Hey Marseilles: The Promise Of Faraway Places

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As sweet strings and handclaps propel "Rio" along, Hey Marseilles offers up an endearing ode to adventure.

courtesy of the artist

As sweet strings and handclaps propel "Rio" along, Hey Marseilles offers up an endearing ode to adventure.

courtesy of the artist

It's taken a long time for Hey Marseilles' music to reach beyond the band's hometown of Seattle: To Travels and Trunks, its charming full-length debut, was self-released locally back in 2008, and it's been winning fans in farther-away places ever since. Reissued earlier this summer, the disc provides an opportunity for fans outside the Pacific Northwest — or those not glued to KEXP's superb online programming — to fall for songs like "Rio," a worldly chamber-pop gem marked by a full-to-bursting, jauntily percussive sound in which seven people politely clamor to be heard.

As sweet strings, handclaps and a well-placed mandolin propel "Rio" along, singer Matthew Bishop dispenses an endearing ode to world travel, adventure and the promise of faraway places. "Think of the shorelines you have yet to see / Men who will hold you with eyes you believe," he sings. He advocates on behalf of taking a few risks along the way — "Drink 'til tomorrow becomes yesterday," he pleads at one point — but all of his advice adds up to a warm reminder that joy is never easier to find than when you head out looking for it.