It was another bang-up year for music, as plenty of artists both old and new wowed us with their impressive output. (We'll begin exploring it in earnest tomorrow, with numbers 20 to 11 of Exclaim!'s Top 20 Pop & Rock Albums). It was also, sadly, a truly terrible year for album covers.
Maybe it's a sign that no one really cares about the physical album anymore — after all, half of us are just looking at tiny icons in Apple Music. Either way, there were still some bone-chillingly brutal covers on display over the last 12 months.
Feast your eyes on this disgraceful list of the worst album art 2016 had to offer.
Exclaim!'s 17 Worst Album Covers of 2016:
17. Blink-182
California
For their big comeback album, the stadium-sized pop punk kings teamed up with street artist D*Face to create a cover looks like a skateboard deck you'd find buried under a mountain of Famous Stars and Straps hoodies at Winners.
16. Bob Dylan
Fallen Angels
Sure, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, but his latest album looks more like a self-published book on negging from a gross Las Vegas pick-up artist.
15. Goo Goo Dolls
Boxes
Pretty cool of the Goo Goo Dolls to bring back Cribs so they could show us where they've been living since their last big hit.
14. The Strumbellas
Hope
This looks less like an album cover than a doctor's office pamphlet on how people from all walks can live with IBS.
13. Copywrite
Blood Bath and Beyond
As though the dual wordplay of this rapper's moniker and album title weren't upsetting enough, he had to round it out with this unnerving (and, of course, literal) album cover. Excuse us while we go soak in the tub.
12. Garbage
Strange Little Birds
Is this the new Garbage album, or the teaser for an upcoming Dreamworks movie about a farting leopard?
11. The Tragically Hip
Man Machine Poem
Canada rightly celebrated the Tragically Hip for their final hurrah, but it's a real shame that the band's final outing will be adorned with this artwork, which looks like Anne Geddes reinterpreting Nevermind.
10. Prince Rama
Xtreme Now
Kitsch is an important element in our modern, irony-obsessed culture, and plenty of covers didn't make this list because they were intentionally bad or tongue in cheek. As Prince Rama have proven, however, it's possible to go past "so bad it's good" to "so bad, we're all tempted to pour liquid onto our laptops to make it stop."
9. Heart
Beautiful Broken
The cover art for classic rock group Heart's 16th album looks like a shitty painting you'd buy out of boredom in a gift shop while visiting your uncle's timeshare in a budget seaside town.
8. Usher
Hard II Love
This wretched, nightmare-inducing album cover is actually impossible II love.
7. Homeboy Sandman
Kindness for Weakness
This drawing of a man barfing up a rainbow is so corny that we're barfing up regular barf.
6. Britney Spears
Glory
Britney's fans were so pissed about her new album cover that they launched a Change.org petition begging RCA Records to swap it out. In their defence, it does look like a bootleg CD-R you'd find tucked away in a flea market. Shout out to the 1,001 Free Fonts typography, too.
5. Sum 41
13 Voices
You remember that kid who started smoking cigarettes in elementary school and loved buying temporary tattoos from Safeway vending machines? Apparently he's friends with Sum 41, because that's the exact aesthetic they've dialled into with their latest LP.
4. Spring Breeding
No Dairy
Noise bands are supposed to make you uncomfortable, and Spring Breeding really succeeded in creating an album cover so loathsome that we want to bleach our eyeballs. Maybe that means it's a good album cover?
3. Corey Feldman
Angelic 2 the Core
Look Corey — we love you man. We always have. But this god-awful cover art for your latest album brings back horrible memories of the terrifying kids show Knightmare. It makes Da motha fuckin share z0ne look classy. And mostly it just makes us want to give you a hug and tell you everything's going to be alright.
2. Metallica
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct
Metallica's long-awaited comeback album had its moments, but the release's accompanying artwork only raises one question: What if a pack of Fruit Roll-Ups was haunted by the ghost of some middle-aged rockers?
1. Kings of Leon
Walls
We can't say for sure, but we're pretty certain the original working title of this album was Kings of Leon Bathe in Ejaculate.
Maybe it's a sign that no one really cares about the physical album anymore — after all, half of us are just looking at tiny icons in Apple Music. Either way, there were still some bone-chillingly brutal covers on display over the last 12 months.
Feast your eyes on this disgraceful list of the worst album art 2016 had to offer.
Exclaim!'s 17 Worst Album Covers of 2016:
17. Blink-182
California
For their big comeback album, the stadium-sized pop punk kings teamed up with street artist D*Face to create a cover looks like a skateboard deck you'd find buried under a mountain of Famous Stars and Straps hoodies at Winners.
16. Bob Dylan
Fallen Angels
Sure, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, but his latest album looks more like a self-published book on negging from a gross Las Vegas pick-up artist.
15. Goo Goo Dolls
Boxes
Pretty cool of the Goo Goo Dolls to bring back Cribs so they could show us where they've been living since their last big hit.
14. The Strumbellas
Hope
This looks less like an album cover than a doctor's office pamphlet on how people from all walks can live with IBS.
13. Copywrite
Blood Bath and Beyond
As though the dual wordplay of this rapper's moniker and album title weren't upsetting enough, he had to round it out with this unnerving (and, of course, literal) album cover. Excuse us while we go soak in the tub.
12. Garbage
Strange Little Birds
Is this the new Garbage album, or the teaser for an upcoming Dreamworks movie about a farting leopard?
11. The Tragically Hip
Man Machine Poem
Canada rightly celebrated the Tragically Hip for their final hurrah, but it's a real shame that the band's final outing will be adorned with this artwork, which looks like Anne Geddes reinterpreting Nevermind.
10. Prince Rama
Xtreme Now
Kitsch is an important element in our modern, irony-obsessed culture, and plenty of covers didn't make this list because they were intentionally bad or tongue in cheek. As Prince Rama have proven, however, it's possible to go past "so bad it's good" to "so bad, we're all tempted to pour liquid onto our laptops to make it stop."
9. Heart
Beautiful Broken
The cover art for classic rock group Heart's 16th album looks like a shitty painting you'd buy out of boredom in a gift shop while visiting your uncle's timeshare in a budget seaside town.
8. Usher
Hard II Love
This wretched, nightmare-inducing album cover is actually impossible II love.
7. Homeboy Sandman
Kindness for Weakness
This drawing of a man barfing up a rainbow is so corny that we're barfing up regular barf.
6. Britney Spears
Glory
Britney's fans were so pissed about her new album cover that they launched a Change.org petition begging RCA Records to swap it out. In their defence, it does look like a bootleg CD-R you'd find tucked away in a flea market. Shout out to the 1,001 Free Fonts typography, too.
5. Sum 41
13 Voices
You remember that kid who started smoking cigarettes in elementary school and loved buying temporary tattoos from Safeway vending machines? Apparently he's friends with Sum 41, because that's the exact aesthetic they've dialled into with their latest LP.
4. Spring Breeding
No Dairy
Noise bands are supposed to make you uncomfortable, and Spring Breeding really succeeded in creating an album cover so loathsome that we want to bleach our eyeballs. Maybe that means it's a good album cover?
3. Corey Feldman
Angelic 2 the Core
Look Corey — we love you man. We always have. But this god-awful cover art for your latest album brings back horrible memories of the terrifying kids show Knightmare. It makes Da motha fuckin share z0ne look classy. And mostly it just makes us want to give you a hug and tell you everything's going to be alright.
2. Metallica
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct
Metallica's long-awaited comeback album had its moments, but the release's accompanying artwork only raises one question: What if a pack of Fruit Roll-Ups was haunted by the ghost of some middle-aged rockers?
1. Kings of Leon
Walls
We can't say for sure, but we're pretty certain the original working title of this album was Kings of Leon Bathe in Ejaculate.
