Since their posting of a 10-year-old video in 2007 of a live cut of their version of the '12 Days of Christmas' on YouTube garnered over 10 million hits, these 10 male alums of Indiana University have gotten back together, recorded the best-selling 'Holiday Spirit,' and have been on one long reunion tour! 'Christmas Cheers' is Christmas collection #2, and we have to say that the guys have not been sitting under the mistletoe, munching fruitcake. The arrangements on these 15 songs are sharp, innovative and funny, the leads and background harmonies recall groups like Rockapella, the Blenders and The House Jacks. Listen to the hilarious 'Christmas Can-Can,' the hot arrangement of 'We Three Kings,' the brilliant parody 'Donde Esta Santa Claus,' a wonderfully raucous Rockabilly 'Hey, Santa,' one of the sleaziest 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' we've ever heard, a priceless overweight Elvis lead on 'Santa Claus is Back in Town,' a crazed 'Jingle Bells,' a drunken 'Who Spiked the Eggnog' and finally hear the guys absolutely nail the song that caused all the gefuffle, 'The 12 Days of Christmas.' None of these songs is left alone, every one has unexpected surprises, samples, segueways, asides, faux horns and kazoos, you name it. It just goes to show--creativity, humor and great a cappella are stone winners now, and will be winners 10 years from now. 'Cheers' to one of the best Christmas albums of the year!

Listen to Hey Santa! in RealAudio.

The Chick Corea Songbook, which marks the quartet's first new record in five years, was inspired by the classic work of jazz great Chick Corea, and features fresh and exciting vocal interpretations of many of his popular compositions, including 'Spain' and '500 Miles High.' Corea, who plays on the CD, has also contributed an original composition entitled 'Free Samba' especially for this album. This release also features special guest appearances by some of the finest musicians in the industry including Christian McBride, Airto, Alex Acu–a, Fred Hersch, Edsel Gomez and Lou Marini, among others.

Listen to Prelude in RealAudio.

Five young Italians, three men and two women, students at the Niccolo Paganini Conservatory in Genoa, got together to form Cluster in 2004. They have been touring Europe and Italy ever since, showing off their unique sound, a combination of jazz, pop and fusion. The group does their own arrangements and released their excellent debut album 'Cement,' which got 3 CARA nominations, in 2006. They recorded 2 EPs in 2008 and 2009 that also received CARA nominations. The 14 tracks on 'Steps' show just how far this incredibly talented quintet has come. They nail Trish Delany Brown and Michel Camilo's jazzy 'Just Kidding' (which has some light piano), but all other tunes are a cappella, and include some wonderful faux instruments. A particular treat are the group-written originals, including Nicola Nastos' title tune, 'Unthought' and 'Fake,' 'Could It Be' by Luca, Eric and Liwen, 'Simple Words' by Letizia and Liwen, and '224' by Erik with words by Emily Dickenson. Outstanding covers of Stevie Wonder's 'I Wish,' Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'One Note Samba,' Chick Corea and Neville Porter's 'Spain,' Freddie Mercury's 'Love of My Life' and Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' fill out the songlist. There is some stunning electronic augmentation of vocal effects that make us wonder exactly what we're listening to, but the arrangements are so good, and the vocals so amazing, that we can only accept the statement on the back ('This is an a cappella recording, except for Colin Santosa's piano no instruments were used') as Gospel. 'Steps' is filled with such a number of marvelous sounds and auditory treats that we intend to come back to it again with a pair of excellent headphones and savor it at our leisure. 'Steps' is one of the best of the year!

Listen to I Wish in RealAudio.

The first thing that the (beautiful, multi-page, color, with cool pix and all the lyrics) liner notes of 'Diversity' tells us is that this is the 5th album by Basix, 'the first Basix album containing solely original songs straight from the minds and hearts of all the members of the group. Enjoy!' Easy for us, since these 6 talented Danish men first formed Basix in 1995 we have been watching this group get more amazing with every excellent CD, until we hold 'Diversity' in our hot little hands, a tour-de-force 2 CD set that is world-class on every level. There's a total of 19 original tunes here, all sung in English, each one a gem. The fresh, clean sound, the confident, light background vocals and vocal percussion, the surprising, poetic lyrics, the sweet leads-what's not to enjoy? OK, I guess we'll have to pick some favorites at this point. 'Super Natural Conversation' on disk 2, a wonderful reggae tune with an early Beatles flavor, 'Tease' on disk 1 is a sexy, rhythmic romp, the title tune on disc 1 is a juicy foot-tapping suggestion against racism, and 'So Much Better' is a marvelously arranged hit with the eye-opening opening line 'I'm sorry, but I think you suck.' 'Change' on disk 1 simply needs to be listened to, as do 'Let's Move On' and 'Think Twice.' On disk 2 'A Thousand Years,' 'It Won't Matter To Me,' 'High On Life (In The Slow Lane),' 'Honesty' and 'Without You' are all stone winners. There are certain groups (The Real Group, for instance) that push the a cappella envelope with every recording, every performance, and Basix is such a group. Don't miss this one!

Listen to Diversity in RealAudio.

Two men and two women, 3 actors and a policeman from Finland, first got together in 1996, lacking the instrumental talent to form a rock band, but discovered that they were all powerful singers. Since then they have been doing their own arrangements of rock and pop songs, performing live like rock divas (complete with their own alter egos) and creating an a cappella 'wall of sound' with rock solid vocal percussion and background vocals that blows the minds of audiences and reviewers like ourselves alike! There are 13 dynamic cuts here, some re-covers of cuts they performed on 'Cover To Cover,' their debut album: the rock/pop medley 'Can't A Loop,' 'You Oughta Know,' the rhythmic gem 'Kids,' the manic 'Smooth Criminal' and very fine 'Beautiful Day.' Other favorites are the driving rock anthem 'Taiva Lyo Tulta/Over The Hills,' 'My Sin,' the lovely 'Circle Round the Sun,' the haunting 'Try To Forget Me' and the dreamlike 'Common State of Mind.' We love that Fork has turned themselves into rock stars with names like Chiq LaDesire and Winston Chill, we love that they can blow away a stadium with just their voices, and we love 'Helsinki,' an unbelievably entertaining collection of their best stuff. Enough said!

Listen to My Sin in RealAudio.

This is the debut album of all male Contemporary a cappella Italian sextet Maybe6ix. Brought together in 2006 by a cappella devotees Fausto Caravati and Alessandro Cadario, Maybe6ix became kind of a supergroup with the addition of Luca Giugno, Tony Guerrieri, Tommaso Ferrandina and Krishna Nagaraga. The avowed purpose of the group was (and continues to be) to advance Italian pop music through creative new arrangements, using the voice as the only instrument. The group wants to bring classical and pop closer together and to bring a cappella music to every musical genre. They have an experimental sound that throws faux horns, 5-part fugues and other seemingly incongruous settings into their lovely, surprising compositions. All 9 songs are in Italian, some particularly fine ones are 'Infinito,' 'lo per lei,' 'Ogni mio istante,' 'Oceano,' 'La terra dei Cachi' and 'Baila.' Maybe6ix has a sweet, unexpected sound that brings together a smorgasbord of musical styles in the same song, in a playful, spirited way that recalls Queen on 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and '08 Harmony Sweeps Champs Vocaldente. Fun, eclectic a cappella stuff from Italy!

Listen to Oceano in RealAudio.

Latvian vocal group Cosmos' debut album in 2003, the first year of their existence, went platinum after winning an award as the best pop album of the year. They have released three wonderful albums since then and are greatly loved by audiences in many countries for their distinctive a cappella style and charismatic concert performances. There are 10 cuts here, all but two, 'destination: heaven' and the bonus track 'unintended,' are in Latvian ('aptieka,' 'maskava,' 'parasta/neparasta diena,' 'vindo,' 'tu ka, es ka,' trejdevini slepens,' 'vienreiz' and 'pasaules galins'), but you really need to buy and listen to 'Turbulence' to truly appreciate the creative power of the human voice, specifically the voices of these six young men. We don't understand most of the words, but their bright, delicious collection of flawless falsetto leads, faux horns, vocal percussion, chocolaty harmonies and sounds-that-couldn't-be-all-made-by-the-human-voice, but are; have filled our headphones and made us shake our heads with wonder. To hear 'Turbulence' is to become a fan. Beautiful, colorful liner notes in Latvian tell us nothing and everything-the essence of great art. Exciting, manic, humorous, surprising, unbelievable, Queen-like-all these are decent attempts to describe Cosmos. But the fact is you should simply buy 'Turbulence,' put on some good headphones and savor it, then thank us. You will be very welcome!'.

Listen to Tu Ka, Es Ka in RealAudio.

'Pust' means breath in Norwegian. It also means to take a break, to breathe. Pust is Oslo-based, comprised of three men and three women singers with lots of vocal experience in various ensembles, who find their musical inspiration somewhere between Folk, Jazz and Ethnic vocal music. The 12 songs on 'kry' include songs composed by members of the group, and all the lyrics are in Norwegian. Some favorites are 'Lukk meg inn,' the delicate 'Innunder blae himmelrand,' the spirited folk song 'En reell halling,' the gentle 'Gate,' the dramatic 'Kolera-vise,' the melodic 'Farao pa ferie,' the sweet 'Trassvisa hennes Tora' and others. Beautiful sounds from Norway's best!

Listen to Trassvisa hennes Tora in RealAudio.

Alti & Bassi are five debonair-looking, fun-and-Western-music-loving Italian men whose 'Medley' is exactly that, a 32-song medley. Or more correctly, a medley comprised of seven medleys, beginning with 8 heavily-accented Disney chestnuts ('Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,' 'Heigh Ho,' Bibbidi Bobbity Bu' and others); a masterful 4-song Platters medley ('My Prayer,' 'Sixteen Tons,' 'Only You' and 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes'); a jazzy 'West Side Story' medley ('Maria,' 'Tonight' and an apropos 'America'); an 'I Love America' Broadway medley ('Singin' In The Rain,' 'Cheek To Cheek,' 'Night and Day' and 'New York, New York'); a seven song Beatles medley 'A&B Road' ('Abbey Road,' get it? It includes 'Sgt. Pepper's,' 'If I Fell,' 'Norwegian Wood,' 'Help,' 'All You Need Is Love' and other favorites); a 'Canto Libero' medley of Italian favorites ('Fiori Rosa Fiori Di Pesco,' 'Il Mio Canto Libero' and 'Con Il Nastro Rosa') and finally the 'A&B G's' medley (The Bee Gees of course, '(Saturday) Night Fever,' 'How Deep Is Your Love' and 'Stayin' Alive'). These guys have loved and listened to a lot of records, cassette tapes and CDs to sound as much like these groups as they do. We love all this music, too, and Andrea, Alberto, Paolo, Diego and Filippo have the a cappella chops to do it justice. Listen to the yummy bass lead on 'Sixteen Tons' (which we seem to remember as a Tennessee Ernie Ford hit, rather than the Platters, but no matter), and to the falsetto lead on 'Saturday Night Fever'-these guys may come across as somewhat silly at times (we prefer 'fun-loving') but they can really sing, and they give us a sweet taste of 32 wonderful songs here. Which we think you will enjoy, as we did!

Listen to Bibbidi Bobbidi Bu in RealAudio.

Celebrating their 15th year of performing in South Florida, and their 'Be Still My Soul,' their 8th album, The mixed-voice (20 women, 16 men) Acappella Singers are all Christians, and drawn from a hundred-mile radius, but are not affiliated with any particular denomination. Concerts are performed in churches, special and corporate events, and the group are the 'resident singers' at Butterfly World, a local attraction. They sing both sacred and secular music, but always 'To God's Glory.' There are 14 spirited tunes here, a few with non-vocal percussion and piano. Favorites are 'Uyai Mose,' 'Give Me Jesus,' the rousing spiritual 'Ain't Got Time to Die,' the richly harmonic 'Rise Up O Men of God,' Felix Mendelssohn's 'Cast Thy Burden Upon The Lord,' 'O Love That Will Not Let Me Go,' Andrew Lloyd Webber's soaring 'Pie Jesu,' the powerful hymn 'Be Still My Soul' and the traditional 'The Lord Bless You and Keep You.' The Singers are wonderfully led by Conductor Boender, their arrangements are excellent, and their sound is effortlessly clean, fresh and beautifully blended. This is a veteran choir with tremendous talent and spirit, and every song is perfect!

Listen to Lift Thine Eyes in RealAudio.