Category Archives: WTF?

WTF Album Covers: Todd Rundgren

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You have to hand it to Todd Rundgren–when he wants to bewilder, he REALLY GOES FOR IT.

I was surprised to learn this album came out in 2004. Liars by Todd Rundgren is a political statement to be sure, but this image of TR-i in flannel jammies and the Easter bunny getup make some run screaming back for the comfort of “Hello, It’s Me”.

But wait, there’s MORE! Todd Rundgren wasn’t content to play dress-up on the album cover…oh, no. Behold the wonder, the mystery, the sheer brain-rendingly odd vision of Rundgren singing God Said (not a bad track in that style, I might add) live (in Glasgow?). The set looks like a Gary Numan video, but Todd Rundgren himself is dressed like a French cabaret chanteuse. Or something. I love this. Let your freak flag fly, TR-i.


 

WTF Album Covers: Enochian Night Monumental Evil

WTF?

Being a complete outsider on the metal front, I am constantly bewildered at the never-ending hit parade of metal bands wearing Kabuki face makeup. I get that Kiss started this as a “cool idea” meme, but really! Face paint AND sword-n-sorcery references? And from the title of this record, I have a hard time figuring out what part of this album cover is “evil”.

There has to be a word for the kind of goofiness that’s going on with this album cover. The fire breathing is a nice touch though–at least Enochian has taken it a step up from “I wear spikes and look like I might be grumpy enough to tweak your nipple” to “Hey–I actually BREATHE FIRE and could burn your face off.”  So they get danger points for being brave enough to do something edgy and kinda dangerous, as opposed to sitting in a cemetery someplace looking like they just got grounded. You know, like THESE GUYS in Pagan Altar:


WTF Album Covers: Atrocity Upon Atrocity

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WTF album covers don’t have to necessarily be technically awful or tastelessly inept. They can also simply lend themselves to pure mockery by obvious double entendre titles or conceptual silliness. Look at these two beauties:

I don’t want to know about their happy hands. I do NOT want to know about their happy hands. Please don’t tell me about their happy hands.

Burning question: how much cocaine did it take for this cover to seem like a GOOD IDEA? The name of this record is “Ride A Rock Horse” but “rock” isn’t the word you’re thinking of right now. It does RHYME with “rock” though.

And finally, an open letter from the future to born again recording artists of the past. KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE EFFING PUPPETS ALREADY. Thank you.

Graham Norton Vs. The Bad Album Covers

WTF?

Turntabling’s WTF collection of repellent, frightening, and just plain bad album covers is not an original concept–plenty of websites have a section devoted to them, though some like to believe that Turntabling is a bit more slavishly devoted to bad album covers than others.

Whatever the case, people LOVE crap album covers–and if YouTube is any indication, they love them a lot more than previously suspected. There’s just something really gratifying about laughing at the expense of these paragons of awfulness–who can deny the cheap yucks? Not Turntabling, and certainly not the uber-fabulous Graham Norton (a turntabling favorite) who spotlighted these familiar howlers on a recently posted edition of his show: