700 Albums That Should Have Stayed in Their Sleeves

A few performers in bad clothes or with what collector Steve Goldman calls “an ugly face” have slipped into his exhibition of dreadful record sleeves, but only because they were simply too irresistible to leave out. Even bad taste, it seems, has a strict admissions policy.

The award-winning exhibition of the world’s worst record covers is arriving at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester in September 2026, offering visitors the chance to inspect decades of artistic decisions that presumably seemed reasonable at the time.

Goldman began collecting record covers three decades ago. His collection has now grown to 700 examples, from which the museum’s temporary exhibition will present a selection of “unintentionally funny” artwork. These are not sleeves designed as jokes. They are covers whose creators reached earnestly for something memorable and landed somewhere quite different.

“Some people spend fortunes collecting fine art but no one collects dreadful LP covers,” Goldman said.

His standards are more exacting than merely finding an unflattering photograph or an unfortunate outfit. “I want records where the designers have tried to do something that’s gone horribly wrong. It can’t just be a performer in bad clothes or with an ugly face- though there are a couple of those that have got in that were irresistible.”

The collection also keeps its horrors suitable for the whole family. “And it all has to be good clean family fun - I don’t collect any album covers that are gory, violent, sexist, homophobic or racist.” The result is cringe without cruelty: a celebration of graphic design confidently wandering into a hedge.

The exhibition has been touring the country since 2021 and has already attracted attention from BBC’s Have I Got News For You, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, BBC Breakfast, The Guardian, Metro and the “i” newspaper. Its award-winning status suggests there is, after all, professional recognition available for assembling an exceptional quantity of other people’s visual mistakes.

Visitors to the Grosvenor Museum will be able to explore the sleeves, listen to tracks from some of the albums and vote for their three favourite covers. This adds a pleasingly formal democratic process to the question of which design went most horribly wrong.

Entry is free, so no one must spend a fortune to experience Goldman’s alternative to fine art. The temporary exhibition will continue until early 2027, giving visitors several months to study the evidence, choose their top three and discover whether the music inside can possibly live up to the packaging.