Album: The King's Singers, Joy to the World (Signum Classics)

Joy to the World is an eclectic collection, with accomplished versions of pieces by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens interspersed with folksier material such as "Noël Nouvelet", featuring an exquisite interplay of quiet clarity between the countertenors and lower registers.

There's an infectious spiritual feel to "Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow", while the innovative arrangement of "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" borrows the tempo of Brubeck's "Take Five". Best of all is an amusing "Twelve Days of Christmas" incorporating John Julius Norwich's epistolary responses to the gifts, climaxing in an injunction against the increasingly perverse presents.

DOWNLOAD THIS: Twelve Days of Christmas; God Rest You Merry Gentlemen; Noël Nouvelet; Gaudete