art with his name be featured on the album. This is a great example of a famous person not having enough people around him to say “no.”

Photo by Tom Hill/WireImage

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