James Blake has been very into covers this year, so much so that he’s releasing a whole covers EP next week that includes his recent takes on Frank Ocean and Roberta Flack. Today, he’s shared his own rendition of the traditional English Christmas carol “In The Bleak Midwinter,” which he was asked to do by Apple Music, who are planning to put out a whole series of holiday covers over the next month. Check it out below.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Blake rambled on about what it meant to record a cover for a streaming service:

“As I was asked by Apple to do it, in the back of my mind was, well, to some extent, there’s going to be, if this is on the streaming services, then there’s some degree of fast turnover, and if it’s instantly grabbing some pop-produced thing, then that’s more likely to get more attention. That’s what people want. It’s just like, all those thoughts are bullshit. It’s just like do you love the song? But I can’t lie, the structure and the kind of format, streaming services, do make you think differently about how you’re going to present music, and not necessarily always for the better and not always for the most integral. So you’ve got to fight that urge to present the thing that would be easiest to stream. The format of the streaming services means it’s widely available. There’s pros and cons to it, but ultimately, if you can stick with the thing you love, then you have a great means of getting out.

I think it’s a great exercise to do this. I think it’d be interesting to hear what all the other artists who are doing this come out with … and even if that’s a pop smash, then that’s great because we need those. We need a Christmas pop tune. This isn’t that. But I love this song and there’s something… I don’t actually know. Is it an English poet who wrote the original?Whether it is or not, it reminds me a lot of England. I have a huge fondness for choral music, Anglican church spiritual vibes, even though I’m not particularly religious. There’s something very appealing to me about the feeling I get from classical choral music. And I loved it when Jeff Buckley did that cover “Corpus Christi.” In the back of my mind, there’s always been a thing where I’ve got to tackle something.

Look man, all the pop Christmas songs have been covered a million times. I’m not going to out-sing Mariah.

Included in the same series of Apple Music covers are ones from Arlo Parks, who took on Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” and beabadoobee, who covered “Winter Wonderland.” Here’s that: