When it was unexpectedly released into everybody's iTunes library back on Sept. 9, U2's new album Songs of Innocence was given a Yeezus-esque anti-cover, with simply a photo of an LP inside of a paper sleeve. Today, however, U2 has shared the album's official cover, which you can check out right here:
The cover photograph, taken by Glen Luchford, is a black and white image of U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. clutching his 18-year-old son, Aaron Elvis. As the band itself points out through its website, the photograph is an homage to two early U2 album covers: their 1979 debut Boy, and their 1983 album War, both of which featured an image of a young boy named Peter Rowen, who was the younger brother of one of Bono's childhood friends in Dublin.
"The visuals reflect the new songs and their inspiration in the early years of U2 as teenagers in Dublin," reads the statement posted to the U2 website.
"We've always been about community in U2, about family and friends," Bono wrote in the same statement. "Songs of Innocence is the most intimate album we've ever made. With this record we were looking for the raw, naked and personal, to strip everything back."
The physical release for Songs of Innocence is set for Oct. 13, though the album is available for free through iTunes until then. A standard single-disc edition will be released, as well as a deluxe two-disc edition with bonus tracks. A double LP edition will also be released.
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