Caledon of The Mists

‘In Times New Roman…’, the 8th studio album from Queens of the Stone Age is raw, brutal and rough around the edges but with a refinement that reveals itself further with each successive listen — and QOTSA founder Joshua Homme’s lyrics are as witty and withering than ever. The results are instantly identifiable ; QOTSA’s sonic signature, expanded and embellished with new and unprecedented twists in virtually every song, a live in-a-room recording that showcases a band at the height of their creative powers.

The juxtaposition of old and new which lies at the heart of much Christmas music lends this recording by the mixed-voice Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford its theme. The repertoire ranges in period from Hildegard of Bingen to pieces composed during the last few years. The central work – Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols – vividly encapsulates the intersection of ancient and modern, setting medieval and Renaissance texts, and drawing on plainchant as musical inspiration, while – in its series of fresh, vivid, and sharply-etched miniatures – eschewing the sentimentality which had become attached to Christmas and its music.