Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win
Take a Look at Those Cakes
The Spaghetti Incident?
First impressions are everything. The music it contained could literally heal all of the world’s problems, and you still probably wouldn’t give an album called If You Can’t Lick ‘Em… Lick ‘Em a chance.
Whether it’s terrible puns or baffling grammatical errors, not even the greatest musicians (The Beatles, David Bowie, Sonic Youth) are immune to having some complete clunkers.
Below, we pay homage to some of the worst album titles in history.
Click through the below gallery to see what made the list.
1/25 Gorillaz – Humanz
Humanz, a painfully obvious title geared towards unity, actually digs into why the album landed flat in the first place; expanding past their animated origins and incorporating more “humans” into the formula, the original magic is spread too thin and lost.
2/25 The Beatles – With the Beatles
Titles with such a distinct lack of effort were commonplace in the Sixties, so this almost gets a pass – but is it too much to ask from the greatest band of all time to do a little better?
Amazon
3/25 David Bowie – Black Tie White Noise
Before launching into his more experimental mid-Nineties era with 1. Outside and Earthling, Bowie released Black Tie White Noise. Much like the music itself, the tantalising promise of white noise is there, but is weighed down by tame formalities. It’s also just not that funny.
Amazon
4/25 James Brown – Take a Look at Those Cakes
James Brown was never one for subtlety, but this title takes it to another level. Such inappropriateness makes sense when lyrics about Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles looking out for “cakes” crop up on the album. The whole thing hasn’t aged all that well.
5/25 Cher – not.com.mercial
Recorded in 1994 and postponed to a 2000 release by Cher’s record label, this title actually rings true. Far less cutting edge is its stylisation into a website domain, which comes off as an artist desperate to stay current.
Amazon
6/25 Mariah Carey – Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse
An absolute abomination of an album title. I can’t even begin to imagine what the idea was behind this jumbled, baffling mess of pronouns and punctuation. Probably the worst offender on this whole list.
Amazon
7/25 50 Cent – Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win
Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win is just a convoluted, roundabout way of restating Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, a pretty apt summary of 50 Cent’s failed attempts to recapture his initial acclaim throughout his career.
Amazon
8/25 Ghostface Killah – More Fish
In context, this is great. A continuation of Ghostface Killah’s critically appraised Fishscale, the album is everything a Wu-Tang Clan fan could have wanted. But without that context, the title is just strange and confusing.
Amazon
9/25 Guns N’ Roses – The Spaghetti Incident?
Named after a fight between Guns N’ Roses members Steven Adler and Ian McKagan over “spaghetti”, their codename for drugs, Guns N’ Roses’ found this joke, one that should have stayed private, funny enough to dedicate an album title to.
10/25 Ja Rule – Pain is Love
The simplicity of this statement is absolutely hilarious, both profound and not-thought-through at all. Is pain really love? All of it? What a beautiful insight.
11/25 Kelis – Kelis Was Here
You can almost see it spray painted on a brick wall. Kelis succumbs to the mid-Noughties image of what’s trendy with this title after doing such a stellar job of transcending it with her music up to that point.
Amazon
12/25 Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door
They really should’ve just stuck to numbering their albums. In Through the Out Door, Led Zeppelin’s final album, actually offers a fairly profound statement on retirement with the title, but does it with one of the tamest, funniest brags going.
Amazon
13/25 Lil Pump – Harverd Dropout
Naming your album after Kanye West’s eponymous The College Dropout is setting yourself up for failure, let alone misspelling the college that you claim to have dropped out from. It feels like an insult to even compare the albums.
Amazon
14/25 Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water
Perhaps the album title that’s most prestigious for all the wrong reasons, Limp Bizkit truly set the bar for terribleness with this one. The fact that they’re in on the joke doesn’t make it any less childish.
Amazon
15/25 Van Morrison – Back on Top
Using your album title as a preemptive comment on your current status rarely fares well. You’re either going to fall short or look a bit arrogant. Unfortunately for Van Morrison, both proved true.
Amazon
16/25 Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park
Even country pop icon Kacey Musgraves has her blind spots. Same Trailer Different Park is knowingly cheesy, though perhaps a little too much, and is also lacking some crucial punctuation. We can forgive her, though.
17/25 Nas – Nastradamus
It’s ironic that the album widely considered Nas’s weakest is the one that explicitly draws parallels to Michel de Nostradamus, an astrologer known for having visions of the future. I wonder if Nas foresaw this album bombing so hard.
Amazon
18/25 The 1975 – I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
Overly long album titles are a goldmine for pretentiousness, but what makes this so much worse than, say, a Fiona Apple album, is the unnecessary use of lower-case and the vaguely intimidating message behind it.
Amazon
19/25 Ted Nugent – If You Can’t Lick ‘Em… Lick ‘Em
This straight-up creepy and bizarre album title from Ted Nugent turns out to be the most memorable thing about If You Can’t Lick ‘Em… Lick ‘Em, a run-of-the-mill hard rock effort from the Eighties.
Amazon
20/25 Oasis – Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
How such an obvious grammatical error made it into the title is still priceless. Noel Gallagher claims it was intentional, having drunkenly written it on a pack of cigarettes after seeing it on a £2 coin. If anything, that makes it even worse.
Amazon
21/25 Prince – Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic
Honestly, we could have gone with any number of Prince’s later albums here: ART OFFICIAL AGE, PLECTRUMELECTRUM, 20Ten, LOtUSFLOW3R. Instead, we went for the legend’s very first questionable title, as well as his most inscrutable.
Amazon
22/25 Public Enemy – How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
Not to nitpick but I’m not sure this is actually a question, and “Soulless People who Sold Their Soul” is a redundant phrase. Public Enemy’s timeless wit and rousing command of language gets a bit lost here.
Amazon
23/25 Simple Minds – Big Music
Art rock titans Simple Minds come through with one of the least descriptive and comically simple titles out there with Big Music. Even with such low aspirations set up in the title, the album somehow still managed to fall short.
Amazon
24/25 Sonic Youth – EVOL
It pains me to include Sonic Youth here, especially one of their greatest albums, but working out that “LOVE” spelt backwards looks a bit like “EVIL” is a little primary school. Clearly not for rapper Future, though, who would also name his album EVOL in 2016.
Amazon
25/25 The Weeknd – My Dear Melancholy,
Drowning in melodrama, The Weeknd’s 2018 album My Dear Melancholy, comes off as a desperate bid to be as profound as possible. Much like the title’s hanging comma, more is promised but never delivered.
Amazon
1/25 Gorillaz – Humanz
Humanz, a painfully obvious title geared towards unity, actually digs into why the album landed flat in the first place; expanding past their animated origins and incorporating more “humans” into the formula, the original magic is spread too thin and lost.
2/25 The Beatles – With the Beatles
Titles with such a distinct lack of effort were commonplace in the Sixties, so this almost gets a pass – but is it too much to ask from the greatest band of all time to do a little better?
Amazon
3/25 David Bowie – Black Tie White Noise
Before launching into his more experimental mid-Nineties era with 1. Outside and Earthling, Bowie released Black Tie White Noise. Much like the music itself, the tantalising promise of white noise is there, but is weighed down by tame formalities. It’s also just not that funny.
Amazon
4/25 James Brown – Take a Look at Those Cakes
James Brown was never one for subtlety, but this title takes it to another level. Such inappropriateness makes sense when lyrics about Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles looking out for “cakes” crop up on the album. The whole thing hasn’t aged all that well.
5/25 Cher – not.com.mercial
Recorded in 1994 and postponed to a 2000 release by Cher’s record label, this title actually rings true. Far less cutting edge is its stylisation into a website domain, which comes off as an artist desperate to stay current.
Amazon
6/25 Mariah Carey – Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse
An absolute abomination of an album title. I can’t even begin to imagine what the idea was behind this jumbled, baffling mess of pronouns and punctuation. Probably the worst offender on this whole list.
Amazon
7/25 50 Cent – Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win
Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win is just a convoluted, roundabout way of restating Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, a pretty apt summary of 50 Cent’s failed attempts to recapture his initial acclaim throughout his career.
Amazon
8/25 Ghostface Killah – More Fish
In context, this is great. A continuation of Ghostface Killah’s critically appraised Fishscale, the album is everything a Wu-Tang Clan fan could have wanted. But without that context, the title is just strange and confusing.
Amazon
9/25 Guns N’ Roses – The Spaghetti Incident?
Named after a fight between Guns N’ Roses members Steven Adler and Ian McKagan over “spaghetti”, their codename for drugs, Guns N’ Roses’ found this joke, one that should have stayed private, funny enough to dedicate an album title to.
10/25 Ja Rule – Pain is Love
The simplicity of this statement is absolutely hilarious, both profound and not-thought-through at all. Is pain really love? All of it? What a beautiful insight.
11/25 Kelis – Kelis Was Here
You can almost see it spray painted on a brick wall. Kelis succumbs to the mid-Noughties image of what’s trendy with this title after doing such a stellar job of transcending it with her music up to that point.
Amazon
12/25 Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door
They really should’ve just stuck to numbering their albums. In Through the Out Door, Led Zeppelin’s final album, actually offers a fairly profound statement on retirement with the title, but does it with one of the tamest, funniest brags going.
Amazon
13/25 Lil Pump – Harverd Dropout
Naming your album after Kanye West’s eponymous The College Dropout is setting yourself up for failure, let alone misspelling the college that you claim to have dropped out from. It feels like an insult to even compare the albums.
Amazon
14/25 Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water
Perhaps the album title that’s most prestigious for all the wrong reasons, Limp Bizkit truly set the bar for terribleness with this one. The fact that they’re in on the joke doesn’t make it any less childish.
Amazon
15/25 Van Morrison – Back on Top
Using your album title as a preemptive comment on your current status rarely fares well. You’re either going to fall short or look a bit arrogant. Unfortunately for Van Morrison, both proved true.
Amazon
16/25 Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park
Even country pop icon Kacey Musgraves has her blind spots. Same Trailer Different Park is knowingly cheesy, though perhaps a little too much, and is also lacking some crucial punctuation. We can forgive her, though.
17/25 Nas – Nastradamus
It’s ironic that the album widely considered Nas’s weakest is the one that explicitly draws parallels to Michel de Nostradamus, an astrologer known for having visions of the future. I wonder if Nas foresaw this album bombing so hard.
Amazon
18/25 The 1975 – I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
Overly long album titles are a goldmine for pretentiousness, but what makes this so much worse than, say, a Fiona Apple album, is the unnecessary use of lower-case and the vaguely intimidating message behind it.
Amazon
19/25 Ted Nugent – If You Can’t Lick ‘Em… Lick ‘Em
This straight-up creepy and bizarre album title from Ted Nugent turns out to be the most memorable thing about If You Can’t Lick ‘Em… Lick ‘Em, a run-of-the-mill hard rock effort from the Eighties.
Amazon
20/25 Oasis – Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
How such an obvious grammatical error made it into the title is still priceless. Noel Gallagher claims it was intentional, having drunkenly written it on a pack of cigarettes after seeing it on a £2 coin. If anything, that makes it even worse.
Amazon
21/25 Prince – Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic
Honestly, we could have gone with any number of Prince’s later albums here: ART OFFICIAL AGE, PLECTRUMELECTRUM, 20Ten, LOtUSFLOW3R. Instead, we went for the legend’s very first questionable title, as well as his most inscrutable.
Amazon
22/25 Public Enemy – How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
Not to nitpick but I’m not sure this is actually a question, and “Soulless People who Sold Their Soul” is a redundant phrase. Public Enemy’s timeless wit and rousing command of language gets a bit lost here.
Amazon
23/25 Simple Minds – Big Music
Art rock titans Simple Minds come through with one of the least descriptive and comically simple titles out there with Big Music. Even with such low aspirations set up in the title, the album somehow still managed to fall short.
Amazon
24/25 Sonic Youth – EVOL
It pains me to include Sonic Youth here, especially one of their greatest albums, but working out that “LOVE” spelt backwards looks a bit like “EVIL” is a little primary school. Clearly not for rapper Future, though, who would also name his album EVOL in 2016.
Amazon
25/25 The Weeknd – My Dear Melancholy,
Drowning in melodrama, The Weeknd’s 2018 album My Dear Melancholy, comes off as a desperate bid to be as profound as possible. Much like the title’s hanging comma, more is promised but never delivered.
Amazon
Other galleries you might like:
