Anyone who has read my posts will easily know I don't overly question the band as a whole. I was a bit ticked off at how long the new album took. I have never once said a bad thing about any of the album covers. I really don't care much about cover art. It's just a tiny part of the album, and with digital downloads further rendering cover art as a thing of the past, it's merely an afterthought these days.
I understand having a man and his son shirtless can symbolize innocence, but do we really want our band's big album to have a cover that even remotely will provoke gay/incest jokes? I obviously am no advocate for incest, or jokes about it, but let's be serious...Larry is in a quite provocative area of his son's body, and I can't imagine anyone not even having the foresight to ponder the possible outcome of releasing this as the album art. I have no problem with anybody being gay, but this cover is going to get too much attention, and it can't possibly equal any possible sales boost BECAUSE of the cover. So sad about this.
Again, cover art is not much of a deal for the average music buyer...but a really poor album cover can reduce sales of the product to those who prefer physical releases. And again, those who really want the music will buy it...but IN NO WAY POSSIBLE could this cover INCREASE sales of the physical product. I'm obviously going to buy it, but I will turn the booklet inside out, as I simply don't want to see this picture.
Sure, I could make arguments for the cover by talking about the tie in with the photograph and the album title...that's easy to see, but it's just a bit on the odd side...and for a band that wants to be "relevant" and reach the most people possible, this cover is a big turn off.
Again, this is my first post on this site in my several years here where I have even used words like "gay" and "Incest," and I'm not trying to be provocative...it's obvious that some idiots will think of those things when they see the cover. Some have argued that U2's music was "playing it safe" since Pop...but this cover is not playing it safe...it's likely going to decrease sales at least somewhat...even though most who would want the standard version of SOI already have it for free.
In light of your topic I also opened up a "You Too" poll asking people to vote their opinion, interested to hear what you all think: http://www.u2start.com/topic/9953/
On topic: I don't have a lot of problems with the cover. I can understand it may be provocative but then I think that will only apply for the so called "U2 haters" anyway who would've disliked any cover.
U2 haters will hate it but they hate U2 anyway so no concerns really. The cover art doesn't sit 100% comfortable with me but I'm mature enough to see what they are trying to symbolise. I'm sure his son will take some stick from his mates.
As I said yesterday, a German news site wrote "advertisement for a gay dark-room"
The problem still is, there's only this picture. WE know it's his son who will turn 19 next week, others only see a half naked man and a half naked boy. And you cannot expect everybody to know about the songs, the album, its intention, the people in the picture or whatever.
And people who walk by in stores, or browse amazon, only see the cover at first and do know nothing else (30sec previews do not explain the album content).
In that case, when you need to explain it everytime, you've chosen the wrong cover.
Let's remember, that for obvious gay reasons, they changed the Boy Cover for the US Market, and now they throw out such a cover.
This might be a picture for the inside of the booklet, with some words accompanying. But it's the wrong album cover. I also don't like it as a cover.
It's a great photographic shot but at least to me it does not represent a protective or innocent scene. I'm sorry, but protecting my child would not happen below the belt but trying to cover them over all.
This would look a lot more different, if they were both standing and Larry embracing Aaron that way and protecting Aarons head with one hand, as an example. That would still look a bit gay to others, but it wouldn't point the finger to a questionable area of Aarons body.
Also, I'm very surprised about the fact that it's exactly Larry with Aaron - who nobody has seen so far and we still don't with that picture actually - on the cover with such an intimate self-display.
At least the cover art for HTDAAB did never provoke such a discussion.
Although I really like the previous iTunes cover, which was white and all, I really like this one. It fits the album, it is gutsy and it is intimate, just like the record is
