Having worked hard on recent tours, and sold plenty of copies of previous albums and E.P’s, Effervescent seem to be slowly creeping up in the outside lane, unnoticed to most probably, fighting their way to the top of the under ground British punk-rock scene pile. Here, I find myself listening to their recent album, which to me is a well worthy of throwing them further in to the fire and mingling more with the big boys.
Listening to “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t,†it’s difficult to naturally pull out any weaknesses. Without nit picking and tearing the album to threads, which I’m obviously not going to sit here and waste my time doing, punk rock has a reputation of being straight up, and easy going, and Effervescent combine this, with a pinch of hardcore punk, so what you get is a fast, melodic, but not brutal sound. Plenty of vocal harmonies are always good in this style, offering variation between one basic voice, so immediately this one gets my vote, where others have failed. “Desperate is Our Name,†and “The Answer,†stand out a favourites of mine.
The one weakness I did find with this album is by the end on the first few times of listening, I was starting to get a little bored by the similar guitar tones, and pace of the music. Maybe a slow down track, or a few more time changes might attract more people who prefer other styles, and would encourage a wider audience. I guess one of the reasons people find it difficult to drift between genres is that other genres sound “too alike†to be cool. Punk rock carries many misconceptions that don’t do it must justice, about how the music is all similar, and how so many bands do it poorly and so many bands rip it off, sadly these are all what the music loving population believe and will do for a long time. Records like this have the potential to be hits with their direct fans, but often not with the masses, it would be interesting to see where Effervescent go with their sound and how rapidly their fan base grows.