Bad Cover Art of the Day: Europe

Last week I picked on Hall & Oates for their heavily made-up look on a 1975 album. I realize now that their cover looks like a masterpiece compared to some of the gems floating out there.

Case in point: today's example, "The Final Countdown" by the Swedish hair band Europe. "The Final Countdown" is a great song; alas, the cover art sadly is not. I find it interesting that little information about the artist is found online; it's probably just as well to spare the creative genius behind this perplexing montage the humiliation. Or maybe they wish to remain anonymous. Either way, I wanted to cut them some slack because this 1986 album was released in the days before Photoshop, but c'mon! These guys look like they're on baseball cards that are floating up into the atmosphere; what does this have to do with a final countdown? They should've slapped a big rocket on the cover (which would've at least given their fans a phallic image) and called it a day. And apparently, a lot of time and effort went into it since Wikipedia mentions that when Europe started the first leg of their 1986 tour, the album was held up because the cover art was not complete yet.

It's just very unpleasing to the eyes - the colors, the graphics, and the concept. File this one under the final countdown to disaster.