Our second entry in the “Bad Photoshop” bracket of our Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament pits dance pop against prog rock, Auto-Tuned studio magic against Berklee-trained musicianship, and most importantly, a dazed divorcee in a fedora against the might of the insect kingdom. In the one corner, the disorienting orangey-yellow and fuzzy-pink of Britney’s Blackout, a cover created by scientists for the purposes of secret epilepsy studies. In the other corner, there’s the equally orangey-yellow and “mysterious” skyline of the “special edition” sleeve to Dream Theater’s Systematic Chaos. You know, you would have thought a post-apocalyptic world where the evil ants have taken control of the traffic lights would seem a little scarier than Brit’s hypnotic, insectoid stare.
The Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament: Britney Takes On The Bugs
December 4th, 2007 // 24 Comments
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Come on, the Britney Spears cover is blinding. It makes my internal graphic designer weep. That many filters in one cover makes my corneas vibrate. At least the DreamFilters cover gets points for creative use of insects.
Dream Theater at least has a “dada” element going on, while Brit’s cover resembles a flyer left on the coke-and-piss-stained restroom floor of a gentlemen’s club.
To be fair, the Dream Theater cover isn’t nearly the worst of theirs I can recall having seen over the years.
The Britney album cover looks like any other Britney album cover.
Fuckin’ Dream Theater are rocking some Creed-looking shit right there, what with the muddy ambience and all.
I hate ants…and Dream Theater…so I have to vote for that one.
I’ll never understand Brit’s cover. Jive had a bevy of paparazzi pics over the past two years to choose from and any would’ve been better than this.
This was another one I had to really think about.
When it comes down to it, the Dream Theater cover is lame, but Spears’ is both more garish and just generally worse.
Clearly an easy first pairing, designed to ensure Britney’s album makes it into the final rounds. Which is fine by me, since I think it deserves to win this contest. Or at least go head-to-head with Nugent.
man, those ants are huge!
I think I first saw that Britney album photo on the cover of a magazine I found in my older brother’s treefort in 1984.
Which means I’ll be voting for Dream Theater, of course. Ah, memories.
at least Dream Theater’s album probably sounds better than it looks… sad i cant say the same for Brit!
@worldsfair: Dude the first half of Blackout is awesome! Not only does it have Robyn on backing vocals (who knows, she may have “helped” on “Piece Of Me” too, since that song’s vocal track sounds like it was pureed), “Heaven On Earth” is absolutely gorgeous.
Neither of these are as outright hideous as previous entrants in this contest have been.
waah. the font on the dream theatre cover alone should make it run way with this poll.
the chorus on “radar” (the real twisty vocal part before “you on my rada/ you on my rada” or w/e) is my fav part on the album and probably the most compu-fucked.
I second the snark on the font. Plus it’s just stupid.
I don’t understand the selection committee’s choice of DT’s cover. Other than the ants it’s just a mediocre photo and some bad fonts.
Brit’s cover is sure to throw all who look at it into epileptic fits, and rightfully so for buying/listening to her.
Nuge all the way!
I put together a march madness style bracket, I just need to figure out where to post the .pdf so people can download it.
Dream Theater gets my vote purely based on the fact that Dream Theater sucks.
Dream Theater’s album covers are usually WAAAY worse… I’m thinking A Change of Seasons here, but I’m sure there are even worse examples.
Point is, Britney – for all her problems – should have a better album cover than fucking Dream Theater. Yet she doesn’t.
Britney Spears’ cover looks like Jerry Garcia’s last bad trip. ‘Nuff said.
That Britney album cover really must’ve been a scientific experiment by some really warped neurologists … I would probably have a seizure from looking at the damn thing the wrong way!!
Dream Theater sucks, but I actually expected worse from them. And better from Brit.
i went britney, but did anyone else notice the dream theater logo (i googled it) in the green light? that almost swayed me, but blackout just makes my head hurt.
The most horrifying thing about the Dream Theater cover is that it’s a “special edition.” In which you get a second CD that’s a 60-minute guitar solo and a bonus dvd of the band members washing their hair in the singer’s mom’s bathtub.
To brasstax and The Van Buren Boys – are you implying that Britney DOESN’T suck? Surely Dream Theater deserve to lose this one… At least they don’t need wigs to cover up baldness.