37 Wild Album Covers from Back When Graphic Design Was Just a Suggestion

When I was a kid, I used to flip through my parents' massive vinyl collection—mostly 60s and 70s stuff with the occasional "This Is Pop!" or "Best of 1985!" compilation jammed in there for flavor. And while the music was often iconic, the album covers? Pure chaos.

These weren't just design choices. These were fever dreams pressed onto cardboard sleeves.

Some featured full-on nudity—like, no attempt at metaphor. Others had racial caricatures so offensively bold they somehow made it through multiple approval stages and still ended up in someone's living room. And then there were the weird ones. The really, really weird ones. Floating heads, possessed puppets, men in capes holding ferrets, entire bands photographed mid-blink—it was the wild west of visual branding.

Looking back, these covers feel a bit like the early days of the internet. Everyone had access. No one had restraint. And the results were as unhinged as they were unforgettable.

So if you've ever wanted to see what music looked like before focus groups, welcome to the most unfiltered era of album art you'll ever witness. These 37 covers are weird, wacky, and sometimes straight-up cursed—and I wouldn't change a thing.