MERGED --> Sssooo, the album COVER... + Bomb on the HTDAAB back cover + Opinions on..

[petethechopp]

I like this better than the front picture

 

[mofo82]

Ok i was one who has not cared for the front cover art and i dont particularly care for the back cover art either, fake or not. Knowing how deep this album is and that we know the interpretation of the album can't be literally about the atomic bomb, why must a picture of a bomb that looks like it was shot in a history museum be used? HTDAAB is such a deep imaginative and lyrically challenging album with complicated layering, yet it's still the sound of four guys making their music, but to put a simple picture of them sitting down for no apparent reason does nothing for me in relation to any song or any lyric on the album.

Someone said this goes perfect with ABOY-how? The sound, cus its U2 rocking?- ok but this picture is stale; no rocking going on there.

Here's an idea- if this bomb thing is supposed to be a metaphor and they are in the middle of it, couldnt they be looking up or something as if they are the target, like in the video. Speaking of the video, there are some major errors there that really dont make sense, like, 'why would they be in the middle of a blast, in the middle of a target, but the blast seems to be coming from whereever the camera is? The dust trails seem to say that the bomb landed somewhere outside of the target, like it missed. This kind of thinking kills me. And a performance video on top of that

If this album would have gone the punk stripped down route, I would have agreed with the album cover, but it didn't. The cover feels rushed for an album that took 4 years to imagine, write, record and promote, and irrevelant to the work. I guess that's rock and roll.

 

[intedomine]

Album cover should have been more innovative and different and striking. Something orange would have been great.

With what I have heard of the album and considering that many consider that it could be a classic, perhaps a different and more challenging and intriguing album cover could have made this u2's very own Sgt Pepper.

 

[radioskugga]

I like that they sit down.

It's an unusual and fresh idea. I don't see why it would be bad that it looks like they are waiting on the bus... For me the image connotes selfconfidence, and specifically: A selfconfidence in the album. This, the red stripes, that remind me of a warning sign (radioactivity or whatever), and the punkish collage style make me dig this cover and the whole graphic profile that comes with it (on singles, tour etc).

If they were to go back to the graphical style of JT (like that calender image) I for one would be very disappointed, haven't we already seen that?

The backcover is fake. Island logo, font (not clarendon as on the front) and crop of atomicbomb picture i'd say discloses that it would be real. If the real album cover would have an atomic bomb picture like that it would ruin the whole cover. Talk about being overexplicit.

 

[U2_Guy]

Like i said, it's the picture of 4 forty years old guys waiting for the bus...

 

[ramblin rose]

I think that back cover is a fake also. I haven't been able to find any other picture of the back cover though. It's not on U2tour.de or on U2wanderer.org.

Leading me to believe that there are no actual pictures of this back cover.

 

[U2_Guy]

I believe the back cover will be like the back cover of the vertigo single (very much Violator style) with the straps and names of the songs.

 

[ramblin rose]

I believe the back cover will be like the back cover of the vertigo single (very much Violator style) with the straps and names of the songs.

Maybe in the back they're standing up and there's a bus in the picture?

 

[U2_Guy]

Maybe in the back they're standing up and there's a bus in the picture?

LOL That would prove my theory... LOLOLOL

I hope not!

 

[beau2ifulday]

Opinions on HTDAAB Artwork

To be honest, i'm not very keen on it... it just seems really out of place when you look at in terms of the other album covers.
I know 'Pop' and 'Zooropa' were a little more crazy looking than the rest of them, but even those two seemed to have some kind of style going on.
The Vertigo and HTDAAB packagings were not what I was expecting at all...

 

[Lancemc]

I love it!

 

[mofo82]

The designs were leftovers from the value cd's in the Kmart bargain bin

Someone say Blue Light Special????

 

[mofo82]

beau2ifulday, nice avatar...wish I could see it a little better though <squinting>. Are you an artist?

 

[username]

Looking at the Collector's Edition, I like the way it all ties into the theme. As for the cover alone, I am not a big fan particularly. I think that they could have chosen a better image and messed with layout a little more. I do like the idea of the red slashes (in keeping with the whole theme).

Our boy, Corbijn, does nice work. I just think they could have used him better with the cover.

But I will hold out on a total judgment until I see the whole thing in my hands.

Also not a big fan of the retro-punk graphics thing that they were going for on the Vertigo art. But hey - that's just one man's opinion.

 

[U2Kitten]

The pics of the guys are okay but I'm not digging the red and black and target stuff, it's too much like the Elevation tour program. Really, come to think of it U2 hasn't had many good album covers, maybe JT and UF, I guess AB.

 

[saxgoddess]

The cover is alright, but I miss the days when they would put an abstract image on their covers, like the distraught boy on "War" and the Buffalo on "One". And I loved what the Joshua Tree represented. I don't like it so much when they just put a picture of the band on the cover, but the album is great!

 

[jcroach]

I noticed this image posted on Amazon.com today. It appears to be the cover or the out wrapper to the Special Limited Edition version of the album.

 

[PowerSurge]

Ok i was one who has not cared for the front cover art and i dont particularly care for the back cover art either, fake or not. Knowing how deep this album is and that we know the interpretation of the album can't be literally about the atomic bomb, why must a picture of a bomb that looks like it was shot in a history museum be used? HTDAAB is such a deep imaginative and lyrically challenging album with complicated layering, yet it's still the sound of four guys making their music, but to put a simple picture of them sitting down for no apparent reason does nothing for me in relation to any song or any lyric on the album.

Someone said this goes perfect with ABOY-how? The sound, cus its U2 rocking?- ok but this picture is stale; no rocking going on there.

Here's an idea- if this bomb thing is supposed to be a metaphor and they are in the middle of it, couldnt they be looking up or something as if they are the target, like in the video. Speaking of the video, there are some major errors there that really dont make sense, like, 'why would they be in the middle of a blast, in the middle of a target, but the blast seems to be coming from whereever the camera is? The dust trails seem to say that the bomb landed somewhere outside of the target, like it missed. This kind of thinking kills me. And a performance video on top of that

If this album would have gone the punk stripped down route, I would have agreed with the album cover, but it didn't. The cover feels rushed for an album that took 4 years to imagine, write, record and promote, and irrevelant to the work. I guess that's rock and roll.

I think your post is very intelligent and I agree with MOST of it, but then it hit me...

Achtung Baby is one of the heaviest mothers of an album, yet they go and put a hodge podge of all sorts of non sensical pics culminating with the pic of "Wee lil" Adam Clayton. So this is probably yet another way to diffuse the heavyness of THIS album....just my thoughts.

 

[kawai17]

Two reasons why the back cover is fake:

1. Interscope is the label releasing the record, not Island.

2. The font used on this cover is not the same as the one being used on all other promotional material released for HTDAAB (Look at the 2 for example. I think someone used something generic like Times New Roman here).