Liberaaaaagh!

The analgesic boy choir Libera, latest addition to the writer's 'crossover creatures'.

According to their website boy choir Libera’s music is a ‘sound for a new time’ and contains ’shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies’. Yeah, whatever! I saw them today on the TV clad in their white robes and talking about their latest album Peace (Luxury Edition) like some kind of celestial boy band. There’s no doubting that these lads can sing a bit but the anodyne strings and synthesiser schmaltz that totters precariously over a pseudo-disco drum loop doesn’t do it for me. In fact the thing that bothers me most is not the music but the identity of the sevengali behind them. Admittedly the group is a ‘not for profit’ organisation so I suppose their operators can’t easily be accused of manipulation but I add them to my ever-growing list of ‘crossover creatures’ who inhabit those dark and dangerous lands between popular and classical music.

I wonder what kind of people buy Peace (Luxury Edition)? I suppose if analgesic, innocuous ersatz choral music is your thing you might, but perhaps I’m being unfair. Perhaps it’s me! Perhaps there are some people with taste who buy such albums, but surely if you want a decent choir at Christmas (or indeed at any other time) aren’t you better off buying an album by the choir of King’s College Cambridge or even avoiding the kids entirely and going for something by The Sixteen. Better still, get hold of a copy of William Mathias’s Ave Rex - that’s real Christmas music.

After reading this you’ve probably already condemned me as as nothing more than a musical grumpy git. Maybe I am but I’ve finished my rant now. I rest my case.