What's Madonna's greatest album cover?

Like a Prayer because we don’t have to see her ugly face.

Do you prefer her denim-clad gunt, R1?

I voted True Blue but Like a Prayer is another strong choice. If any of her albums have a great cover, it's got to be one or the other

I actually like all of them (to varying degrees) except the very cringe and dated AMERICAN LIFE.

True Blue is just a variant of Physical's cover.

Why isn't her first album, the eponymous "Madonna," not listed? That's more iconic than any of the others.

MADONNA is bland, but decent enough. You can see she developed a little more of a concept with LIKE A VIRGIN. That, TRUE BLUE, and LIKE A PRAYER are all iconic in their own ways. EROTICA should've been better. It needed more a concept. BEDTIME STORIES is good, but her slight lower-class overbite is showing in the picture. RAY OF LIGHT is good and MUSIC is even better. AMERICAN LIFE is really bad. CONFESSIONS ON A DANCEFLOOR is fun and recognizable. HARD CANDY is delightfully camp. The last time she was fun-camp. MDMA is appealing enough. REBEL HEART is strange (was she trying to correct some of her fillers with those strings?). MADAME X's gothic-y Frida Kahlo was derided here when it came out, but I think it suits where she *should* be right now. A little messy, but leaning from the right place.

[quote] Why isn't her first album, the eponymous "Madonna," not listed? That's more iconic than any of the others.

More iconic than BEDTIME STORIES, HARD CANDY, and MADAME X, yes. More iconic than the rest, no.

I like Bedtime Stories. The cover photo, by Patrick Demarchelier, has got that soft Peggy Lee-type vibe, but updated for the 1990s.

Here they are ranked by... well... Warner Bros Records?

Oops

Hard Candy and American Life are the worst

R5, both shot by Herb Ritts.

True Blue’s cover is where she made more than the most of what she actually had.

I wonder if she’s a little embarrassed by the American Life cover.

Hard Candy cover is mortifying.

I think the original American Life album cover was the single cover and was changed at the last moment.

The original Erotica cover was rejected by Warner, it was more graphic.

Same for Bedtime Stories. She had 2 covers that were rejected.

[quote]Hard Candy cover is mortifying.

I thought it was fun; though now see it was a harbinger of what was to come.

But there is nothing fun about Madonna after her 90s era. She became a humourless harridan.

I thought she was fun up until 2008.

R20 Not really. She got boring after she married Guy Bitchie.

Ranked and critiqued.

I thought she was fun-camp in the ‘00s (think Margo Channing) and only became sad/desperate-camp in the ‘10s (think Baby Jane).

Why does everyone like the True Blue album cover? Just wondering

I like True Blue, r24.

The first album cover...

Why isn't it on the poll ?

Does anyone have the original/unretouched photo of the True Blue album cover before they colorized and cropped it?

If so, please post.

I love the scrapped Lucky Star album cover (before it turned into the Madonna self-titled debut album with the black and white album cover. )

Also, The First Album is awesome with the color album cover.

R27, the set.

R29, thanks

The first album

Preferred the American sleeve for True Blue- the text on the front distracts from the European issue and makes it less iconic than its US counterpart.

R17 Can we see those rejected album covers anywhere?

Most of the covers were boring and featuring mostly her face, which I guess made sense in the 80s and early 90s.

I like Like a Prayer for some reason. No face, just stubby fingers in multiple rings.

I know the original album cover for Hard Candy was of her in blackface. That album was also originally titled The Black Madonna. I have never seen pictures of it though.

I voted Ray of Light but I also liked the blue on the Music cover.

R35 Debbie Harry almost kinda-sorta did this for Rockbird, but scrapped the idea. It’s supposed to be camouflage face paint but reads different.

R37, thanks...I didn't know that

Hard Candy cover is the worse piece of shit she ever signed her name to, and there's been plenty.

What did the original Erotica album cover look like?

Her giant adams apple in true blue is disturbing.

She actually looked great for her age in these unused Hard Candy photos. The lollipop background makes it look silly.

Why does everyone like the True Blue album cover so much?

Just wondering.

WHO CARES!

R44, why doesn't Joy Behar like Madonna?

Like a Virgin is not my favorite, but you look at that cover and you can see the tone that is about to be set for the media blitz that is about to take her from being a pop singer with some top ten hits on the rise to completely skyrocketing to being one of the top pop stars and influencing the style of teen girls everywhere.

Anyone know why she was photographed so many times in profile and 3/4 profile views?

As far as cover art, none of them really excelled.

R48, why? Just wondering.

You know, I think I like the debut album one the best. When you do see them all together like that it feels like most of them are alright, but rarely anything too special. I can see an "iconic" (such an overused word now) feel to covers on the first three albums, but I don't really love them.

I like the effect on MDNA too - it looks like I should be able to run my fingertips across it and hear it go click-click-click.