Hear Me Now: Ortolan
Having endured way too many family road trips in tight quarters, I always have trouble wrapping my head around sibling bands.
Whether fictional (The Brady Bunch, the Von Trapps) or otherwise (the Jackson 5), the smiling faces always seem like they’re a song away from a VH-1 Behind the Music special.
Which makes Ortolan all the stranger.
Comprised of four sisters (well three, plus one sister-in-law) all under 25, the South New Jersey band is a perfect family making perfectly imperfect music.
On their debut album, Time on a String, out today, Ortolan layers garbled lyrics over instantly-catchy ’60s style tunes. Every time a song verges on hokey, the band draws it back to edge with a twinkling keys and backing “oh ohs”; every time a track veers towards predictability, they’ll lose you with a knock-out chorus (“Sticky Situation”) or a thundering guitar riff (“Insist for More”).
Which helps explain part of the sibling band phenomenon: Musical talent is clearly genetic.