However, the physical release of the album, due out Oct. 14, will in fact have a conventional album cover (as opposed to the photograph of a white-label pressing of the album that has served as the digital album's ad-hoc artwork).

At first glance, the cover seems a bit homoerotic: it's a shirtless Larry Mullen Jr. hugging a shirtless younger male around the waist. However, as the band explains on their website, the photograph is the band's drummer "protecting his 18-year-old son."

The post explains further: "The idea of the unique relationship between a parent and child, the image of a father and son, came from the band. The shoot with Larry and his son was initially an experiment but everyone loved it as a visual metaphor for the record."