While they're certainly adept at emulating plenty of others', the Deadly Syndrome could use a sound of their own. The opening trifecta on The Ortolan strives for meaningful indiedom, with a cut that sounds like Tapes'n Tapes covering the Velvets' classic "Stephanie Says," one that's a dead ringer for an Arcade Fire joint, and one that sounds like the singer of Tourmaline yelping Modest Mouse's "Bukowski."

That last one's really good. "I Hope I Become A Ghost" flaunts its whomping piano/drum/squeaky guitar line for two minutes until it runs out of variation, then becomes "Now I've Become A Ghost" and double-times it. The chorus is presumably singer Chris Richard's rendition of what he might sound like as a ghost, haunting someone with ghoulish "whooooooooos." All great ideas, and for once all in the same song. Ideas are what this band comes up with more than they do songs, a predicament that might not be so daunting for Win Butler or Isaac Brock, but in the case of the Deadly Syndrome there simply aren't enough ideas to skate by on. There are a few great Deadly Syndrome ideas though, such as mimicking Win Butler's wounded yowl at the start of "Winter in You." Those moments are unfortunately offset by plenty of not-so-great ones, such as turning into Snow Patrol when the Arcade Fire ambulance runs out of gas ("Your heart beats cold," blah).

Therein lies the problem: the Deadly Syndrome remind us of their limited palette all too often. Take for instance the aforementioned highlight track "Ghost," which has the band on their grind but then melts into the sodden Donovan folk of "Wolves In The Garden." Then again, even that track can't be fully dismissed, what with the cute little xylophone bridge that could amount to a hook if they had faith in running with it rather than pulling up stakes and chanting the title to fadeout.

When Jeff Weiss describes the band as "almost punk" and they classify themselves "folk," the reviewer realizes the group is just another halfway decent, accidentally eclectic batch of up-and-comers in search of the right two words to snag them a profile Rolling Stone. "Compare us to the Arcade Fire, we beg you!," they might cry, or "No, Tapes 'n Tapes is more contemporary!" But in trying so hard to diversify a hit machine, the Deadly Syndrome come off sounding like a combination of anything and everything. A pretty song here ("Eucalyptus"), a catchy one there (the synth-giddy "Emily Pants"), and one really good one do not an album make. The best thing I can say is that they're hands down better than Cold War Kids, but we should all hope that a piano-friendly indie quartet would aspire to something a little more substantial.