If they were smart, having a title No line on the horizon they should include an album cover featuring a beautiful shot off the coast of Ireland with that obscuring fog and greyslate sky.
Landscapes always are evocative, and Bono has already talked about it.
I nearly posted last night, but I held my breath and had some time to think about what I wanted to truly say. Your post purpleoscar just gave me the encouragement to spill my guts out for a sec, so you kind of had to be the sacrificial lamb, but I do like some of your ideas. But for the boundaries to be pushed and to truly make an astonishing artistic statement, as they have at various times of their career, (JT, AB, even Pop) I think the band will need to go where they visually haven't gone before.
I'm sorry, but I hope they go for the idea you imagined. Speaking from my artistic/ photographic perspective, I would appreciate something slightly more challenging and unexpected, a use of visual metaphors on wording, rather than attack the obvious and exact interpretation of the phrase 'No Line on the Horizon', if that is indeed the album title. I completely agree that it evokes majestic scenery and the homeland, much like the imagery to emerge from the Joshua Tree sessions, but why settle for the obvious, especially when you have a creative team led by the likes of Corbijn and Averill, and their tour personnel like Willie Williams and all of their original boundary-pushing stylings, I would expect nothing like we would imagine. This waiting period for the next album has sounded so creative, fresh and energetic that I wouldn't even dare speculate what the album cover or inner jacket art will resemble.
To add to a previous comment by david, where he stated he doesn't see the importance of album artwork anymore, I blame that on the ease and number of outlets to find information on your favorite musician, whether it be in the media, fansites, mp3 filesharing websites, etc, etc. Album art mattered when people had to tote around an album and listen to it to hear their favorites, then they had a physical relationship to the album cover. There just wasn't the proliferation of things to do in this world. Now, we are so bombarded with hundreds of channels on cable or satellite tv, cable radio, thousands of magazines on nearly every topic imaginable, and fansites that provide you with photos and lyrics that you would've had to rely on the album jacket for. It's no surprise that the importance of the album's art has diminished because it has remained consistent and expected. The trick to revive the importance of album art is to probably change the way it is experienced, and a radical change in music that will make people want to recognize the art of picking up a physical cd and consider buying it or album and look at it- hopefully.
Which brings me to Paul McGuinness' scathing comments towards Internet Providers for not cracking down on illegal downloading of music and media. If music was passing through the proper outlets and paid for as in the vast majority of times it should be, music, albums and the art would be much more appreciated. Instead, we live in an age when it is way too easy to illegally download a song (not album, song) and never experience anything more to link to the song than the song itself. Many of the benefits to a musician or group that the imagery and visuals bring to a musician that would help the public relate and endorse them are lost. It is sad, because the time, talent and creativity expended would be examined and appreciated more if people had to make a decision about what they would like to spend their hard earned money on, rather than leave their computer on 24 hours a day downloading illegally. So, after all of that, I wouldn't blame the lack of creativity or artistic talent on the importance of album art going away, but the outstanding number of ways that music can now pass through peoples' hands, or better yet through their ears without even having to make physical contact with the listener at this time in history.
I`m over here.............
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I hope that wasn't too confusing.
