The following is a list of notable albums with controversial album art, especially where that controversy resulted in the album being banned, censored or sold in packaging other than the original one. They are listed by the type of controversy they were involved in.
Nudity and sexuality
Alice Cooper – Love It to Death (1971) The album features a portrait of the original Alice Cooper band, with the frontman posing with his thumb protruding from underneath his cape as if it were his penis. The album was later reissued with Cooper's entire right arm airbrushed out of the photograph. Arca – Xen (2014) The album cover shows a computer-generated androgynous alter-ego named Xen. With her head tilted back, Xen displays her broad shoulders, breasts, and large hips on the album cover with her skin rippling "as if about to peel and fall off". Even though no genitals appear, YouTube, Spotify and iTunes pixelate the area, as well as the breasts. Biffy Clyro – The Vertigo of Bliss (2003) The cover shows a woman sitting down with her hand up her dress masturbating with a look of pleasure on her face. The controversy of the album cover is accompanied by the erotic artwork of the singles "The Ideal Height", "Questions and Answers" and "Eradicate the Doubt" (all designed by Milo Manara). Despite being considered offensive and sexist by some, ShortList magazine praised the band for their bravery and originality when they mentioned it in their list of "50 Coolest Album Covers Ever". The Black Crowes – Amorica (1994) The album cover originally showed a woman's crotch wearing a thong with a United States flag pattern on it with pubic hair visible. The image was recycled from a 1976 issue of Hustler magazine. After the album was rejected by certain stores due to the cover, the image was replaced with a black background cover which blacked out the hair and only showed the garment. Blind Faith – Blind Faith (1969) The cover features a topless pubescent girl, holding in her hands a silver space ship, which some perceived as phallic. Photographer Bob Seidemann used a girl, Mariora Goschen, who was 11 years old.Interview with Mariora Goschen The US record company issued it with an alternative cover which showed a photograph of the band on the front. Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet (1986) The album originally was to feature a busty woman in a yellow shirt featuring the album title. The reason for the switch is unknown, but some think the label feared stores would not sell it, deeming the cover sexist, while others said Jon Bon Jovi scrapped the cover when he saw the record company put a bright pink border around the photograph that the band had submitted. Instead, the cover was changed before the album's release to an image of a wet garbage bag with the words "Slippery When Wet" written on it. However, the Japanese edition of the album features the original artwork.
Bow Wow Wow – See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! (1981) The cover of the album is a photograph of the band members recreating Édouard Manet's painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. The band's then-14-year old lead singer, Annabella Lwin, is shown nude on the cover. The artwork caused outrage in the United Kingdom that led to an investigation by Scotland Yard, instigated by Lwin's mother. The cover was replaced, and never appeared on the American issue. The cover art was reused for the 1982 follow-up EP The Last of the Mohicans. Chumbawamba – Anarchy (1994) The cover originally depicted a baby's head emerging from a woman's vagina during birth. As some stores would not sell the album due to the cover, the baby image was replaced with an image of several flowers. Cradle of Filth – Thornography (2006) In news posted on the official Cradle of Filth website in mid-May 2006, it was revealed that the planned artwork for Thornography had been vetoed by Roadrunner Records. A replacement was soon forthcoming, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. The controversy was over the nakedness of the female figure's legs on the original cover. David Bowie – Diamond Dogs (1974) The album features Bowie as a half-dog half-man hybrid, and the back cover features the creature's genitals. Following controversy, later copies of the album have the genitals airbrushed out of the painting. Dead Kennedys – Frankenchrist (1985) A poster inserted in the original record sleeve, H. R. Giger's Landscape #XX, or Penis Landscape, was a painting depicting rows of genitals in sexual intercourse. The band and its record label Alternative Tentacles were brought to criminal trial for distributing harmful matter to minors.Wishnia, Steven. "Of Punk and Pornography: Rockin' With the First Amendment". The Nation. October 24, 1987.Deflem, Mathieu. 2020. "Popular Culture and Social Control: The Moral Panic on Music Labeling." American Journal of Criminal Justice 45(1):2-24 (First published online July 24, 2019). Although the trial and two years of subsequent litigation in the case did not result in any convictions, Alternative Tentacles and the band's frontman Jello Biafra were nearly driven into bankruptcy as a result of costs related to the trial and litigation. Additionally, the album's actual cover – a 1970s Newsweek photograph of Shriners in a parade – prompted a 1986 lawsuit from the four elderly Shriners included in the photograph. Death Grips – No Love Deep Web (2012) The cover shows the erect penis of drummer Zach Hill with the album's title written across it in black marker. The cover caused such controversy, along with its spontaneous release without their label's permission, that the band were forced to put a disclaimer on their website. An alternative cover was subsequently released depicting lead vocalist MC Ride wearing socks with the words "Suck my dick" on them. Duran Duran – "Skin Trade" (1987) The original sleeve, known as the "bum" cover, depicts a closeup of a woman's buttocks (though the ability to distinguish it by eye is relatively difficult without prior contextual knowledge from the viewer). It was banned in the UK, although it was released in France. Flux of Pink Indians – The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks (1984) In addition to the use of profanity in the album title, the album art depicts three crudely drawn erect penises. Greater Manchester Police, under the leadership of James Anderton, seized copies of the album from Eastern Bloc Records and charged the band and their record labels with obscenity, although the charges were dropped. In addition, many stores, such as HMV, declined to stock it. Frenzal Rhomb – Dick Sandwich (1994) The cover shows a drawing of several severed penises, some of which are being used as filling in a sandwich. They were subsequently banned from some venues and record stores. Funkadelic – The Electric Spanking of War Babies (1981) Pedro Bell's original cover, which showed a nude woman inside a phallic spacecraft, was considered too suggestive by Warner Bros. Records, which paid Bell to cover the offending parts with a green shape. Guns N' Roses – Appetite for Destruction (1987) The album's original cover art, based on Robert Williams' painting Appetite for Destruction, depicted an open-shirted woman leaning against a wooden fence after evidently being sexually assaulted by a robotic figure which is about to be crushed by a dagger-toothed monster. After several music retailers refused to stock the album, the label compromised and moved the offending image to the inside sleeve, replacing it with a new image depicting a cross and skulls of the five band members. The band stated the artwork is "a symbolic social statement, with the robot representing the industrial system that's raping and polluting our environment". The Hotelier – Goodness (2016) The album cover shows a group of middle-aged nudists posing in the middle of a forest. The group consists of five women and three men. The album cover was completely pixelated for its iTunes release, and many online news outlets overlaid a black box over the explicit areas.
Jane's Addiction – Nothing's Shocking (1988) The album cover, a sculpture of nude conjoined twins with their hair on fire, caused several distributors to ban the album. Jane's Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual (1990) The original album artwork depicts frontman Perry Farrell engaging in a threesome. It was replaced in some stores by a text-only cover which stated the band's name, the album title, and the First Amendment. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968) The intended artwork for the UK version of the album did not arrive in time to press the album, so a cover of naked women lounging in front of a black background was issued in its place.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins (1968) The front cover displayed Lennon and Ono frontally nude, while the rear cover featured them from behind. Distributors were prompted to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper,Yoko Ono , Time magazine and copies of the album were impounded as obscenity in several jurisdictions. Kanye West – "Cold" (2012) (single) The cover designed by George Condo features a woman's body with bare breasts. It was intended to be the cover art of the song when the name was "Theraflu". When Kanye West changed the name of the song to "Cold", a new cover was revealed, which also caused controversies for bare breasts. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) The cover originally showed a painting by George Condo depicting West being straddled by a phoenix. After certain retail stores refused to sell the album due to the cover, Condo created a less-offensive artwork, showing a ballerina with a glass of cherry juice. However, many versions of the album still feature the original artwork, but pixelated. Kanye West – Vultures 1 (2024) The cover displays West wearing an all-black outfit, standing next to his wife, Bianca Censori, who has her back to the camera and is mostly nude above her thighs and wearing black stockings and high heels. Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy (1973) The Hipgnosis cover, based on the novel Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, features a group of naked children ascending the Giant's Causeway. The interior art also depicts a distant figure of a naked Overlord standing on mossy ruins (near Dunluce Castle) while holding one of the children aloft in a ceremonial gesture. Although the album was originally released with the nudity intact, Atlantic Records were allowed to add a wrap-around paper title band to US and UK copies of the sleeve that had to be broken or slid off to access the record.Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, This hid the children's buttocks from the general display, but still, the album was either banned or unavailable in some parts of the Southern United States for several years.Classic Rock Covers: Led Zeppelin; Houses of the Holy. Atlantic, 1973. Designer: Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell) On the subsequent cover, one of the naked children's buttocks was covered with the text "Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy" printed on a white background. The buttocks were later airbrushed out. Lady Gaga – Artpop (2013) The album artwork is a sculpture of Lady Gaga by Jeff Koons with her legs open and a gazing ball placed between them. Although no nudity is visible on the artwork, the album cover was still censored in the Middle East and China. Rather than traditional censorship, the gazing ball between her legs was enlarged to fully cover her breasts, and her legs were colored black so they did not appear to be naked. Lady Gaga – "Do What U Want" featuring R. Kelly (2013) (single)