Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Bottom 5 album covers of the year

Yesterday I posted my list of the best album art of 2009, now for some of the worst.

5. Morrissey – Years of Refusal

The cover of Morrissey’s latest album does nothing to dispel rumours that he eats small children for breakfast.

4. MSTRKRFT – Fist of God

A mish-mash of butts and thighs in the shape of a fist: the fist of God. God is angry, fear his wrath.

3. U2 – No Line On the Horizon

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2. Weezer - Raditude

As lame as it is, the jumping dog on the cover is the rad-est thing about this appalling album.

1. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

Apparently the universe is a cosmic egg that cycles between expansion and total collapse. It expanded from a concentrated form —a point called a Bindu. The universe, as a living entity, is bound to the perpetual cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

Wolfmother are an Australian rock band with a bent for 70s rock riffs, fantasy world lyrics and horrible cover art. This is one rotten egg.

Also: What is that skinny naked boy doing in the bushes?

Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Top 5 album covers of the year

Bawley (hearts) hairy animals

With recent posts featuring owls, cats, bats, and wombats, you could be forgiven for thinking the Bawley crew has gone all Dr Doolittle.

On that note, we are not going to comment on the Wolfmother breakup. But instead we bring news of the latest release from Damon Albarn.

Monkey: Journey to the West is out on August 18th and it is going to be a little weird – a Mandarin language opera album that Albarn hopes listeners will approach without prejudice.

Teaming up with Gorillaz cohort Jamie Hewlett, the project came about after the two travelled China and were inspired by the size and diversity of the previously closed communist nation.

The Opera debuted at the Manchester International Festival, and last month opened for a season at the Royal Opera House.

Not happy with releasing an album of the live music, Albarn has gone done back into the studio to tweak the sound.

Albarn explained to 6Music:

“It has taken up like three years of my life. Making the record came out of having done lots of demos when I started to put the Opera together, and on stage you can’t get that electronic sound - so I’ve really tried to make what I think is a cool sounding record, with a lot of mad music. And yes, it is all in Mandarin.”

Albarn and Hewlett have also produced a series of short animations Monkey: Journey to the East that will be used to package BBC’s Olympic coverage. You can watch the trailer for yourself here