Most Controversial Sleeves Ever

NME.com have posted a list of what they deem the most controversial album sleeves ever and, as usual, they´ve only got it about 80% correct. Of course the original cover for G´NR´s Appetite For Destruction is included (robot rapes girl in poorly-received cartoon), as is the breast-melting cover from ‘Lovedrive´ by German rockers The Scorpions, and Lennon and Ono´s ‘Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins´, which features a pair of unruly muffs.

However, where dear old NME misses the trick is that they´ve failed to include what we believe to be the worst sleeve ever: Rod Stewart´s ‘An Old Raincoat Won´t Ever Let You Down´.



With a cover that´s disturbing on so many levels, there was even a gatefold version that was even worse than the original; what were they thinking? It´s no surprise that the album has been recently re-released with a plain sleeve.

See the list here.

Simon Bradley is a guitar and especially rock guitar expert who worked for Guitarist magazine and has in the past contributed to world-leading music and guitar titles like MusicRadar (obviously), Guitarist, Guitar World and Louder. What he doesn't know about Brian May's playing and, especially, the Red Special, isn't worth knowing.