In 2025, the phrase “looks like AI” has become a catch-all term on the Internet for something “not to like.” Don't agree with the article? Looks like AI. Are people in the comments angry? Probably an artificial intelligence bot. Album covers on this list? To be honest, a lot of them are like AI.
As the internet is awash with slop and we're all becoming increasingly numb to it, these 25 album covers deserve credit for shaking us out of our stupor with terrible concepts, sickening crudeness and, yes, some uncannily slick artificial intelligence.
A warning before you scroll further – The #1 album cover on this list is truly disgusting.so please don't look at your work computer. Seriously. Usually putting this list together is pretty fun, but this one honestly made us a little queasy.
Reconsider past editions of the year's worst album covers are hereand see Covers of your favorite Exclaim albums! 2025 is here. All ours Lists for the end of 2025 are here..
25. James Dean A4
Never look back
Someone noted that Munch Scream looks like a spaniel with floppy earswhat does it do Never look back go from stupid to downright cruel.
24. Challenge
IGOR
Title of Tyler, the Creator IGOR matches the color palette CHROMA COPY and then crashed into the sidewalk, like in the final scene from Substance.
23. Little
No time
At least this monkey won't sue Nirvana like that kid tried to do.
It's called I AM MUSICor just MUSIC? I'm not sure even Carti knows, and this art reflects the carelessness of a man who spent years working on an album that still feels half finished.
21. shadow
I barely know her
Let's give him points for truth in advertising, since sombr plays out exactly what we do when we listen to his music.
20. Fox B.D.
Eat, Swallow, Shhp, Studio
The acoustics in this bathroom will admittedly have some pretty nice reverberation, but if Fox BD is going to feast on Faygo and chicken wings while still doing the shit, why does he have to look so sad about it?
19. Olga Tanyon
PR24SIETE I'm from here
My child, when you look back on your life and see only one pair of footprints in the sand, it is because I stopped to eat a pancake.
It's a snot that we don't like Astra, but it's a snot that we want to associate with her music.
17. Jonah Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch
Schumann: The Love of the Poet and Kerner's Song
Very similar to when Joyner Lucas did the exact same album cover a few years ago.this disturbing Photoshop job wants to make us cover our faces with our hands.
16. I'm trying
SAY THIS
See above.
15. Juana Molina
Great Dane
A jump scare ruins what could have been a beautiful picture of a cute dog.
14. 5 seconds of summer
ALL STARS!
We can only assume that the graphic designer made their heads so big to distract from the fact that they're dressed like post-apocalyptic mercenaries who just raided Hot Topic.
13. Lucy Dacus
Forever is a feeling
Since release Forever is a feeling in March Lucy Dacus since then changed the cover of the broadcast to show the original cover image tucked into the back of a storage cabinet – which is where this painting belongs.
12. Rescue of Serafino
As Bossa Buffon
Nothing will distract me from breakfast faster than that little creep staring at me from behind his balls. I absolutely refuse to put this five-pointed fork of artificial intelligence into my mouth.
11. CocoRosie
Little death wishes
CocoRosie's greatest crime against the arts is the proliferation of quirky, cursive “indie” chants that continue to resonate more than two decades since their debut. Their second greatest crime against art is the album cover.
10. Lola Young
I'm only fucking myself
It's the raciest album cover of the year, but this hyperliteral rendering of the title still doesn't explain why her sex doll likeness is for some reason wearing a baby hat in addition to a jester's collar.
9. Cheap trick
Everything is washed
Speaking of overly literal metaphors, here's Cheap Trick joking about being washed by a row of washing machines that for some reason look like guitar pedals. Hastily photoshopped as if the graphic designer charged by the minute, the trick looks a little cheap.
8. Santana
Reasonable
Santana is seven inches from the midday sun and resembles Project C+ from the Introduction to Photoshop course. Graphic design is my passion!
7. Puddle of mud
Kiss the car
With its creepy AI artifacts (oh my god, keep your hands away), it's like “Mud Puddle” prompted DALL-E to ask, “What if Banksy's art was photorealistic and lame?”
6. Remaining crack
Fuck world trade (Reissue)
This was Dick Cheney's worst moment of the year.
Grimes, we beg you: please log off.
4. Blur
The Great Escape (30th Anniversary Edition)
Britpop? Britslop.
3. Ministry
Return to the squirrel years
Honestly, this squirrel has a pretty impressive pepperoni stick. Well done, little buddy.
2. Bleeding verse
Vibrations
In an AI-powered future, the need for guitar stands is obsolete, as is the need for a unified creative impulse. Bleeding Verse is a “group” of AI whose the audience has surpassed the real band they are based onand it looks like the cover of a funeral program for art as we know it.
1. Ass
LET'S SHARE THIS PARTY
It shouldn't surprise us that an artist named Yung Buttpiss created the most disgusting album cover we've ever seen in decades of music covers here at Exclaim!, especially when the album has song titles like “Communist Diahrea Stain” and “MAKE THAT PENIS QUEEF.” And yet we are surprised. The worst part is that as of this writing, Yung Buttpiece has over 63,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which means we're surrounded by assholes who are actively inviting this into our lives.
