- You just can’t get enough of that good ol’ sense of outrage.
A little while back, we listed six of some of the most controversial album covers all time. But there were many, many others that we didn’t have space for.
So, we decided do a little bit of a sequel. Here are another six albums whose cover art caused public outrage at the time — and in some cases still does.
Also, we’d really rather not get slapped with a copyright notice, so we once again we unfortunately can’t feature the artwork. But we’ll give you a link where you can go check it out.
1) Metallica — Metal Up Your Ass
Metallica is probably the most famous metal act of all time, and their success started right away with their 1983 debut release Kill ‘Em All. But we wonder if that would’ve happened if they’d stuck with their original plans.
To being with, the album was originally going to be called Metal Up Your Ass. And it had cover art to match, with a knife-wielding arm stretching out of a toilet.
The published feared that such a controversial name and cover would limit the album’s success and asked the band to change it. Since Metallica complied, we’ll never know if the record executives were right.
They probably were, though. That’s a really stupid album name.
2) The Strokes — Is This It
The Strokes’ 2001 debut album Is This It is often regarded as one of the instigators of the 2000s indie rock explosion. It’s original cover art, though, was pretty sauce.
The cover features a naked woman’s behind, with a leather-gloved hand suggestively resting on her hip. It was deemed much too erotic for the U.S. market, and the album released stateside with an abstract picture of subatomic particle tracks.
According to their manager, the decision to alter the artwork was the band’s own. Guess they didn’t want to risk public backlash in one of the biggest album markets.
The original made it to the book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time, though. You can decide for yourself if The Strokes made the right decision.
3) Marilyn Manson — Mechanical Animals
Honestly, we could put a lot of Marilyn Manson albums on this list. But we’ll go with band’s 1998 release Mechanical Animals.
The album’s artwork features the band’s eponymous singer posing in the nude as some kind of an androgynous alien creature. Mr. Manson sports fake breasts, six fingers, and a barbie doll crotch.
The altered photo was so convincing, it spawned a rumor of Manson actually getting plastic surgery to look like he does on the cover. While the artwork is all prosthetics and airbrushing, several retailers — Including Walmart and Target — refused to stock the album due to the artwork.
4) The Beatles — Yesterday and Today
The Beatles needs no introduction. Their 1966 album Yesterday and Today marked a stark departure from their earlier works, at least with the cover art.
Instead of the pretty boy pictures seen on their previous releases, Yesterday and Today featured what’s known today as the Beatles’ “butcher cover.” The Fab Four is smiling happily while sitting in white coats… Surrounded by decapitated baby dolls and scraps of raw meat.
The cover made people angry before it even hit the stores, with disgusted disc jockeys refusing to play the album on radio. After release, Capitol Records launched “Operation Retrieve,” pulling back all released copies they could find from the stores.
Yesterday and Today got a re-release with more conventional cover art. However, for some albums, the new art was only a sticker slapped onto the original LP cover, which prompted some fans to strip it off to reveal the original artwork.
5) Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
The legendary punk band the Sex Pistols were already notorious in the UK before their debut album came out. They’d famously sworn on live TV and were even banned from playing live in some parts of the country.
Their 1977 debut album didn’t help the controversy one bit. To us today, there’s probably nothing off about the cover, which features bright yellow and pink colors, together with the album name in black.
But the word “bollocks” was way too much for British sensibilities in the 70s. Many record stores refused to carry the album, while some charts would blank out the offending word.
The band even got sued for obscenity because of the artwork. In his own words, the judge “reluctantly” found the band not guilty.
Bollocks is British slang for balls, by the way. Please don’t sue us.
6) Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Leave it to Yeezy to use public outrage as a carefully calculated marketing tool. For his long-awaited 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West intentionally ordered a controversial painting from artist George Condo.
The artwork features a cartoonish depiction of West being straddled by some kind of a half-angelic, half-demonic female figure. It provides plenty of sideboob and butt crack action.
West’s plan worked like a charm. Some retailers said they wouldn’t carry the album, which allowed the artist to complain about it on Twitter and build even more hype for the record.
Of course, since he had wanted stores to reject the album, he also had a Plan B. West had also commissioned a more neutral ballerina painting from Condo, which was used as an alternate cover.
Oh Kanye, you so devious.