Rooksmere Records (label)
01 December 2014 (released)
07 December 2014
This first live album from The Albion Christmas Band is a very welcome addition and possibly an antidote (to some elements of) to the festive period. Recorded live at the Kings Place in London in December 2013, the album consists mainly of arrangements of traditional seasonal favourites, interspersed with readings, intros and satire!
The overall ambience of the performance is of celebration and contemplation: there’s the obvious fun and festivities of Christmas through Sans Day Carol and Calling On/Hogmanay, which are skilfully intertwined with the more serious and reflective aspects of the season such as on Winter Song. It’s not all trad. fare as they do possibly the definitive cover of Tears for Fears Mad World, as it neatly, tellingly segues off a very witty satirical reading called How the Internet Started.
Touches like that keep help the flow of the album as a straight run through of these songs could have grated a bit as the tempo doesn’t vary very much. The do up the pace on Past Three O’clock and the closing medley of Sweet Chiming Bell/Hark the Herald Angels/The First Nowell, plus encore Seven Joys of Mary round off the album on a high.
The performances by the players are uniformly excellent with some stand out and very affecting vocals from Kellie While on The January Man and In the Bleak Mid Winter. A small but niggling point is that for the most part the audience is very much in the background and that does detract from the live vibe of the show. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something that both conveys the spirit of Christmas and is a little of the wall, have a listen to this album.
