Candid, unposed photography generally makes for the best covers.

Time prohibits this being as fleshed out as my last Guilty Pleasures post, but a Twitter debate with my pal Houston last night compels me to make a brief case for this album as a horrible, wonderful gem.

The album, actually called Two the Hard Way, is billed to “Allman and Woman,” ie: Greg Allman and Cher, during their brief marriage. It was a critical and commercial flop.

But it had an wonderfully terrible airbrushed cover. Allman looks like a intellectually challenged dog who caught a car and doesn’t know what to do with it. Cher looks like, well, Cher.

Like many guilty pleasures, coming to this album with zero expectations is a plus — it’s all upside. And there’s something earnest in the arrangements that suggests both the depth and transience of the feeling here.

“Love Me”

“We’re Gonna Make It” (semi-ironic cover)

Houston couldn’t see the point here (although he hadn’t heard the music, which may or may not be a plus). My retort was to imagine your wife’s favorite music performed un-ironically by Son House, who was singing it only because he was in love. That may be hyperbole, as Allman is no Son House, but you get the idea.

And Cher, even on a bad day, has her moments. I hated all her late-era stuff until I heard Robbie Fulks’ cover of “Believe”.