Entertainment For Lively Minds
U2 WATCH: Is this the most boring album cover in history?
Posted by Andrew Harrison on 5 February 2009 - 5:44pm.
Yes, this is what the new U2 album looks like. It's not exactly 'Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch', is it? Is it even the right way up? Well, at least it's better than 'Pop'.
Fair play to U2 and all, but the cover to 'No Line On The Horizon' is by some stretch the dullest and least appetising album cover we've seen in some time. But we're sure you can beat that. Post your own selections for the most boring sleeves of all and we'll decide what's the worst using the medium of heated debate.
(Of course, there are some who are saying that U2's sleeve design is a bit of a rip-off as well).
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The Cure
Didn't they have somthing that was similarly grey?
Faith
First vinyl bought with my own hard cash. Hard to dance to I recall.
Similarly grey with a dash of pink
The Cure's Seventeen seconds doesn't have that ECM artiness but instead looks like a pictire taken from inside the windscreen of a car coming out of the carwash.
Scritti Pollitti Songs to Remember
was just white with a bit of blue writing on.
Am I being thick but it does look like there's a line on the horizon.
Oh I quite liked that one.
It had character. The question is, if 'No Line On The Horizon' is no good does that mean that every Joy Division sleeve is also rubbish? Makes you think.
no becuse
Peter saville work has more depth and more going on even the cover of temptation work in teh context of 12 or seven inch single this will rubbish in modern formats let's have no revisionism here
I love Peter Saville's work
I love Peter Saville's work but this is rubbish:
(Brotherhood by New Order)
fraid the day i bought that lp
from probe in Liverpool when visitng my brother I thought it was the greatest piece of art I'd ever seen at the time and the music great as well. So it's not rubbish it's minimal but oddly beautiful the u2 is just bland there's a difference
It is a good album (I'm a
It is a good album (I'm a New Order fan by the way) but I think the exact opposite; the U2 cover is minimal and oddly beautiful and Brotherhood looks like Saville had a hangover and had run out of ideas when he threw it together.
we'll have to agree to disagree
I don't think they threw it together as they had to bury the piece of metal in the ground for a few weeks to get it to rust properly!
Titanium doesn't rust...
.
well technically it does oxidise
otherwise you wouldn't have white emulsion paint or toothpaste I know this as I went on a trip around the factory in Grimsby! But I should have said "weathered" or "stained" and I should also not know so much about the production of NO covers excpt there wasn't any spotify when I was a kid and after visting factories all there was to do was spitting and reading the NME cover to cover.
http://www.huntsman.com/pigments/
The book 'Factory Records: The Complete Graphical Album'
is a fine, and beautifully produced, official history of FAC told through album covers, notepaper, Christmas cards and other numbered FAC graphical items.
Of course, it covers the design of all the NO album sleeves in great detail.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Factory-Records-Complete-Graphic-Album/dp/050028...
actually it may have been this
one that was buried in someone's garden!
Does anyone else have the special sticker from the NMe to add to back cover of technique to cover up the bar code!
I'm confused
There is never a line on the horizon because the horizon effect when sea meets the sky produces a "line" as far as our eyes are concerned. And that line *is* the horizon.
The only time a line on the horizon happens is in the cockpit of an aeroplane. If that instrument shows no line on the horizon, then I guess the plane's in trouble.
Are you sure ...
... this isn't the new David Gray album?
It's a split single
with Jack White.
ECM-ish
Looks like an ECM cover. Needs to have the names of three European musicians on the front and a title like The Periodic Table of the Elements. I'd buy that!
This is the weird thing, isn't it?
As a U2 album it looks incredibly boring, but if it said Plastikman on the front I'd be after it like a rat up a drainpipe.
Second prize
Considering it's similarities to Taylor Deupree's cover, isn't it more accurate to say that U2's is the second most boring album cover in history?
Just saying, like.
Taylor Deupree has added two "interesting bits"
which make his slightly less boring. Compare:
If you look hard enough ...
...you can see a pedalo in the background.
no it's
not it's power station
I should know as they've nicked my photo!
Chris what station is it?
Chris,
Do you know what power station this is? It looks suspiciously like the one I work in, but I could be wrong.
Thanks.
Gerry
It was taken across the Forth Forth towards Fife (sorry i just wanted to say that) from Portobello sea front just outside Edinburgh/Leith, if that helps. Apropo nothing i think it adds to the scenary but I am usually alone in this sort of thing.
Thought so
This is Cockenzie Power Station where I have worked on and off for the last 12 years! Although I am biased, I tend to agree that some industrial buildings can look impressive. Where is this photo taken from? Is it some album I have missed?
excellent consider it a portrait of you
and your work mates! If you click on the picture it will take you to my humble flicker site if you have problems my emails on my profile. I went for a walk before breakfast one overcast august morning and there it was.
These magic eye picture thingees
never work for me *squints* nope, no good
Cant you get similar things to this ...
... in B&Q's paint section?
It's a close up
of the top of The Edge's head.
if you squint it's
robert mapplethorp
I'm not defending
bono and boys but might look alright at 12 inch on could card but on cd cover or worse on the screen of an ipod it will look bobbins
Idea for Word feature
Trace the protracted route by which this cover went from 'original idea' to publication. How many meetings and how much money did it take for this inspired design to see the light of day?
Couldn't they get an artist
to daub a nice painting of them all smiling. Maybe under a moon. Maybe the mouth and foot painters who did Bruces could oblige, now the Christmas card rush is over.
Luvverly!
They say Grey is the new rock n' roll
(They = Bono, The Edge, and the other two)
Why they didn't
go to one fo my favourite sites i don't know
for inspiration
http://lpcoverlover.com/
DIY U2
I couldn't get the contrast better
but these two are staring out at the u2 cover I think.
Size is everything...
Hiroshi Sugimoto, the photographer who took the photograph on the album cover, is an extremely talented guy. He did an amazing series of photographs of 18th and 19th century optical devices and experimental implements that were exhibited across the globe. He made very large prints which through their size made the viewer envision these strange objects as bizarre works of sculpture.
Similarly a very large print of the U2 album cover would be beautiful, in the way that a Mark Rothko painting is beautiful... you can lose yourself staring into it. But on a tiny CD cover the effect is almost entirely lost...
Image by Hiroshi Sugimoto
fraid
I've always found the Rothkos to emperor's new clothes of the tate and this isn't from want of looking. But your fella above looks good and I agree on the scale I just don't think this image is right for the context it's why the Post office spend ages designing stamps size matter
That's what I'm saying...
a large print in an art gallery would be great, on a CD cover it just doesn't work.
Slightly tangential
But I've always wondered why Cds have to be housed in CD sized packaging. The decline of the Lp did not have to coincide with the decline of Lp sized packaging, although I assume that cost-cutting ensured that it did. The miniaturised artwork is a huge factor in explaining why CDs have never ben as loved as LPs. So why not stick CDs in LP sized gatefolds? It would make the whole thing so much more appealing, and might even revive declining CD sales.
that
is one great idea!
Nah!
Think of the environment. Or Health & Safety. Rainforests. Or sumfink.
Make it easier for the Podcast shop though...
I've been thinking exactly the same thing for years...
I'd love that to happen.
Can't go back
Facings (a technical term, I believe) on the rack. The more visible product, the more impulse buys. Less of a problem now no one buys CDs from shops. Or, indeed, at all.
Rothko Right
Totally agree with the Rothko comparison, of course the size of the CD package will diminish the effect. I sincerely hope that U2 will resist their labels pleading to add verbiage to the cover, and, if not, then a big nasty sticker. Hats off to U2, remember the days when Zeppelin covers had no indication as to what it was you had in your hands? More power to them I say.
I agree (with Patrick)
& I think it's a great cover. But completely wrong for the album . As already pointed out above, there is clearly a line on the horizon! Which makes me wonder if they originally had a single colour cover and bottled it.
"This Leaden Pall" by Half Man Half Biscuit
When I were a lad...
...the council replaced the old oil lamp standards in my street with a modern lamppost and we spent ages trying to get a bike tyre over the lamppost like that.
Tyres (and other things)
The other day on my walk to work I saw a lampost with not one, but two, lifebelts around its base, like a prize on a hoopla stall.
The lampost is about a mile from the river.
lol
I've never actually seen that before and it made me laugh out loud. Brilliant.
It's grim oop north.
wait till you see
the tykes have done it to your bike then you won't be laughing
I suspect it won't be tykes...
...in Tranmere.
tykes as in tearaways, scamps, ner do wells
young fella me lads, scallies, chavs, beastly boys, hooligans, roustabouts...
Tykes are from Yorkshire, lad...
Does tha know nowt?
I dunt care what yer do
as long as yer pay rent
(c)Peter Sellers
I've had a quick scan of the flickr vinyl group
and out of the several hundred I looked at even the ones tossed off in 5 mins none is as boring as u2
Is this Prince Philip?
If so, Harry's dressing up exploits are pretty small beer in comparison to this display from his grandfather.
The what now?
I need this in my collection. Now.
Is the music any good?
Sod the cover.
Unlikely,
if the single is representative.
I'm A Fan
but they have never been much cop at choosing album covers, have they?
I suspect the cover
reflects the quality of the music therein: Grey, uninteresting and cobbled together in a couple of days.
The sad thing is...
it probably took them months to Pro-Tools together their radio-friendly sludge-a-thon.
DIY U2 II
DIY U2 III
Another alternative cover...
can't see the t-shirts
flying off the merchandise stall on the next tour
Bono Ultra!
The gimmick will be that only the top half of the t-shirt fades in the wash, so that the album cover is slowly revealed as the garment ages. Each t-shirt will therefore be a metaphor for Bono's "wisdom comes to those who wait" philosophy. This will also give U2 the chance to market a whole new line of washing detergents, specially tailored to the appropriate rate of fade. Bono Ultra!
And another...
.
.
Errr...
DIY U2 IV
One more...
DIY U2 V
'erm
Bono's revenge...
One more...
Made me think of this
(excuse the poor 'shopping).
Last one
Just to prove that they could have used the same original image, but come up with something EXCITING rather than DULL.
Is that Secret Squirrel?
I haven't seen that dude for years!
Nope
It's Sugar Bush Squirrel. I'd never heard of him before just now.
...
I like Sugar Bush Squirrel! Does he have an album coming out?
Judging by his website ...
... I think he has too many other commitments.
Achtung squirrel
I'm not sure Sugar Bush Squirrel would meet Bono's high ethical standards for appearing on a U2 album cover. His website reveals him to be a hawkish neo-con, with photos of him exhibiting an overly gung-ho attitude in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lustily checking Saddam Hussein's gallows. Touching tribute to Benazir Bhutto though. See it to believe it.
He does
Andrew Collins is doing the review.
*checks URL*
*taps screen...*
Jesus, has this place turned into b3ta or something?
The White Album
by The Beatles was hardly an inspiring cover.
Metallica
by Metallica was similarly uni-coloured and uninspiring.
I like it
and I suspect I'll enjoy the music. There, I've said it: a Word reader who rather likes U2!
Yes
Me too. Well said Mark.
Aye
I'll stand with you and suffer the slings and arrows
In defence of U2
These heads can't talk
Mmmm.... we've had the red one. Now lets have a black one:
Minor defence
In defence of the mighty Talking Heads, the Fear of Music cover did have the melon seed pattern embossed like a sheet of metal.
Fear Of Music on vinyl was more impressive because
it was made of rubber with raised bits. It was made to look like a floor tile.
My vinyl copy was embossed card...
...sure you didn't have a limited edition of some sort?
I read about it in the Talking Heads biography
"Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa". I had my facts wrong as detailed below:
From wiki:
"The original LP sleeve was all-black and embossed with a pattern that resembled the appearance and texture of diamond plate metal flooring."
They ran out of fresh musical ideas in c.1997...
...so the cover signals a very dull listen. At least with Spotify, I can find out without it costing me.
In principle, I like the idea ...
... of using the sea for a cover. It's a classic, emotive image. Perhaps the band, like all old folks, are thinking about what lies beyond (more sea is my guess). But this being U2, their interpretation is all just a little too precious. So I'm suggesting this for the SACD reissue:
(Btw I think that's T'Edge in the yellow bathing cap way out of his depth).
Water
It's office art
...you know, like you see hanging on the wall of some gleaming corporate edifice whose owners are champions of PR, Marketing and Spin. A bit like U2 these days!
If 79 people
comment on it in one day - then its a great album cover.....
I think it's nearer 20 people
and fear not many of them will buy the albumn but you point is well made. I bet by the time it gets to Tescos it has "U2 new cd" on a see-through sticker anyway.
Uncertain if you have missed a not out
Is it "fear not, not many" or "fear not, many". (Or even "I" fear not many....) Cos I am not reading a deluge of love and support for Bonio's boys in the many posting made by the few.
I liked U2 in the days when they sounded like no one else...
now they craft records to sound contemporary so that they are still played on the radio. I find their music cold and cynical nowadays, and those are two qualities that put me right off them.
Yes very true,
it seems to have got the massive interested..job done i'd say
I like it
it is simple, tranquil, hypnotic and enigmatic - the music will still be total cock-rot though.
Autechre - Tri Repetae
Can I just say three words...
Smell. The. Glove.
Smells like Tap spirit
What´s wrong with being sexy?
Nebraska
Without the cinemascope bars...
Now THIS is a watery album cover!
Ah, shoegazing.
U2 influenced by LS Lowry,
U2 influenced by LS Lowry, from 1963 ? The Bryan and Michael tribute can't be far behind.
http://clandestinephoto.blogspot.com/2008/11/subconciously-lowry.html
Here's a horizon we did earlier
If I was Trent Reznor, I might be looking to have a word with Mr Bono and posse. And it wouldn't be a nice word, neither...
http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home
R.E.M., anyone?
I´m quite surprised that no one have even mentioned R.E.M. (if I haven´t missed a small post somewhere, and if that´s the case - forgive me). No matter how good they were/are more or less all of there covers are look-I-can-do-art statements from someone - I´m looking at you, Mr Stipe - who desperatly wants to be alternative. It is possible that Up is the very worst, although I consider the music to be kind of a lost masterpiece. But I know no one will agree with me, at least not when it comes to the lost masterpiece-part.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Rem_up_cover.jpg
'Up' is a great record...
very underrated if you ask me.
Oh...
Maybe we should start a Groucho-club? I will bring my computer to my next discussion featuring the topic Great albums that no one else seem to understand. Thank you indeed.
zzzzzz
Well I reckon I can stare at that longer than I can listen to it.
You think the Cover is boring?
Just wait till you hear the music. The sound of U2 treading water.