Among the reasons the King's Singers (founded 1968) have lasted as long as they have is that they maintain a knack for identifying and exploring the zeitgeist. An example is 2020's Finding Harmony, whose program addresses major societal upheavals and stresses of the last century. The group assembles a diverse program veering from U.S. gospel music associated with the civil rights movement to Estonian and Georgian songs that played a role in resistance to the Soviet Union's rule among its satellites, to various incarnations of the women's rights movement, to pop star Ariana Grande's One Last Time, included because Grande was affected by the 2017 concert bombing in Manchester, England. That's a wide cross-section of music even for the King's Singers, and listeners may well question whether the group's essentially mannered style works well with the likes of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit, but for the most part, the album is a virtuoso piece of work. The Singers' vocal inflections and scoops are adaptable to a wide variety of styles, and they push themselves in that respect here, connecting pop sounds to the classic folk of Malvina Reynolds and to Eastern European traditions. In the main, it all holds together, and it is very much of the moment.
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