This debut release from the Peterborough duo The Candle Thieves could either infectiously get your toes tapping - or painfully make your toes curl. One person’s heart-warming, is another’s stomach-churning. Cutesy song titles on this four track EP include ‘My Love Will Clap Its Hands For You’ and ‘Lonely Lonely Lonely.’ The opening lines of lead song ‘The Sunshine Song’ are “I would buy you a rainbow / I would put it in a stream / If I sail it down the river / would you send it back to me?” Death metal it ain’t.

What it is instead is unashamed twinkly indie-drip music - but I mean that as a compliment. ‘The Sunshine Song’ opens with drum machine patter, toy piano and the thin, characterless vocals of Scott McEwan. Yes he is declaring his love but he does sound like he is mumbling an apology for an overdue library book. However one minute and ten seconds in, with a trumpet flourish, the sunshine comes out and this demure opening turns into a day-glo, mini-symphony of loveliness, complete with booming voice and chirpy handclaps. The sheer sunny charm and heart-on-cardigan-sleeve declarations of affection win me over and leave a daft smile on my face.

Imagine Mark Everett of Eels in a cheerful frame of mind, relocated to the cosy suburbia of the Cambridgeshire Fens, and dreaming of better times - that’s what ‘My Love Will Clap Its Hands For You’ sounds like. A sombre misfit ode to not leaving the house for a day (‘The State That I’m In’) and pained godless piano ballad (‘Lonely Lonely Lonely’) complete the EP.

This four tracker is more radio-friendly than it sounds but struggles to escape the lightweight daintiness of its arrangements and its delivery. It will be too much flower-picking tweeness for some to stomach but where they are appreciated, The Candle Thieves are sure to steal hearts.