Oysterband

★★★★ Read The Sky RUNNING MAN RECORDS.

CD/DL

Folk rock lives… and tells the tale.

Hardy old veterans they may be, but Oysterband can still belt out a killer tune and a compelling lyric with the best of them. Indeed, better than most. Amid recurring themes of land and sea, they tackle their task with rare urgency and valour, John Jones’ voice still magnificent, and the tough arrangements and musical barrage around him delivered with blistering gusto. The album root is a series of urgent beats, while fiddle and guitars interact with the conviction and inventiveness that comes from a lifetime on the road – there’s even a rare Alan Prosser vocal lead on the retro Hungry For That Water, while Jones channels his inner Roy Orbison on Streams Of Innocence. They end in an alarming wail of despair on The Time Is Now (“The air we breathe, the tears we need to weep/We know too much to look the other way”). Their fourteenth album, and they still have plenty to say.