There is only one area in which I think U2 have progressively stumbled and that is in the realm of Album artwork. Aside from October, U2's artwork from 1980 until 1992 was amazing and profound (this includes singles, promos, etc.); however, since then (Zooropa?) I feel the art has been less than inspired (and, yes, I am a fan of Pop art). Is it me? Even in reading Averill's "Stealing Hearts", I find a decline in the work. I dunno, in buying the recent singles (which are amazing), I just feel like the artwork is not as grand. NOTE: if this is the worse thing I can say of U2, then they're still the best band in the world.
Album artwork thoughts
- Thread starter cmaly
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Pero
Refugee
What album artwork?
October has 2 pages:front and back-both with the band
October has 2 pages:front and back-both with the band
~BrightestStar~
Blue Crack Supplier
Like the albums fronts and stuff?
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
I don't like the new album cover, but that's about it.
Pero
Refugee
Brightest star, cmaly thinks about evrything inside the cd box except of the cd
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
It kind of reminds me of Franz Ferdinand's stuff.
~BrightestStar~
Blue Crack Supplier
lolPero said:
typhoon
New Yorker
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- 3,021
I spent way too much time on this:
I don't think the artwork was particularly special until The Joshua Tree and its [url=http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing019.html]round of singles. The style of photography was distinct, and the way the stark desert imagery paralleled the emotional starkness of the album (not to mention its rootsy influences) was brilliant.
The Unforgettable Fire had good artwork too, just not enough of it. Rattle and Hum also had pretty single covers (I like the "one cover per band member" idea they used with it and The Joshua Tree).
Achtung, Baby's artwork was gritty and edgy, which fit with the music. Both did a remarkable job capturing the feel of Berlin (and the rest of Eastern Europe, really) in the early nineties, right after the wall fell. It's like everything was new again (isn't it funny that probably their most revolutionary album had a song like "Acrobat" and lyrics like, "no new ideas in the house, every book has been read"?).
Zooropa was, uh, colorful and busy. Went well with the media overload themes on the album and (moreso) the ZooTV tour.
Pop was similar, except with (obviously) a lot of retro influences. Their whole look was pretty much a gimmick during this period, but at least it looked nice. I love the cover of the If God Will Send His Angels single.
All That You Can't Leave Behind had some brilliant artwork, though. The whole airport/bagagge/"elevation" motif was great. Anton Corbigijgjwnbwhatever's black and white photography from the Charles de Gaulle airport was beautiful. I don't think the singles were that attractive, though (I loved the cover of the "Beautiful Day" promo, an overhead shot of the boys at a beach, but they used the same pic as the album's inner sleeve for the commercial single for some reason). I'm mostly annoyed that they don't have any consistency in this department anymore; each single has a mostly different style. I was amazed (and relieved) that The Best of 1990-2000 kept the design scheme established by The Best of 1980-1990 given that their artwork has had multiple personality disorder for a while now.
The construction stripes and blurry photography of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was pretty slick (and I liked how they're using a serif font for everything; it's just a nice touch). I don't know how much it has to do with the album's themes, though; "Love and Peace or Else" and "Fast Cars" obviously fit. The rest of the songs seem to do with aging ("City of Blinding Lights," "Original of the Species") and God ("All Because of You," "Yahweh"). Maybe some themes about loss and such too. I think it's all a bit hodgepodge, but maybe someone else could set me straight.
I don't think the artwork was particularly special until The Joshua Tree and its [url=http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing019.html]round of singles. The style of photography was distinct, and the way the stark desert imagery paralleled the emotional starkness of the album (not to mention its rootsy influences) was brilliant.
The Unforgettable Fire had good artwork too, just not enough of it. Rattle and Hum also had pretty single covers (I like the "one cover per band member" idea they used with it and The Joshua Tree).
Achtung, Baby's artwork was gritty and edgy, which fit with the music. Both did a remarkable job capturing the feel of Berlin (and the rest of Eastern Europe, really) in the early nineties, right after the wall fell. It's like everything was new again (isn't it funny that probably their most revolutionary album had a song like "Acrobat" and lyrics like, "no new ideas in the house, every book has been read"?).
Zooropa was, uh, colorful and busy. Went well with the media overload themes on the album and (moreso) the ZooTV tour.
Pop was similar, except with (obviously) a lot of retro influences. Their whole look was pretty much a gimmick during this period, but at least it looked nice. I love the cover of the If God Will Send His Angels single.
All That You Can't Leave Behind had some brilliant artwork, though. The whole airport/bagagge/"elevation" motif was great. Anton Corbigijgjwnbwhatever's black and white photography from the Charles de Gaulle airport was beautiful. I don't think the singles were that attractive, though (I loved the cover of the "Beautiful Day" promo, an overhead shot of the boys at a beach, but they used the same pic as the album's inner sleeve for the commercial single for some reason). I'm mostly annoyed that they don't have any consistency in this department anymore; each single has a mostly different style. I was amazed (and relieved) that The Best of 1990-2000 kept the design scheme established by The Best of 1980-1990 given that their artwork has had multiple personality disorder for a while now.
The construction stripes and blurry photography of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was pretty slick (and I liked how they're using a serif font for everything; it's just a nice touch). I don't know how much it has to do with the album's themes, though; "Love and Peace or Else" and "Fast Cars" obviously fit. The rest of the songs seem to do with aging ("City of Blinding Lights," "Original of the Species") and God ("All Because of You," "Yahweh"). Maybe some themes about loss and such too. I think it's all a bit hodgepodge, but maybe someone else could set me straight.
~BrightestStar~
Blue Crack Supplier
cmaly said:
unosdostres14
Refugee
I thought that the artwork book that came with the biggest edition of HTDAAB (CD, DVD, book) was incredible.
Canadiens1131
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
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- 10,363
Zooropa and Pop contain some of my favourite U2 artwork
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Yeah, I've given up on criticizing the artwork for HTDAAB because it appears they poured all their creativity into the special edition book. Can't really fault them, as there's some fantastic personal & thought-provoking stuff inside. Who knows if that was the idea from the beginning, or at some point they were like "wow, this booklet sucks!" and decided to do more.
Whatever the case, they still could have picked a better album cover, at least one where they all looked decent. Adam looks so uncomfortably posed, Larry looks photoshopped in, Bono has this smirk for no reason and Edge looks like he just tagged a wall with graffiti. Some consistency within the group may have been nice. The last two pages of the booklet have a better take of the same shot.
I don't know if Anton's losing it or if the band just had their heads up their asses when they chose this one. The Vertigo single cover was really cool and striking but it looks like they ran out of ideas after that. I like the red/black design, but the artwork & pics are weak.
laz
Whatever the case, they still could have picked a better album cover, at least one where they all looked decent. Adam looks so uncomfortably posed, Larry looks photoshopped in, Bono has this smirk for no reason and Edge looks like he just tagged a wall with graffiti. Some consistency within the group may have been nice. The last two pages of the booklet have a better take of the same shot.
I don't know if Anton's losing it or if the band just had their heads up their asses when they chose this one. The Vertigo single cover was really cool and striking but it looks like they ran out of ideas after that. I like the red/black design, but the artwork & pics are weak.
laz
Zoots
Blue Crack Supplier
U2girl said:
Yeah, the back cover would've been much better, although it does remind me of the Joshua Tree, a little too much. The photo on the last 2 pages would've been good.
Oh... or how about this... you see somebody's hand pulling the plug off of either a bomb or a mushroom cloud model?
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