Featured on Apple Music's 'Carols Covered' series, James Blake has put his own unique spin on the English Christmas carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter' - originally written as a poem by Christina Rossetti.

Blake overlaps his vocals to give the trademark choir effect the original version possesses, but he also adds a smooth synth line beneath it all.

As the song continues, the electronic backbone grows increasingly more prominent, emanating a powerful church organ performing a hymn.

Interviewed by Zane Lowe, Blake weighed up the pros and cons of covering a classic pop Christmas track for Apple Music before deciding on the English Christmas carol.

"We need a Christmas pop tune. This isn’t that. Is it an English poet who wrote the original version of 'In The Bleak Midwinter'? Whether it is or not, it reminds me a lot of England," the artist says, noting his own awareness of choral music.

“I have a huge fondness for 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 like that.”

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

Blake recently announced a Covers EP is on the way, featuring his impressive takes on Frank Ocean’s 'Godspeed' as well as Roberta Flack’s 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face'. With his surprise Before EP and brand new Christmas carol, the artist is clearly in the generous mood this December following the success of his critically-acclaimed album, Assume Form.

Check out his rendition of 'In The Bleak Midwinter' below: