Diamonds on the water

"With their mantelpieces groaning under the weight of all those awards heaped on their June Tabor collaboration Ragged Kingdom, it's back to basics for the Oysters. Reduced to a four-piece since the departure of Ray Cooper, they return as a much leaner - but certainly not meaner - machine, with a more simplified approach built around the good old-fashioned qualities of a well-constructed song and a cheery melody ... For the moment at least, they seem to have reached an amicable truce with the world on an upbeat, largely optimistic, even celebratory series of songs exuding recurring themes of love, nature and acquiescence ... Nice job, chaps".