Judge a book by its cover?

In the airport the other day, I gave myself the choice of buying one of two books. One was the latest David Sedaris book, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames". The other was the latest Malcolm Gladwell book, "Outliers". The Sedaris book had the image of a skeleton smoking a cigarette. Just a bit intense. The Gladwell book was simple but clear. Title, name of author, a bunched together series of pearls and one pearl that was separate from all the rest. Message simple and clear. I bought the book. Enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
Move to this morning. Sunday mornings are best for reflection and music. I mean, Lionel Richie did write a song about being 'easy' like Sunday mornings. As I was making breakfast, the Gladwell book was on the counter. In a roundabout way, I got to thinking about album covers and how they seem to determine the quality and/or success of the record. Don't believe me? Here are just two examples. I chose Next and Jon B.
I'll start with Next first. Their biggest hit was the song, "Too Close", from their first album. The song was (in)famous for the lyric:

step back youre dancing kinda close
I feel a little poke coming through
On you

Now girl I know you felt it
But boo, you know I cant help it
You know what I wanna do

A quick analysis of the album covers (in order) reveals the success of the albums:
Rated Next: All men are looking at the camera. There are two prerequisites of the late 90's: neon-tinted sunglasses and a band mate that is best defined as 'extra'. That would be the guy in the middle -

Welcome II Nextasy Now, they already had a few things going against them, namely the dreaded sophomore slump and the album title. But the sophomore slump thing gets too much buzz in the music business. The name of the album is the ENTIRE reason the album wasn't successful. That and the album cover. You can analyze it for yourself, but just two remarks: 1) The guy on the left could not be more upset in the photo. Evidently making the album must have been hell. How else do you explain that scowl on an ALBUM COVER of all things? It's not like their first album didn't go double-platinum? It did. And 2) The guy on the right is not even looking at the camera. He has that look of, "If I have to spend more second like this, I'm through. But I'ma fake the hell outta this so no one sees my anger and frustration." Wrong.

The Next Episode - The third and last album up for review. We'll start with dude on the left. Now he's back looking at the camera again, though it's mad awkward with the over the shoulder look. However, fairly normal and mundane. Dude in the middle is 50% responsible for this failure of a cover. A members only jacket with a nipple out and a face like it's a mug shot just don't cut it. As Mark Jackson of NBA on ABC/ESPN would say, "You're better than that!" And last but certainly not least, the creme de la creme. I really need not explain the action in this picture. Three words will suffice. HE IS PRAYING.


For the sake of time (yours and mine), I will just present the most successful Jon B album (1.2 million sold) and the least successful album (13,338) and leave the judgement and comments to you.
Cool Relax



Helpless Romantic



As with many sayings, the "Don't judge a book by its cover" saying is false. When choosing your next album to buy (or download, probably illegally), google search the album cover first. Covers do matter.

P.S - The next (pun intended) album for Next is titled Next, Lies, & Videotape. I anxiously await the album cover.