Anna Russell - In Darkest Africa

I like how she goes for the old-school colonialist approach to how those horrible African savages would treat such an upstanding, white British woman such as herself, then completely half-asses it by making them wear those bizarre tartan skirts. I mean jesus, if you're going to be stereotypical, at least get your fucking stereotypes right.

A.A. Allen - Crying Demons Crying Demons Crying Demons

Yet another in a long line of things where you have to wonder why anybody would put it on LP in the first place. Maybe this is the primitive equivalent to the Faces of Death video series since I can see it appealing to a similar audience. Or maybe it's to make Christians feel really, really good about themselves that they don't have to resort to semi-bogus faith healing as provided by the healer of broken hearts

At any rate, if you're going to market this as being super scary demon voices speaking through people, you could do an awful lot better than just a black man making a really silly face. When I think "being possessed by demons" I don't think "causes you to make faces that Bill Cosby wouldn't make at his worst." I suppose there could be an old-timey "black devil" racist subtext to this but even if that's what they were aiming for they could've at least dressed him more menacingly.

There's at least one positive thing about this; while this album cover makes demons look terribly silly, at least it doesn't make them look as ridiculous as they do on any given heavy metal album cover.

Mr. "Bones" and His Troupe - Hey Mr. Banjo

Yes, I realize that the American minstrel show had a profound cultural impact on almost every level of American entertainment that is still inescapable to this day. This does not mean, however, that I particularly want to see guys that look like a more gap-toothed and ugly version of the short, bald guy from Benny Hill slather themselves in axle grease and start pickin' away at a banjo jus' lahk dey's pickin' cottin fo' massuh yessuh ah's jus' gwinter play a song fer y'all affer ah eats dis watahmellin 'n fried chikkin. Oh god damn it, this album cover is making me go into stereotyped "black" dialects. Let's just forget this whole thing ever existed for the sake of my sanity.