This Long Island quartet began life under the moniker/cease-and-desist magnet Bunsen Honeydew. After two 7" singles, the loss of their original drummer, and a call from the lawyers, they reconvened under the less-imaginative-- albeit less litigious-- Four Volts. As befits a band who found inspiration in a Muppet, Four Volts sound extremely spirited, sometimes goofy, and occasionally hilarious. On their full-length debut, Triple Your Work Force, they play pop songs in the punk manner: loud, brash, and often sloppy, closer to the wildness of Animal than the scientist's bumbling nerdiness. That doesn't make them unique, but their relentless energy and sense of fun serve them much better than an undue emphasis on innovation.
Triple Your Work Force displays the band's penchant for rowdy verses and big choruses: "Didn't You Used to Be Invisible?" kicks the album off with a pogoing beat closer to Big Audio Dynamite than the Clash. "Rearranged" is their frenetic explosion of 70s New York punk. "Mary Said" is a rousing anthem for bored newlyweds. The insanely catchy "Heartworm (Ooh Ooh Song)" contrasts Danny Tieman's increasingly manic delivery with an urgent guitar, handclaps, and Lisa Cuomo's harmonizing ooh oohs. Four Volts play up this contrast between abrasive lead vocals and calmer, almost cooing backing vocals, which enlivens "Bedlam on the Beat" and adds hefty tension to "She Muddied the Water".
Songs like "Andy Likes His Gravy" and "I'm Not a Psyche-o-Path" (16 seconds of insistently chanting the title) prove that Four Volts aren't afraid of silliness in pursuit of searing lyrics and catchy choruses, but they pull a fast one and turn their gaze shoeward on late-in-the-album songs like "Hat Trick" and "Sunday Night". The songs aren't bad, just relatively dull, and they trade punchy and raw for Deep and Meaningful, ending the album on a self-serious note. Had those tracks been interspersed throughout the album, they perhaps wouldn't seem like genre exercises aping currently fashionable influences, a sour move for a band whose specialty is combustible spontaneity. On the other hand, this proclivity toward range-expanding experimentation helps Four Volts live up to their previous name.
