That Joe Payne has shared a video trailer for his brand new Christmas album, Ding Dong, which is released today. You can watch the lyric video for Christmas Cheer below.
The new album was inspired by a Christmas Livestream of seasonal song-requests during the 2020 winter lockdown, Payne made the decision to write a festive album, including last year’s single, O Holy Night. Although originally intended as an album of carols, the singer spontaneously found himself writing several original songs instead, some only imagined and finished as recently as mid-November. What he ended up with is an eclectic mix of songs, ranging from medieval choir to modern R&B in style.
"Every year I get more and more sick of hearing the same old Christmas songs on repeat," says Payne. "However, when I first started doing some Christmas themes shows a couple of years ago, it occurred to me that I could actually begin to take some control of this problem by producing the music that I – and hopefully my listeners – would actually want to listen to, instead!
"I’m incredibly proud of this album, and actually think that these songs are amongst the best I’ve ever written. Considering it only began as a bit of fun, it’s turned out surprisingly well, and I’ve every hope that the record has what it takes to cheer up even the grumpiest of humbugs."
The writing, recording, and arrangement took place at Payne’s home studio in Northampton between November 2021 - November 2022 and was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Max Read. Produced by That Joe Payne & Max Read. Guests include Joshua Ryan and Esmeralda Edwards.
That Joe Payne: Ding Dong
1. Ding Dong (Merry Me, I’m High)
2. Christmas Cheer
3. Greatest Gift of All
4. Present 4 U
5. Dry January
6. The Ghost of Christmas Past
7. Gloria
8. O Holy Night
