Christmas cheer gets a fresh face with Kvällen, the Apex Singers' new contribution to the Christmas-around-the-world genre of holiday recordings. All the songs are pretty good, but the best ones are in such a different league from the others that it's hard to fit them on the scorecard.

Big winners: pretty much anything with a big role for soprano Lydia Wonham. When she starts singing over a subtle drone on track four, Ett barn är fött på denna dag, all other sounds fade away, her voice is that clear and compelling. All the other songs start chasing that hit, waiting for her solo or descant to steal the scene. For example, Auld Lang Syne is a strong closer in any case, and with her on a verse it's a guaranteed success.

The other truly standout track is The Christmas Goose, a banger of an arrangement that starts with a terrific kickoff solo from Douglas Lloyd before the melody gets passed around like a gaily wrapped parcel. From the ornaments of the different verses to the soprano-mezzo duo and the fab little baritone counterpoints, this is a song that really brings out the cheer.

I like the Croatian track, Nevijska Kolenda, which hits the Balkan harmonies hard, and the Spanish A la Nanita Nana won me over on multiple listens. In contrast, Welsh classic Suo Gân is too subtle and fuzzy to start the album with the strength it deserves, and Noël Nouvelet is too all over the place. The French carol starts out with a nice duo, transitions through an extremely boring classical choral setting before landing in a jazzy uptune. The solos also bounce around, with the stronger voices toward the end. It has a lot going for it, but too much going on to fully work.

The Apex Singers get extra credit for choosing entirely traditional carols and arranging them in-house. I'd love to go to the live show, and the album has enough star power to deserve a share of your mood.

Kvällen, from Swedish, translates to the roughly eight hours from midwinter dusk til midnight. It's an appropriate title, and not only for its twilight match to the group's dulcet vocal tones. The Apex Singers also feature eight singers. The album, eight tracks. Each selection, a traditional Christmastime/holiday song, reimagined from the folk traditions of eight different countries. Could this all be inspired from the Catholic eight day tradition of the Christmas Octave? Or octology itself -the study of the number eight, tied closely to the significance of new beginnings?

Or perhaps, the eights are a coincidence. In any event, Kvällen rewards listeners with a refreshing and inspired collection of less well-known holiday songs. None but Auld Lang Syne could be accused of overexposure in the US. And even that classic gets just one evening's play and then almost exclusively at midnight. It's also one of only two that feature English; the rest traverse the European continent: Wales, France, Croatia, Sweden, the autonomous Catalonia region of Spain, and Spain itself.

Despite this wide-ranging source material, Apex achieves singular artistic precision under the guiding, award-winning, hand of Founder, Artistic Director, Arranger, Mixer and Producer, Ollie Lambert. The Manchester-based octet deftly combines classical choral music (ensemble blend), traditional folk (source material and style), and a dash of contemporary a cappella (harmonic language, bass mic-ing and intimate performance). (Fellow UK group, the Swingles, may offer listeners a touchstone for a somewhat similarly-styled sound.)

Apex draws a satisfying balance between ensemble and solo, freely passing solos around, and even passing the solo baton to all eight singers in a single piece. Though all the vocalists are fine talents and well-matched to their moments, a few thrilling flashes deserve extra mention: Lydia Wonham's gravity-defying soprano in Ett barn är fött på denna dag ("A Child is Born This Day") is subtly breathtaking, the epitome of effortless purity. Nevijska Kolenda would be nearly unrecognizable without the impactful Douglas Lloyd. Katie Emanuel evokes maternal protectiveness in A la Nanita Nana. Every member of the ensemble audibly winks at us in The Christmas Goose. Elliot Maxwell-Hodkinson casually turns a verse of Auld Lang Syne into a springboard of inspired vocalization and Wonham, Eva Jones, and Katie Emanuel tug at our heartstrings for a perfect finish to the album. In fact, there's not much more a listener can ask than Apex's thoroughly gorgeous delivery of Lambert's deeply satisfying arrangement.

For contemporary a cappella listeners willing to embrace both folk and choral influences, The Apex Singers' Kvällen is sure to get ever more enjoyable with each passing listen. Lush arranging, interesting material, sensitive studio work, and universally gifted singers could hardly yield anything less.

Teeming with dynamic contrast and lovely charm, Manchester's own The Apex Singers deliver a multilingual holiday smash with Kvällen. A polyglot's dream, the album surveys traditional tunes from cultures throughout Europe and presents them in their original language. To endeavor such a project with the group's natural personality and style not only intact but on full display is no small feat, making the album's cohesion all the more impressive.

The arranging style and choices of Ollie Lambert are a large reason for the props given here. Traditional songs are often extremely repetitive and difficult to make interesting without reinventing the wheel. Lambert accomplishes this with tasteful dissonances, color tones, and borrowed chords that blend the group's intent and charm with tonal interest. Additionally, background chord voicings, textures, and rhythms change significantly when soloists switch mid-song, which displays intention and a unified front of expression that serves both storytelling and listening interest throughout the album. Occasionally the group switches from a treble-heavy voicing to one more bass-heavy to support a new section or lower soloist, resulting in the choral equivalent of a beat drop, and it is masterfully executed many times, most notably in Suo Gân, Ett barn är fött på denna dag, and El Noi de la Mare.

What's more is that the group need not be bombastic to be appropriately energy-present, as the chords serve the emotional moment brilliantly, and there is perhaps no greater example of this than in Noël Nouvelet, in which reservation and intriguing rhythms let the expression speak for itself. Sweet expression that speaks to vocal mastery wins the day in solo work, particularly by Lydia Wonham in Ett barn är fött på denna dag, where expert phrasing through a melody with large leaps is featured. Even on a track in which the balance between solo and background is skewed a bit too heavily towards the accompaniment (El Noi de la Mare), the group delivers gorgeous supporting music that makes it easy to forgive and forget.

As you wind down to the new year, I strongly recommend listening to Kvällen and bookmarking it for future holiday seasons.