I can’t stop thinking about that damned cover. I don’t like it, but I don’t know exactly why. It’s confronta­tional, and it doesn’t partic­u­larly offend me, but the very first time I saw it my reaction was “Not OK.”

The cover was designed by Barbara deWilde, who has done some wonder­ful work for Nonesuch in the past. Her work often conveys meaning with a certain blunt­ness or liter­al­ness, which is one of the pleasing things about it. My favorite is her design for Michael Gordon’s Weather:

If you’ve ever talked to Steve, or heard him speak (much less listened to the man’s music), you may agree that he can be simi­larly direct, often to the point of blunt­ness. I don’t have any “inside infor­ma­tion” on how this cover came about, but I can imagine it appeal­ing to him. As in: let’s not just use a photo of the twin towers, let’s use one of the most visceral, gristly, in-your-face photos that exists—the one where the plane is an instant away from the second tower. 

Anyway, they’ve already given ⁹⁄₁₁ the dreamy-and-elegiac treat­ment, with this beau­ti­ful cover by John Gall:

Inter­est­ingly, while the WTC ⁹⁄₁₁ photo­graph may have incited contro­versy, the typog­ra­phy is utterly appro­pri­ate: the titles are set in Gotham, the same font used by the ⁹⁄₁₁ Memorial, the Freedom Tower’s corner­stone, and on and on ad infini­tum (includ­ing, umm, this here cover).

So, if you don’t want that photo in your iTunes library, but you enjoy Gotham, then here, I made some­thing for you: 

UPDATE, 7/29/11: Bob Hurwitz has a typi­cally eloquent response.