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Exclusive First Listen: Choir Of Young Believers, 'This Is For The White In Your Eyes' Choir of Young Believers is led by 26-year-old Danish singer Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, who works with a rotating cast of supporting players. His band fluctuates anywhere from a duo to an octet. Listen to the Beach Boys- and Radiohead-inspired This Is for the White in Your Eyes in its entirety.
First Listen

First Listen

Hear upcoming albums in their entirety

Exclusive First Listen: Choir Of Young Believers

Hear 'This Is For The White In Your Eyes' In Its Entirety

Exclusive First Listen: Choir Of Young Believers

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Choir of Young Believers. Will Calcutt hide caption

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Will Calcutt

This has already been a tremendous year for pop music with orchestral ambitions: Regina Spektor, Patrick Watson and Fanfarlo all spring immediately to mind, and they're not the only ones. It's an impressive feat to make pop feel big and personal — to write music that sinks or swims based on the chops of the singer, while still managing a grand instrumental sweep.

Choir of Young Believers is led by 26-year-old Danish singer Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, who works with a rotating cast of supporting players: Sometimes, the band is a duo; at other times, it's an octet, or somewhere in between. Give a listen to This Is for the White in Your Eyes, and you'll hear the inspiration of Radiohead and The Beach Boys, as well as a few surprises along the way. The disc's opening track, "Hollow Talk," is one of my favorite ways to start an album that I've heard all year.