Poor Man’s Heaven kicks off with Lakeman’s distinctive voice accompanied only by pounding drums. The Hurlers is a bold statement of intent. As you find yourself reaching for the volume knob, whether you are reaching to turn it up or down will largely define whether you love or hate this album.

This is a fuller, rockier, arguably more conventional sound than Lakeman’s two previous albums. Sadly once past this storming opener the rest of the first part of the album is mixed. Solomon Browne is indisputably a stand-out track, and along with Race to be King probably the closest the album comes to a conventionally ’folky’ sound. But other tracks start to blend together, lacking the variety of arrangement and production evident on Lakeman’s previous two records.

The final quartet of tracks, however, brings the album right back up to the incredible standard set by Kitty Jay and Freedom Fields. Race to be King, in a new arrangement from 2007’s E.P., is surely a modern folk classic. It’s followed by rhythmic title track, Poor Man’s Heaven, before the pace drops back for the spine-chilling Greed and Gold and eerie Sound of a Drum, both tracks exploiting Lakeman’s vocal strengths to the full.

In its shift to a heavier sound the album delivers a more homogeneous and less varied experience than its predecessors. Nonetheless there is enough inventiveness and quality here to make this an album well worth parting with your cash for.