Pitchfork

So it turns out U2 aren't the first musicians to use Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's calming "Boden Sea" for their album cover. Sound artists Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree also featured the photo on the front of their 2006 LP Specification.Fifteen, an album inspired by Sugimoto's Seascapes series. And Deupree isn't too happy about it.

But, let's face it, it's not like Chartier and Deupree shot "Boden Sea" themselves or anything. As much as we'd like to stick up for the little guys in this situation, the "controversy" largely seems like a non-starter, like when Bob Dylan used Ted Croner's "Taxi, New York at Night" for his Modern Times cover after Luna had used the same photo on a 1995 single. If anything, the idea that the same photograph that inspired Chartier and Deupree's ambient musings could also inspire the biggest rock band on earth makes U2 look pretty cool. 

The new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon, is out March 3 (March 2 in the UK) on Interscope; listen to first single "Get On Your Boots" now.

UPDATE: Whoa, the cover of Brothomstates' 2001 Warp album Caro looks just like this cover, too.