Lady Gaga album cover slated by Nick Gale Custom Cycles

Lady Gaga’s new motorbike-themed album artwork – panned by The Guardian as a “cheap Photoshop job” – has received the most damning criticism possible… the bike designer hates it.

Nick Gale, of Nick Gale Custom Cycles, agreed for one of his creations to feature on the surrealist pop star’s second studio album “Born This Way”, but had no idea what the final image would look like.

He told MCN of his reaction to the controversial design:

“I felt horror. If I’m totally honest. I was horrified. Then I started to see it a bit more tongue in cheek… but it’s still not what they led me to believe they were going to be doing. I was very surprised to see a lot of Easy Rider stuff grafted onto my bike. But when you look at it, half of one of my bikes on the new Gaga album is better than none.”

The bike featured is the “Predator”, a second place contender in the 2009 Biker Build Off. Built against the clock in the timed competition, it took just 9hrs 40mins to construct “from the first bolt to firing up the engine”.

If only Gaga’s team had spent as long on the cover design.

“Born This Way” will be released on 23 May.