I like a bit of variety in my music so this release from Glasgow based choir The Parsonage intrigued me. The track listing contains traditional songs and covers of popular songs. Might be a bit of an adventure then…
Well, things kick off with something akin to a Ligeti requiem. Choirs and requiems do go together well. Then, with a flighty bit of banjo picking in the background, the traditional "900 miles and Going Home to Live with Love" gets a respectful if earnest treatment. So far so good. Time to flip over the vinyl.
On the other side, there's a selection of popular classics like "White Rabbit" and "Love Will Tear Us Part" handled with no great sense of adventure. The tempos are familiar and the songs themselves are little changed and so fall into the trap of excessive familiarity. So far not so good.
I'm a bit of a sucker for harmonies so choirs usually do it for me. Although I doubt they would wish - or perhaps should be - compared to the Red Army Choir (or all of Wales for that matter) but that sense of scale that you would expect of massed voices just isn't there. Like I said, this is an earnest performance if somewhat unadventurous but I'll commend them the Parsonage's choir master for managing to get 50 voices pointing in the same direction at the same time. Bet there wasn't a major sporting event on the telly…