For all its superficial "cross-over" gloss, so characteristic of the label, TV choirmaster Malone's latest project, for which he recruited 17 student singers from UK conservatoires (bass David Ferguson from Aberdeen the sole Scot), could have been really special. There is no doubting that his mixed choir can sing, and if the repertoire had pursued the direction suggested by the Bon Iver, Radiohead, Bonnie Raitt and Lana Del Rey songs here, the album might have had a real coherence, even if Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal is no novelty to many young trained singers.
Instead, sadly, the totality of the repertoire is all over the place, with all the above sitting alongside Paul Mealor's Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal and less-than-inspired arrangements of Erasure, Alicia Keys, Keane and Fleetwood Mac, and guest soloists unnecessarily drafted in when the youngsters have quite enough strength within their ranks.
The giveaway, of course, is the disc's cover, which shows Malone, and his neatly trimmed new facial hair, rather than the good-looking young people whose talent he is supposed to be championing. The ubiquitous Malone (conductor, artistic director, executive producer, arranger and insipid soloist here) has very possibly now been fatally seduced by his own publicity.
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