Brothers and Sisters

Fronted by siblings Will and Lily Courtney, Brothers and Sisters are one of those bands that have an immediately familiar sound, making them very easy to like. Taking their inspiration from the likes of the Mamas and the Papas and the Flying Burrito Brothers, they’ve managed to bottle up the sunny Californian sound of the early ’70s and distil it into some wonderful, earnest country rock. Fortunately is a much more confident album than its predecessor, with the band showing off the authority that can come from having eight members. The songs are darker lyrically than an initial listen might suggest, with the classic themes of love and loss, but the breezy harmonies and upbeat AM radio melodies stop it from becoming too much of a drag. Like the Magic Numbers or even the Polyphonic Spree before them, Brothers and Sisters are adding enough of their own to stop this from being outright mimicry, turning Fortunately into a satisfying reinvention of a tried and tested formula.