They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps judging albums by their sleeves might be more warranted.
Robin Ash, a record store owner from the UK, has made a habit of collecting the strangest, kookiest, and downright ugliest album covers he can get his hands on.
As the owner of Beatnik Bay Records and Books, Ash has access to all kinds of musical rarities and gems, yet it seems he prefers to collect artwork with a penchant for the bizarre.
Ash dilvulged to The Daily Mail that there is somewhat of an art to picking out the weirdest of vinyl artwork, from musicians in gorilla suits, to more than an average share of LPs based around accordions (“Spectacular Accordions, from 1960, features a girl in the yellow leotard”).
“I’ve tried to choose ones which are pretty bad – without being too disturbing,” said Ash of his hobby.
While he may not find the images disturbing, others might, with Lionel Blair’s Aerobic Dancing proving most notable. The cover depicts Blair in a number of stretch positions while decked out in 80s exercise garb, complete with a perm and the tightest, whitest shorts you’ll ever see a grown man wear.
For as creepy as some of the images might be, Ash seems to take a kind of pity on the misrepresented covers.“I’ve tried to choose ones which are pretty bad – without being too disturbing.”
“Some record sleeves become iconic images. Designs for The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden and Sex Pistols spring to mind,” says Ash. “But other LPs are not so great, although I have a lot of affection for all these.”
That affection sees him sharing his collection with friends and family. “Every Christmas friends come around and we play albums and vote for the worst one,” he says, stating that the image for The Kaye Family’s live album usually ends up the winner.
He’s quick to add that he doesn’t feel the same affinity for today’s record covers, “a lot of modern covers are lazy; there’s a lack of imagination.” Well sure, we can’t really picture Radiohead dressing up in matching cowboy suits or Grimes donning a gorilla costume.
So next time you’re rifling through the $2 bin at your local thrift store, don’t just stop and laugh, pick it up and consider starting your very own collection of bizarro album covers.
You can view Robin Ash’s own personal highlights (or should that be lowlights) form his personal collection of terrible album covers in our slideshow below.
