Corbijn: "I'm doing the cover for the new U2 album"

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BANZAI said:


That wasn't his mistake. The band somehow wanted to be portrayed as a bunch of lazy old guys sitting on a bench.
Yeah, that was bloody awful. Even the liner notes sucked big time.

About the booklet, here's a hilarious comic strip of beautiful drawings by atu2.com's Kelly Eddington!
http://www.atu2.com/achtoon/0105/

She does much funnier work usually. Check 'em out in Achtoon Baby on the left-handed column of atu2.com!
 
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Am I the only one who likes the HTDAAB cover? I think it shows 4 cool guys hangin' out. Like, "Yeah, We're awesome. That's all you need to know for this one."
 
Rich79 said:
Am I the only one who likes the HTDAAB cover? I think it shows 4 cool guys hangin' out. Like, "Yeah, We're awesome. That's all you need to know for this one."

The Edge looks like he's sleeping, Adam looks like he's waiting for the photo shoot to be finished, Larry doesn't look into the camera. And Bono looks suspiciously young on this photo, he could be 25 or something... so maybe Bono is responsible for choosing this cover photo?!
 
Rich79 said:
Am I the only one who likes the HTDAAB cover? I think it shows 4 cool guys hangin' out. Like, "Yeah, We're awesome. That's all you need to know for this one."

Edge doesn't really look...umm...alive in that picture. Kind of sedated. Maybe he was. :|
 
Irvine511 said:
i'm wondering if we're going to be getting a "Kid A"/"Amnesiac" type double release spaced apart by a few months with a brief tour in between, and then something big in 2009. it might be like MDH/ATYCLB, but i'd guess there's going to be more U2 than on MDH, and there are going to be more songs than on Passengers.

if memory serves, they were doing photography for Bomb in July (when Edge "lost" the CD) and that album came out mid-November, but it was considered "done" by July.

interesting times, these are.

Aygo said:
They did the shots for HTDAAB in late May/early June... in Portugal, outside of Lisbon. They landed in Lisbon on May 29th, I guess, and left few days after.

:hmm: well... using this time frame that means we could see a single by late january/february and an album in march (st. patrick's day is a monday this year... monday is when CD's come out world wide :hmm: )

or maybe it's just smoke up all of our preverbial asses.
 
Anton Corbijn is so succint in his appraisal of the band after all of these years working together. He will make a fine film maker too despite his last album cover for the band sucking ass.
 
BANZAI said:


The Edge looks like he's sleeping, Adam looks like he's waiting for the photo shoot to be finished, Larry doesn't look into the camera. And Bono looks suspiciously young on this photo, he could be 25 or something... so maybe Bono is responsible for choosing this cover photo?!

Haha, so true. I never understood why they chose that lame photo for the cover and not one of the other pictures taking during these sessions. And Bono looks young because he's clean-shaven, it always makes him look younger.

Personally I am very curious to see what they will come up with for the new album. Maybe there won't be any band photos at all in there, who knows. I know some people would be disappointed (including myself, I guess), but they could try out some really experimental artwork without using photos of themselves.
 
The cover for HTDAAB should be the photo used for the back, where the tracks are listed. That photo is very good, IMO (wasn't that picture used in an official U2 callendar?). It was shot in a beach not frequentd by people, behind a industrial complex, 20 kms away from Lisbon.
 
I agree that the last album cover was a disappointment. To me, it looks like a photo that some fan or tourist happened to take while the guys were taking a break.

For that matter, I thought that the album's title was a disappointment as well. I know that they were successful with using a cryptic and cumbersome title with their previous album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, but I think the success of that album's title must have emboldened Bono to try another long title when he probably should have followed the "less is more" mantra. As Larry said at one point when presented with a long album title, "That'll never fit on a t-shirt."

Anyway, I'm guessing that one thing we'll definitely see on this new album (besides a title that is short and succinct) is a cover with a lot of color. The black and white theme of their last two album covers (presumably reflecting the relatively stripped down nature of their approach) has probably been played out as well...
 
TheFirstBigW said:

Anyway, I'm guessing that one thing we'll definitely see on this new album (besides a title that is short and succinct) is a cover with a lot of color. The black and white theme of their last two album covers (presumably reflecting the relatively stripped down nature of their approach) has probably been played out as well...

I think you're right. So what are the most logical choices for the next U2 album:

1. Album title short
2. Album cover full of color
3. 11 songs
4. +/- 45 minutes
5. A song about love/peace
6. A throwaway rock song (i.e. Elevation, Vertigo)
7. A rockballad (i.e. One, Stay, SYCMIOYO, WOWY etc.)
8. .....?
9. .....?
 
BANZAI said:
I think you're right. So what are the most logical choices for the next U2 album:

1. Album title short
2. Album cover full of color
3. 11 songs
4. +/- 45 minutes
5. A song about love/peace
6. A throwaway rock song (i.e. Elevation, Vertigo)
7. A rockballad (i.e. One, Stay, SYCMIOYO, WOWY etc.)
8. .....?
9. .....?

8. A "city song".
9. A "God song" closer. The last four have done it: The Wanderer, WUDM, Grace, Yahweh are all explicitly religious.
 
Is it "The Wanderer" a explicitly religious song ?

I think that is a song about a spiritual search but not about religion.

:huh:
 
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The majority of U2's songs can be considered "God themed" songs. Spiritual yes, not religious. I don't ever see that theme disappearing on any of their records.
 
BANZAI said:


I think you're right. So what are the most logical choices for the next U2 album:

1. Album title short
2. Album cover full of color
3. 11 songs
4. +/- 45 minutes
5. A song about love/peace
6. A throwaway rock song (i.e. Elevation, Vertigo)
7. A rockballad (i.e. One, Stay, SYCMIOYO, WOWY etc.)
8. .....?
9. .....?

8. the words "soul" and "knees" sprinkled throughout the album
9. a planet metaphor, i.e. "This album is like North African rock from Neptune!"
 
8. A joy-filled song (Beautiful Day, City of Blinding Lights)
9. A song about romantic love (In a Little While, A Man and a Woman)
 
Super Yo said:
Is it "The Wanderer" a explicitly religious song ?

Read the lyrics and then get back to me. It's more explicit than Grace, albeit certainly less affirmative.
 
I'd like to see them go back to the "re-affirming the theme of the album" type of closer, like Love is blindness or Mothers of the dissapeared.
 
Axver is right, all the albums since Zooropa have ended with some sort of religious song... and the Wanderer is very very religious in its lyrics. It wasn't a coincidence that Johnny Cash sang it too. I agree that the closer for this one probably will fit the same mold.
 
U2girl said:
I'd like to see them go back to the "re-affirming the theme of the album" type of closer, like Love is blindness or Mothers of the dissapeared.

How do these songs "re-affirm" the themes of the albums?
 
JT was all about America/s, so it's fitting it ends with Mothers.

AB was all about the broken heart, so it's fitting it ends with Love is blindness.
 
U2girl said:
JT was all about America/s, so it's fitting it ends with Mothers.

Well, I see what you are saying, but Mother's is one story about one specific place in South America. When I think of a song reaffirming a theme it would have to be a little more general than that and be about America in general.

U2girl said:

AB was all about the broken heart, so it's fitting it ends with Love is blindness.

This one fits a little better, unless you consider the terrorism interpretation of this song...
 
This one fits a little better, unless you consider the terrorism interpretation of this song... [/B]

I'm not familiar with that interpretation, but Achtung really is a story, isn't it? It's about infidelity to either god or love. Love is Blindness, for me, is a prayer for blindness, to not be tempted, to be able to be just good......
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


Well, I see what you are saying, but Mother's is one story about one specific place in South America. When I think of a song reaffirming a theme it would have to be a little more general than that and be about America in general.



This one fits a little better, unless you consider the terrorism interpretation of this song...

Well it still fits in the "two Americas" idea Bono was referring to.


All interpretations can be considered, I just always thought LIB sums up all the emotional turmoil from the album.
 
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