Hope For All the World

The veteran Christian music trio Phillips, Craig & Dean emphasize the greater meaning of Jesus’ birth as they celebrate the holiday season on Hope for All the World. The album doesn’t stray too far from the group’s familiar fusion of country, pop, and rock, emphasizing expert vocal blends and brightly polished arrangements. PC&D show off the various elements of their sound, favoring buoyant pop/rock on “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The First Noel,” getting folksy on the medley “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings,” and mixing acoustic and synthesized textures on “Do You Hear What I Hear?” The most left-field entry is “Jingle Bells (Duck Mix),” a zany album finale complete with cartoon quacked vocals. The real meat of this collection, though, are the original tunes, with the exuberant “Born Is the King (It’s Christmas),” the galloping “Suddenly,” and the string-draped “God Bless Us” (notable for its lyrical nod to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) standing out. The trio fills both the traditional carols and the newly written material with joyful optimism grounded in faith and tempered with compassion for the saved and the sinner alike.