Some Japanese Album Covers

Unique covers are one sure way of attracting people to get to listen to an artist's album. I respect that. However, I still believe that there's a fine line that seperates weird-cool and just plain weird. Some of these Japanese album covers on asian+nation's website cross that line better than Mexicans looking for a better life in America. Covers don't dictate the quality of the music inside, however. They do, however, give you an idea how messed up the artist can get (google:bjork). None of these covers have been photoshopped.

Artist: Shinwha (K-Pop/J-Pop)
Album: Inspiration
Why it's just plain weird:
You can get six people dressed in black to pose for you all day and not find a more ridiculous pose than what these people appear to be in. What exactly are they doing? They're like running, crouching and climbing at the same time. It's like they've just come from full rectal examination and had to run a marathon in black clothes - uphill. Suddenly, wearing black has stopped being cool. Remember those amazingly useless inspiration posters you find on offices, classrooms, and coffee bars? This cover reminds me of that, only I'm not inspired.

Artist: Teriyaki Boys
Album: Beef or Chicken
Why it's just plain weird:
So what's the first thing that comes into your mind when thinking of a digitally mixed hip-hop album? Apparently these people thought about food first. Not only have they named themselves from a marinated cooking technique, they also managed to insert the o-so-famous question aboard any airline "Beef or Chicken?". I can't think the association of culinary meat with hiphop beats. I just cant. The unconvincing drawings of beef and chicken that seemed to have come from a badly drawn cook book almost gives this cover a mistakable purpose of being a subsititute for "Wok with Yan".



Artist: Tsukiko
Albums: Winona Riders, Meg Lion, Sharon Stones
Why it's just plain weird:
The fact that somebody thought of putting name plays of famous Hollywood actresses on albums doesn't really bug me. The fact that scores of people in the record label approved and nodded their bulby heads to what seems to be the most ridiculous titles for albums ever conceptualized does.

What ever happened to "I think this cover should be related to our music because, hey, it's the album cover." kind of thinking?

Covers and copies of the albums can be found here. Go see if the albums live up to the reputations of the covers.