An Unthanks album – featuring classic Christmas and winter songs, as well as a scattering of new compositions – was always going to work and so it does, quite magnificently. They capture the shifting moods of the season including joy, reflectiveness and melancholy, and also make you hear anew standards such as ‘O Tannenbaum’. The likes of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ and ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ are played quite beautifully, sans vocals, and among the new compositions, Becky Unthanks’ ‘Dear Companions’ provides a real heart-in-the-mouth closer featuring the voices of 60 people. An album not just for this Christmas, but every subsequent one. RM

Released 29 November on Rabble Rouser Music