Reviewed by Tony Cummings

David T Clydesdale is an exceedingly popular arranger, conductor and orchestra frontman with dozens of albums to his credit. His forte is lush orchestral creations with his major musical influences appearing to be both the movie soundtrack to The Big Country and the music they used to play way back when our TVs showed test cards. What is utterly stunning is the budgets Mr Clydesdale enjoys and the serious singing talents that seem happy to be sucked into his preposterous musical embellishments. So on this album you'll find First Call singing "Jingle Bells", Bruce Carroll singing "Home For Christmas/White Christmas (Medley)", Helen Baylor contributing to "A Caribbean Christmas (Medley)", not to mention the Royal Brass Of London and the Nashville String Machine. No doubt 'One Special Christmas' cost more to record than the majority of the albums reviewed here. As far as I'm concerned it was an appalling waste of God's resources.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.