Fri 16 Jan
2009
With only a few exceptions, the Irish band’s album covers have been aesthetically bereft, in spite of their now iconic statuses. And after their last album, they were definitely in a can’t-do-any-worse position. But the cover art for their forthcoming release “No Line on the Horizon” is more than just an improvement. It’s a genuinely artful image from the photographer Hiroshi Sugimi, apparently from his “Seascapes” series.
Yes, it’s an improvement, but I’m not a fan of the equal sign, which is not part of the original image. It’s a bit ham-fisted, if you ask me, and kind of ruins the photo.
I’m a fan of Sugimoto, though, so I am more likely to be annoyed than most.
Lovely, but also a bit of a rip off of the cover of Steve Reich’s collection “Reich Remixed” from Nonesuch.
Suddenly any cover featuring a sea & sky pic is a ripoff of Reich Remixed?
I don’t buy it.
I have to agree, most of their album covers are crap (though for a “band shot” cover I thought ATYCLB had a nice ambience)... the typography for the new record is rather horrid though hehe.
In terms of “ripping off” “Taylor Deupree used the same image in 2006”, and I’m pretty sure someone else used it ~2001?
Erutan: Good call. I suppose that called for the ginormous equal sign as a differentiator, which I happen to like a lot. I agree, too, that the cover for “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” was better than their average. For what that’s worth.