Who's Bad (taste in art)?

A few weeks ago, I happened to be in Radio Shack.  RS had a relatively large free standing display of Michael Jackson products - posters, This Is It DVDs, and miscellaneous MJ trinkets.  I was about to walk by when my eye was caught by this monstrosity of an album cover.

Click to embiggen and see all the horrible, horrible detail

Wow, Michael Jackson in golden armor, ruffled collar, red velvet cap, monarch alighted on shoulder while being crowned by cherubs?  Wow!  I guess you are trying to say "King of Pop" or something but that isn't even saying it.  That is shouting it from a mountain into a megaphone that fed a microphone into the world's largest PA system...in the cheesiest and gayest way possible.  And the sequined glove over the heart multiplies the cheese factor by about 50%.

My first thought was "That is the worst cover I have ever seen on a bootleg" or maybe not bootleg but those crappy third party CDs of live songs that are always terrible.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was an official Epic Records release of unfinished Michael Jackson songs.  It looks anything but official to me.  Plus the album cover doesn't even make sense for the album...it might be ok for a greatest hits album as it shows a bunch of highlights from his career but it really makes no sense for an album of unfinished tracks.  I guess the painting was commissioned by his estate or something but man is it terrible.  I know Michael Jackson had a lot of horrible art from the Neverland Ranch auction photos and this fits in...I just can't believe someone green lit it for the album's cover.

Another example of crazy art - photo courtesy of Paulshceer flickr set.
(follow link for more egomaniac art and weird stuff from the Neverland
Ranch auction)

I actually like Michael Jackson quite a bit, but there is no way that I will ever by an album with a cover like this...and yes, I realize that I am 'judging a book by it's cover' but I spent many, many, many hours in record stores as a youth flipping through records and you often can judge a record by its cover.  The more jumbled an album cover, the worse the album hiding behind it.  The one good thing I can say about this album cover is that it is better than Pantera's debut album cover (but only a little).