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Ugly cover picture

19K views 98 replies 38 participants last post by  RockyIII 
#1 · (Edited)
This cover picture is so repulsive that I wonder if it has negatively affected the sales of this CD. I wonder why in the hell they picked this picture. What do you all think? Have you seen similar cases? If yes, please post the cover pictures.

 
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#4 ·
For the record Stanley Clark is a fantastic musician. I can't believe he agreed to this silly cover.

None of my examples can top the Biber archeopterix or whatever it is, but I dislike it when a classical musician has an unfortunate mug shot that would have been geeky even during the time it was in style.
 
#7 ·
I think any cover of a BIS label disc with that horrible black frame looks like a ****ing funeral notice. Just awful, makes the music look depressing. I have an earlier incarnation of the Tubin recording below (mine is a tape with his 4th symphony only, but with same cover). It doesn't portray the 4th, at least, well at all - this piece comes across to me as being quite uplifting & filmic.

But - BIS seems to be moving away from the old format recently. I borrowed the Saint-Saens violin concerto disc (second image below) & the image & style is 110 per cent better, imo. This actually looks more modern (in terms of design), easy on the eye, and speaks to the music. Not every piece of classical music sounds like a bloody funeral march!...

 
#8 ·
Often, just about any of the CD covers with photos of the artists taken look ugly and outdated. The more recent ones done in professional portrait photo studios look better. Member Weston's post #4 above is a typical example.

Naxos covers are not that bad. At least they often have original works of art on a simple cover that surprisingly, make their cover branding easy to spot.





 
#10 ·
...Naxos covers are not that bad. At least they often have original works of art on a simple cover that surprisingly, make their cover branding easy to spot...
Agreed about Naxos, they do what they can with their limited budget & I actually like things like the Glazunov cover posted by Huilunsoittaja above, the painting is kind of modern & creative, imo. (& Naxos have also brought out some covers with "new" design, like Maestro Petrenko's Shostakovich series). But I suppose it's the music that really counts (don't judge a book by it's cover, as they say, though it's human nature to often do that with many things).

I forgot BIS was now owned by Naxos, thanks for reminding me. But what I said above about the BIS black frame "funeral notice" covers I still stand by. I find them to making the music "look" depressing. It's simply bad design, imo.

& re "outdated" designs, I have found this with some of old vinyl LP covers I buy secondhand. I just got a Prokofiev disc (with Emil Gilels on piano) & the cover is like some of those horrible Stalinist "wedding-cake on steroids" buildings in Moscow - complete with three little children neatly dressed in white in the foreground. I wonder what Prokofiev would say to that? I'd hazard a guess that maybe those buildings in the photo (of maybe 1950's or '60's) would have even been torn down by now???...
 
#11 ·
I generally dislike musicians on the cover, if only because they so often come out awkwardly. Jiří Bárta's Dvořák cover is, if nothing else, bizarre:

Great music on there, though.

I actually tend to like Naxos' covers. Often it's simply a painting that's pleasant to look at, and really, what more could I ask for? In a lot of cases, I'm not sure there's an obvious subject that should be used. In some cases, of course, it's easy: many of Chandos' recordings of Dvořák's symphonies with Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra are paired with Dvořák's tone poems, which have a very clear program; and I like their covers of them.

This is probably the most offensive cover I could find in my collection:



...but only because of that really tacky hatching pattern surrounding the bust.
 
#12 ·
This cover picture is so repulsive that I wonder if it has negatively affected the sales of this CD. I wonder why in the hell they picked this picture. What do you all think?...
Maybe I'm saying something already obvious to you, but that Biber cover you posted looks to me to be referring to the interest in flora & fauna during his time (17th-18th centuries?). I think that's when this kind of scientific drawing came a popular thing - eg. imaging previously unknown species. It also speaks to Biber's music, which was apparently kind of bizarre for it's time (I've not heard anything by the man, but some members here have spoken of his stuff as being almost "atonal"). So that's maybe kind of the reason they went with that cover, maybe in some ways it is appropriate? Looking at that bird, it looks like it might just have been "made up," perhaps not a "real" species at all? But yes, there were many more kind of tasteful or conventional (more scientific, less "arty") botanical/animal drawings during that period of discovery/voyages, I remember seeing an exhibition of Sir Joseph Banks' drawings here (he came out here with Captain James Cook) & they were much more easy on the eye...
 
#15 ·
...or this Schnittke monstrosity

That looks like to be more kind of appropriate for something like Scheonberg's Pierrot Lunaire (which I love totally, btw). Especially with regards to that work's connection with clowns (the commedia dell'Arte) & a kind of nightmare feel (the open mouth there makes me think of screaming, like Edvard Munch's famous The Scream painting). But the colours red & blue rarely go together well, imo, esp. if they're that bright/strong...
 
#39 ·
Browsing my collection, I've gathered some of my favorites.

I guess 'Price-Le$$' means they cut all of the visually appealing colors from the budget:


What can purplish-brown do for you?


I really don't need to think something went horribly wrong at the printer to know a CD is digital.


We will visit you in your dreams! Sleep tight!


You really couldn't find another appealing text color? My eyes!! They are bleeeeding!! I also imagine the pianist singing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"


Last, but not least, I would like a moment to reflect the generosity of this label for putting a holographic image letting me know that this is an original. I surely wouldn't have guessed it from the masterful cover design!
 
#43 ·
Quite a few featuring conductor Seiji Ozawa that looked a bit strange. This one for example looked like he was a bit drunk?

 
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#49 ·
Quite a few featuring conductor Seiji Ozawa that looked a bit strange. This one for example looked like he was a bit drunk?
I've seen that very performance by Ozawa & what's on the cover perfectly captures the man's quirky/oddball way of conducting. He was very emotionally involved at that concert, maybe a bit over the top? But I quite enjoyed it (he made me think of a mad scientist with all his big bouffant of white hair). It kind of speaks to the fun feel of Gershwin's music as well - the "showbiz" factor. So I like it.

I wouldn't say that Biber was atonal or particularly strange for his era -I presume what you've picked up on is his enthusiasm for scordatura. In any event Sid, on the more serious issue of you never having heard anything of his (!); let's fix that:
Thanks for the info & videos, I'll listen to them when I get the chance. I know a bit about scordatura (special tuning of instruments), & know that J.S. Bach used it in his 1st Brandenburg Concerto. It kind of gives an other-wordly feel to the strings. Sounds similar to the "atonal" things to me a bit, although as you say, in terms of technique it's not the same. & BTW that "Satan Is Real" cover you posted is truly hideous, agreed. The person who designed that should BURN IN HELL!!! :eek:

??? To me, that cover looks infinitely better than Naxos's. Sleek and professional-looking, not some random picture plastered onto a white background.
Well, each to his own. I think most Naxos covers are better, at least in terms of them not all looking almost exactly alike as those Pilz ones I posted. In some ways you're right, Naxos can be random in terms of it's cover imagery, but this can be said of any label, really (but their covers of two discs I can think of, their recordings of Tippett's string quartets are spot-on, with images of Suffolk where the composer grew up). But I agree they should do something about the white background (& in fact they are, in some recent "special" releases they have done away with it, eg. Marin Alsop's Dvorak symphony cycle & some Russian things done by Petrenko)...
 
#44 ·
Sid James wrote:

Maybe I'm saying something already obvious to you, but that Biber cover you posted looks to me to be referring to the interest in flora & fauna during his time (17th-18th centuries?). I think that's when this kind of scientific drawing came a popular thing - eg. imaging previously unknown species. It also speaks to Biber's music, which was apparently kind of bizarre for it's time (I've not heard anything by the man, but some members here have spoken of his stuff as being almost "atonal").
Well, that bird has appeared on various different packagings of that CD, I think that this particular version isn't very flattering but several others incorporating the same image look great to me. It's an ace record anyway.

I wouldn't say that Biber was atonal or particularly strange for his era -I presume what you've picked up on is his enthusiasm for scordatura. In any event Sid, on the more serious issue of you never having heard anything of his (!); let's fix that:





Anyway, when it comes to horrific covers there's always the classic:

 
#67 ·
Sid James wrote:

Well, that bird has appeared on various different packagings of that CD, I think that this particular version isn't very flattering but several others incorporating the same image look great to me. It's an ace record anyway.

I wouldn't say that Biber was atonal or particularly strange for his era -I presume what you've picked up on is his enthusiasm for scordatura. In any event Sid, on the more serious issue of you never having heard anything of his (!); let's fix that:





Anyway, when it comes to horrific covers there's always the classic:

I love that cover!! And its a classic Louvin Brothers disc... real country music... or rather bluegrass... and not that pop crap with a pseudo-southern twang. By the way... one of the brother's suits nearly caught fire during the photo shoot. Satan is Real... indeed!:lol::devil:
 
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