Hey Marseilles - To Travels & Trunks

Following the lush opening of 'Marseilles', a piano and accordion-led instrumental which recalls Yann Tiersen, To Travels & Trunks, Hey Marseilles' debut, settles into a over-sentimental, frequently overwrought brand of folk-pop pitched somewhere between Mumford & Sons and The Script. Often, as on the sickly homilies of 'Cannonball' and the chest-beating of the title track, this makes To Travels & Trunks a truly wretched thing to behold. Elsewhere, on 'Rio' and 'Someone to Love', Hey Marseilles manage some passable, inoffensive folk-pop, perfectly suited to feature on the soundtrack of a Richard Curtis slush-fest but fit for nothing more auspicious.

Further caution is advised, however, because Hey Marseilles also like to whip out the 'quirky' card every now and then. Witness the truly reprehensible, tongue-in-bumcheek waltz which opens 'Gasworks'. Actually, don't. Soundblab witnesses this stuff for you, so you don't have to bother. Overall, To Travels & Trunks is both bland and irritating, which means it belongs in the box of unspeakable pop culture things, along with Phil Collins, James Blunt and Vernon Kay.