10 Classic Albums With Terrible Album Covers

Throughout their career, Led Zeppelin have been known to lace each of their albums with iconic imagery. From their debut's massive shot of the airship going down in flames to the barebones figure of a man carrying sticks on their untitled fourth record, any one of the band's covers could be displayed as a piece of art unto itself. Given the amount of fantastic imagery on each of these albums, what the hell happened here?

Wanting to go in a more avant garde direction for their third outing, Jimmy Page wanted something that would catch the listener's eyes before they had heard a note of the music inside. While it was definitely eye-catching for its time, the amount of weird imagery thrown together in this one frame makes the album look like it's going to be a sonic mess when you turn it on.

Adding insult to injury, the fact that this album is actually one of the band's most down-tempo releases makes the cover make even less sense. While "Immigrant Song" kicks the door down pretty nicely, other classics like "Tangerine" and "That's the Way" play more to the acoustic Zeppelin than the hard rock rulers of the world. Even Page himself has expressed his doubts about the album cover, saying it wasn't what he had originally envisioned. With almost half a century of hindsight, it's about time we all agree with that.