White people popped off with Judas Priest
#music shit
Like the album's not BAD or anything but if you chopped off like 3 or 4 of these tracks they would NOT be missed, which you CAN'T bc the songs are so fucking short and just like. end abruptly. Plus the only good feature was on Did It First even Travis felt fucking asleep!!! And like... I dunno, as another lightskinned black person when other lightskins try to point to individual physical signifiers as like "evidence" of their blackness that shit just comes off real desperate and like, disingenuous. Like obvs I get it but still don't go Logic on me nigga!!
Anyway, a good chunk of the album goes hard and I just wish she kept that confidence up. The few times she really attacks a beat without blinkin it sounds really good! Plus she'll always sound good over a club beat so worst case scenario just keep doin that lmao
Judging album covers is a tricky business, because a lot of album covers are unpleasant in ways that feel like a deliberate artistic choice, and thus are complementary to the music rather than acting as a shortcoming. Plus, individual tastes being what they are, there will be a fan whose first thought is, "Fuck yeah, that rules" for just about every album cover. In my estimation, not very many album covers are even "bad," much less "the worst," because nearly all cover contribute meaningfully to the album as an artistic work.
As such, one of the key features of a "bad" album cover, I think, is that it looks both amateurish and accidental. The average person, when looking at it, may be inclined to think, "I could have made that, but I probably wouldn't have." In this regard, independently released albums the mid-90s are something of a goldmine for "graphic design is my passion" cover designs. During this era, consumer-grade digital document/image/typesetting software achieved high rates of adoption, but were not always feature-rich. Worse, many aspiring musicians who were sincerely trying to do everything for their debut albums from scratch were, by training, more experienced musicians than they were graphic artists, and it shows. Personally, I find this variety of cover charming, because I'd rather people be trying to make art than not and because everyone has to start somewhere, but that doesn't keep me from seeing them as somewhat unfortunate.
All of which is to say, I think it's constructive to ponder why an album cover doesn't resonate. Mythos, for their part, almost immediately realized (under the advice of their newly-signed label, no doubt) that they would be better off hiring an artist.
Also for context that And One release was when they were signed to Virgin Records lmao. That Mythos album art even isn't that bad!
To be clear you are ofc 100% right but I don't think calling a piece of art "bad" is the same thing as saying it lacks artistic merit, I'd never say that about any manifestation of human expression. When I call a piece of art "bad" or "the worst" I say it mostly in jest, and am more outlining my own aesthetic preferences and opining on the execution of the piece relative to whatever artistic standards I personally hold. I'm well aware of how new technology that excites artists and designers can lead to its percieved overreliance (HDR in photography, bloom and chromatic abberation in video games, the gated snare in music).
My big counterpoint to this would be that gawking is fun and a legitimate way to appreciate art! Some of my favorite pieces of art are "bad" or "tasteless" or "poorly executed". I've watched Fateful Findings probably about twice as much as I've watched Portriat of a Lady on Fire. I really value people who make art for the sake of making art, and I never mean to shame someone for trying. But like... come on, it's at least a little funny.