Even on the first hearing you can tell that this is a band who have put the hours in. I’m not talking about the studio or production side of things, you throw enough money at something and you can make it sound cool, I’m talking about the actual writing of the song, that’s something that you can’t fake. It should be obvious to anyone who listens to Enough that the people who penned it know exactly how pop works. It’s a song full of drama and dynamic, it combines euphoric builds and crescendos with a controlled balladic tempo, it is pop with just enough rock bite, a rock song that understand melody and contagion, neither genre yet somehow both. It’s also a song that puts the current crop of chart fodder to shame and shows pretty much how lazy pop-song writers and rock anthemists have become.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, to find that Marc DiBerardino and Mike Drew have been at this game a long time and the first time out for the band, over twenty years ago, saw them touring, getting radio play, achieving chart positions and all the other things that bands do, and with no little success. But that was then and this is now, and on the strength of Enough, they don’t seem to have lost any of the sparkle.
Prezens revel in a polished sound, a radio friendly sound, a mainstream sound, but they also back up that accessibility with the fact that far from following the pack and taking the easy route to quick fix, sugar rush hits, they actually deliver songs built around integrity, depth and clever construction. And whilst Enough starts in ballad-like territory, it quickly adds layers, gathers musical textures around it and wanders out of the pure pop sound and into a stadium rock vibe. And it is this ability to be all things to all people, plus their ability to do the pop-rock sound better than most, that should find their music embraced by a wide audience.
The rocker will appreciate the song’s slow building power, the pop-picker its infectiousness and even the indie kids and clubland dance posse with get into its groove and addictiveness. And if you are a fan of The Goo Goo Dolls you are sure to love it. I’m not saying that Prezens are necessarily mining the same musical seam, but that is the first band which came to mind that were able to cover so much territory and break the pop-rock divide so easily. Still, as reference points go, I’m sure they will be okay with that.
