Poor Man's Heaven

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Poor Man's Heaven
Studio album by Seth Lakeman
Released	30 June 2008 (2008-06-30)
Recorded	2007–8, Cornwall, UK
Genre	Folk, folk rock
Length	40:48
Label	Relentless
Producer	Sean Lakeman, Seth Lakeman
Seth Lakeman chronology
'Freedom Fields' (2006) Poor Man's Heaven (2008) 'Hearts & Minds' (2010)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
BBC	Favourable[1]
Mojo magazine	(July 2008)
Q magazine	(July 2008)
The Guardian	[2]
The Times	[3]

Seth Lakeman's fourth album, Poor Man's Heaven (not to be confused with the EP of the same name released in late 2007), was released on 30 June 2008, entering the UK Album Charts at number 8. Taking over 10 months to finalise, many of the tracks on the album have been part of Lakeman's live set since the second half of 2006, the initial tracks performed being 'Poor Man's Heaven' and 'Race to be King', but this expanded towards the end of the tour, with new tracks continuing to be previewed throughout 2007 and into 2008.

Many songs on the album have, by Lakeman's own admission, a rockier sound than his earlier, arguably more straightforwardly acoustic folk, material.^[4] The transition into this sound could be argued to originate in the live versions of the Freedom Fields tracks from the respective tour, since many of them had a rockier element added (most notably on the chorus on 'The Colliers'). Indeed, Lakeman said that the decision to release the Poor Man's Heaven EP was partly to introduce this new direction to his listeners.^[5]

While acknowledging the shift to a rockier emphasis, Lakeman denies that the album is any less acoustic or more electric than his earlier material,^[6] pointing out that all the tracks are still almost exclusively performed on acoustic instruments.