"Kate Rusby's Christmas albums have become a sort of new seasonal tradition ... Her fourth, and best, foray into the form, Angels & Men is again partly drawn from the South Yorkshire carolling tradition, a sizeable collection of obscure songs more likely to be heard in saloon bar than church. Such, presumably, is the source of a song like "Paradise", whose mysterious, elliptical narrative, incorporating evocative trad-folk staples - dying knight, blood, thorns and flood - is heightened by the haunting twang of tenor guitar over synth textures. It's just one of a range of evocative arrangements devised by Rusby and producer Damien O'Kane which bring imaginative depth to the material - as when, for instance, guitars and glockenspiel glitter like icicles to help us "See Amid The Winter Snow". It's Rusby's voice that brings character to the songs, though, its fluting, plaintive Sheffield tones conveying a unique mix of strength and vulnerability which animates lyrics indiverse,sometimes contradictory, directions".