Best and worst album covers

[William Bowe]

I've had two takers in my bid to get a best album covers discussion going on the "Good/Poor/potentially confusing Beach Boys album titles" thread, and it occurs to me that it warrants a thread of its own. I also suggest we nominate least favourites as well as favourites.

From the other thread we've had this from Roger the Shrubber:

01) The Smile Sessions (3D Box)
02) Surf's Up
03) Summer In Paradise (UK Version)
04) Smiley Smile
05) Friends
06) LA
07) Holland
08) Pet Sounds
09) In Concert
10) Wild Honey

And this from Sockittome:

1). Friends
2). Wild Honey
3). TSS
4). Surfs Up
5). All Summer Long
6). Summer Days and......
7). Surfin' USA
Cool. Smiley Smile
9). Surfin' Safari
10). Holland

And here's what I wrote on the previous thread, to which I would like to add that my nomination for least favourite goes to KTSA.

I've only been able to come up with seven covers I actually like. I dare say I'm the only person who'll be including C&TP, which is fatally flawed in its failure to accurately represent the music, but I nonetheless think it's a striking design that would have stood a more "nostalgic" album in very good stead.

1. Smile
2. Holland
3. Wild Honey
4. Surf's Up
5. Smiley Smile
6. Friends
7. Carl & The Passions - So Tough

As far as I'm concerned, anything pre-Smile is just hack work by an art department that clearly had nothing invested in the band emotionally. I've got nothing against the covers of 20/20 or Sunflower, but neither is terribly imaginative. There would be a case to be made for including Endless Summer, but I don't find the image all that attractive personally. MIU and BB85 are inoffensive, but a really good cover has to make a statement about the music, and in neither case does the music allow for a statement worth making. The other later covers are bad to disastrous, the worst offender being KTSA.

As for solo albums, an honourable mention goes to the very elegant design for BW88. TLOS is the best of the later BW solo albums. I find the cover of POB cover a bit boring, I'm afraid - I wish they'd gone for the shot of the title scrawled in beach sand which you see on the foldout for the reissue.

[Smilin Ed H]

Those I really like:

Surf's Up
Wild Honey
Holland
Surfin' USA
SMiLE
All Summer Long

For the solo stuff - BW88 and POB

The only one I can't stand is KTSA, although Peter Blake's mess for GIOMH cuts it fine and 15 BO and LBWL almost make it into the mix.

[William Bowe]

Surfin' USA, All Summer Long and Summer Days are the best of the early covers, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that I liked them.

[sockittome]

Since you've already seen my favorites, here's my list of least favorites and I'll even give a brief explanation on each because I'm bound to get disagreements.  That's perfectly ok, this is all based on opinion.

1). KTSA--For the same reason that most dislike it.  What a bizarre cover!
2). 20/20--I stated in the other thread why this one bothers me.  Between the apparently hastily set up photo shoot with the ho-hum colors (Dennis almost disappears into the backdrop with that red shirt) and the uninspired black border, this cover screams "Pickwick budget release"!
3). Today--Such a great album with a bland cover.  It's as if the designer was going for a modern look, which results in an enormous waste of space.  And what are they doing, riding a bicycle built for 5?!!  It took me years to learn that they are sitting on a diving board.
4). CATP--Yeah, I find this one a bit confusing and counter to the band's concept of moving forward.
5). Pet Sounds--I really hate to say anything negative about this album.  All I'm gonna say is that I'm not disgusted with the cover, I just wish it was something more.

Well that's all I could come up with.  The rest of the covers are in the middle for me.  They're fine; nothing completely dazzling, but not unappealing either.

[Cabinessenceking]

Favourite Covers:

Surf's Up
Smiley Smile
Wild Honey

Covers I really like:

Holland
Love You
SD&SN

Covers I dislike:
SIP (both versions)
MIU (boring...)
Today (boring...)
15BO
20/20 (so uninspiring)
KTSA (possibly the worst cover of all time. so utterly uncool. it ranks up with SIP for the title. why are there penguins and polar bears in the same landscape dafuq?)

[gfac22]

Favorites:

Summer In Paradise
All Summer Long
Smiley Smile
Surf's Up
Surfin' Safari

Least Favorites:

15 Big Ones (easily my least favorite.  God what an awful cover)
M.I.U.
Friends
Pet Sounds

[Myk Luhv]

I really like the covers of Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Surf's Up, and Love You -- they all fit with the music on the albums really well and are rather tastefully done too (unlike, say, Sunflower or Today!). I guess Holland has a neat cover too. Surfer Girl as well, if only because it's so iconic.

[NHC]

My wife has about 25 snow globes displayed on four built in shelves above the stereo cabinet, next to the piano. I'm sure she would like a real snow globe of KYSA.  I kind of like it. I really like the two that came immediately before.

[GuyOnTheBeach]

Favourites:
1] SMiLE Sessions Box - What can I say, it's just brilliant.
2] Summer in Paradise - Grand, Majestic, if only the music inside was reflected by the cover, eh?
3] Love You - Fragmentary and strangely pretty, just like the music within.
4] BWPS - I like the fact that they didn't use the original cover, it differentiates between the two entities and I like the presentation of it, the reflective "SMiLE", the embossed bits.
5] Wild Honey - Hell, it just looks nice 

Least Favourites:
1] Made in U.S.A - It looks like a collection of Clip Arts before there was such a thing
2] BW88 - Looks like they had half a good picture of Brian and had to come up with something to fill the rest of the space.
3] Carl & The Passions - Although it came out exactly one year and a day beforehand it always reminds me of the equally poor "Now & Then" album cover by The Carpenters (great album, just a sucky cover)
4] 15 Big Ones - Looks as half-assed as the music inside it, Al looks like his Bus arrived just as the photo was being taken.
5] BB85 - I see this cover as a form of submission, the surrender of the last stand of creativity, fighting the early image, they succumbed to the nostalgia of the touring act.

[I. Spaceman]

Favorites:

1. Surfin' USA
2. Surfin' Safari
3. All Summer Long
4. Party!
5. Stack O' Tracks
6. All Summer Long
7. Smiley Smile
8. Pet Sounds
9. Summer Days

Least Favorites:

1. The Beach Boys
2. Summer In Paradise
3. The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
4. Sunflower
5. 15 Big Ones
6. Keepin' The Summer Alive
7. Endless Summer

[TimeToGetAlone]

Smile
Smiley Smile
Friends
Wild Honey
Surf's Up
Holland
Love You

^ Those are the particularly effective ones IMO.  I have to say I don't hate the 15 Big Ones like some people do.  My vote for worst would have to be M.I.U.  The colouring scheme is just awful.

[Alan Smith]

Favourites:

Keepin' the Summer Alive - best album cover eva
All Summer Long and Party - love those very 60's photo arrays
Surfin' USA - epic photo, that dude is obviously not afraid of body whop
Stack O'Tracks - love if for that stack, what an amazing sight
Surf's Up - great choice of album art to match the album - evocative, moody and introspective
Smiley Smile - I wanna live in that house

Unfavourites:
Pet Sounds - yawn and what the, given the album covers a number of their contemparies were coming up with
Shut Down Volume 2 - way too much Dapper Dan action for me
Sunflower (I like the banner and frame, but while the photo was nice for them, seems a bit meh to me)

[rn57]

Like most:

1) Wild Honey (psychedelic in a way, yet still different from the Fillmore-poster-inspired graphics of the time)
2) Surfer Girl (basic but very good)
3) All Summer Long
4) Surf's Up (downbeat, but still a powerful image)
5) Smile
6) Today (just like the background color a lot)
7) LA

Least:
1) KTSA
2) BB85
3) Friends (artwork befitting the laid-back nature of the music doesn't need to have these bland colors)
4) 20/20

[KittyKat]

The KTSA cover looks like '70s shopping mall art store art. Tacky and a weird glimpse of a biodome world ruled by Mike Love.

[musicismylife101]

Likes (In no particular order)
Pet Sounds
All Summer Long
Summer Days (And Summer Nights)
Surf's Up
Wild Honey

Not so much
15 Big Ones
Keeping the Summer Alive
Still Cruisin'
M.I.U.
The Beach Boys '85

[lee]

Favorites:

Wild Honey
Friends
Smiley Smile
SMILE
Stack O Tracks
All Summer Long
Summer Days...
Surfer Girl
Holland

[rogerlancelot]

Anybody want to mention Looking Back With Love? Or Salute NASCAR? Or KISS Alive!?* Or the first Carl Wilson album cover?

* Oops, one of these isn't actually BB-related. But it is still kind of goofy looking.

[Please delete my account]

TSS
Wild Honey
Pet Sounds
All Summer Long
Shut Down vol 2
Party
Smiley Smile
Holland

...are all fine with me.

[KittyKat]

Party has some of the most flattering pictures of the Beach Boys. I'm not sure if it's the lighting or what, but they all look better than usual in those photos, as do their wives and girlfriends. Endless Summer is the least flattering picture of them. I know it's a painting and it was the era, but they look terrible in that psychedelic beard painting.

[I. Spaceman]

psychedelic beard painting.

Nice word combo. Or Mumford And Sons' next album, after they drop acid.

[Eric Aniversario]

Best:

Smiley Smile
Wild Honey
Friends
Orange Crate Art
Keepin The Summer Alive
Surfin' Safari
Love You
Pacific Ocean Blue
Surf's Up
Sunflower
Surfer Girl
Party!

Worst:
15 Big Ones
Going Public
Carl Wilson
Shut Down, Vol. 2
Salute NASCAR
Pet Sounds Live

[Ovi]

Best :
Friends
Smile
Smiley Smile
BW88
Summer In Paradise (UK)

Worst :
15 Big Ones
Keepin' The Summer Alive
Imagination
Today!
Little Deuce Coupe

[NHC]

Al looks like his Bus arrived just as the photo was being taken.

HAHAHAHAH.  "A man waiting for a bus". Love it.

[urbanite]

20 Golden Greats.

[phirnis]

Best: Holland, Summer Days, Wild Honey, Surf's Up, Orange Crate Art

Worst: Imagination, Summer in Paradise, Still Cruisin', In the Key of Disney