~CD Cover Evaluation~ [The Sky Moves Sideways]

The Sky Moves Sideways is the third studio album by Progressive Rock group, Porcupine Tree. The album cover is particularly striking to me above many others, mainly due to the bizarre and surreal aspects to it. What begins at first to be a simple rocky plain soon becomes much more through the inclusion of the red phone booth. The inclusion of such a structure is debateable, and interestingly none of the songs on the album reference it. Perhaps the red phone box is a reference to Britain? The band are most certainly British, and so perhaps they wish to show this through the use of the red phone booth.

On closer inspection however, other aspects of the cover become important. For example, the grey, cloudy sky above is appearing to be moving sideways, which is a reference to the name of the album. Moreover however, it paints an illustration of a powerful conceptual album, with looming clouds above threatening to crack lightning down upon the vista below. This use of weather imagery and pathetic fallacy of the storm mirrors the music within - it will be deeply thought-provoking and powerful, rumbling and ominous like the storm above.

The craggy rocks are also an area of discussion. There appears to be a telegraph pylon sticking out of the side of one of the cliffs. At first, this seems odd - why would the pylon be on it's side? But then it becomes clear. The rocky mass to the left of the album is in fact on it's side, flipped 90 degrees to emphasise the 'moved sideways' aspect of the album. This creates an interesting sense of wonderment to the album cover. It's not instantly clear that the ground is on it's side. It is interesting that the mass of rock takes up so much of the cover - whereas 'Awake' is distributed with enough space for all of the objects in question to be seen, The Sky Moves Sideways album cover seems almost dominated by this craggy mountain-side.

Ultimately, the way in which the album cover once more directly references the name of the album is an intelligent aspect of the design. Through the use of vibrant colours, foreboding, dark clouds and surreal elements, The Sky Moves Sideways is a bizarre but fascinating album cover.