  Several cosmological tensions have emerged in light of recent data, most
notably in the inferences of the parameters $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$. We explore
the possibility of alleviating both these tensions {\it simultaneously} by
means of the Albrecht-Skordis ``quintessence'' potential. The field can reduce
the size of the sound horizon $r_s^*$ while concurrently suppressing the power
in matter density fluctuations before it comes to dominate the energy density
budget today. Interestingly, this rich set of dynamics is governed entirely by
one free parameter that is of $\mathcal{O}(10)$ in Planck units. We find that
the inferred value of $H_0$ can be increased, while that of $\sigma_8$ can be
decreased, both by $\approx 1\sigma$ compared to the $\Lambda$CDM case.
However, ultimately the model is disfavored by Planck and BAO data alone,
compared to the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, with a $\Delta \chi^2 \approx +6$.
When including large scale structure and supernova data $\Delta \chi^2 \approx
+1$. We note that historically much attention has been focused on preserving
the three angular scales $\theta_D$, $\theta_{EQ}$, and $\theta_s^*$ to their
$\Lambda$CDM values. Our work presents an example of how, while doing so indeed
maintains a relatively good fit to the CMB data for an increased number of
ultra-relativistic species, it is a-priori insufficient in maintaining such a
fit in more general model spaces.
