Are these the worst ever Britpop album covers?

1 May 2024, 14:04

From the bizarre to the downright confusing, get a load of some of the most "challenging" Britpop album artworks to hit the record stores.

By Radio X

@RadioX

1. Supergrass - I Should Coco

   The band’s debut LP may have included fun-loving anthem, Alright, but it's cover made the band look like trolls who wanted to eat you.

   

2. Suede - Coming Up

   Suede’s Coming Up may be a neon mess, but their album certainly makes up for it.

   

3. These Animal Men - Accident And Emergency

   An album cover concept rejected by The Hives for being "too obvious".

   

4. Ocean Colour Scene - Marchin' Already

   By their third album, Ocean Colour Scene had finally perfected the art of standing an equal width apart in a field full of nettles.

   

5. Lush - Lovelife

   Nothing says British shoegazing band quite like a cactus seller holding up their sign.

   

6. The Auteurs - New Wave

   Cracking album. Underwhelming cover.

   

7. Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish

   It's just a painting of a steam train, basically.

   

8. Gay Dad - Leisure Noise

   Now, where have we seen this before? Designed by Peter Saville of New Order fame, it's practically trying to run away from itself.

   

9. Marion - This World And Body

   Either the photographer really loved those ceiling lights, or this is a case of really bad cropping.

   

10. Kula Shaker - Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

    A mysterious figure (a peasant-pig-astronaut?) rides up an escalator in the middle of a forest. We're sure this means something significant, but we can't quite think what that is.

    

11. Cast - Magic Hour

    The "magic hour" is the time of day when the sun is at a point that's very favurable to photographers. So here's a Photoshop of some lad stood in front of a lake.

    

12. Echobelly - Lustra

    The Britpop band's third album was delayed somewhat after the success of 1995's ON, and this unremarkable artwork didn't help to sell it.

    

13. Powder - MCMXCV

    Pearl Lowe's Britpop scenseters didn't even make it to a "proper" studio album, so fans had to make do with this compilation some years after the fact - complete with barely-readable title.

    

14. The Boo Radleys - Wake Up!

    A watercolour of an interesting guitar didn't exactly sum up the whirlwind of psychedelic sunshine pop that appeared on the Liverpool band's fourth album.

    

15. S*M*A*S*H - Self Abused

    Action Man - the boy band years.