After the serious business of making dramatic folk albums like this year’s Ashore, every couple of years June Tabor feels the need to lighten up just a little bit and rock out, with occasional partners in folk-rockdom, the Oysterband. Album opener Bonny Bunch of Roses has been tackled before by the likes of post Richard-Thompson/Sandy Denny Fairport Convention, but has never sounded as good as this. This time round, June and the band have leaned a bit more towards contemporary writers, with a few left-field choices from folkies in rockers clothing, like P.J. Harvey, Joy Division and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Don’t dismiss their cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart as folkies trying to be cool, as it’s a very good version that adds something.

Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton