MUSIC

The Worst Album Titles of All Time

Volume one (of many)

Chris Zappa
The Riff
Published in
5 min readJul 26, 2022

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stack of vinyl albums
Photo by Eran Menashri on Unsplash

As an artist, it must be stressful coming up with album titles.

It’s a bit like naming a baby, if that baby’s name was a determining factor in its commercial success or lack thereof.

More often than not, artists strive for interesting names, names that make you think, inspiring one to wonder what’s the story behind the title.

Oftentimes however, throughout the history of modern music there have been plenty of instances where the band or artist clearly phoned it in, choosing a name so odd — in many cases, so dumb or gross — that no matter how great the songs contained therein may be, there’s no redeeming it.

In no particular order, here are a few particularly stinky stinkers that really stink.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica
Fair use

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica

There’s never been anyone else quite like Captain Beefheart, and while this album is a classic, containing what can only be described as wildly eccentric music, the title and accompanying artwork are nothing short of…

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Chris Zappa
Chris Zappa

Written by Chris Zappa

Independent journalist who runs GonzoReport.com (news & politics) and Zappagram.com (music & culture)

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