REVIEW: Tennis – Cape Dory

I’ll admit I knew little of Tennis before this album’s release loomed, of course I had heard of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore’s husband and wife duo story, meeting in college and having an east-coast sailboat adventure, complete with songwriting sessions, but not much else. Yet, as soon as I laid eyes on that alluring, 80s-reminiscent album art, a carbon copy of Lisa Hartman’s Hold On, I was drawn in.

Drawn in to what is no less than the most charming face of beach pop in this current wave of sun-obsessed artists. Cape Dory has a vibe so nice, so relaxing, that all your negativity will certainly be bowled out of you. The soothing “Take Me Somewhere” opens the album, with Moore’s loving vocals sounding like an innocent version of Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino. As she sings the song’s titular demand you quickly realise you’d be a fool to reject it.

I love, no, adore the current crop of female vocalists in this beach pop haze that has been riding high for a while. I mean, seriously, from Dum Dum Girls to Las Robertas, girls are definitely on top. And Tennis, with Cape Dory, strike the right chord between the more recent beach, and Beach Boys, loving lo-fi and dreamy, soulful girl-group pop.

The album has a level of sheen that differentiates itself from more scuzzy, distortion-riddled acts, but what marks Tennis out as special is that this production doesn’t seem contrived or put-on, it sounds completely natural. It holds this real, transcendent beauty, present in the songwriting, that just seems to materialize across all 10 album tracks.

Cape Dory literally breezes by, flowing past. Tracks like “Long Boat Pass” and “Bimini Bay” are so evocative of the sea and long summer days that you’d be forgiven for thinking you were with Riley and Moore aboard their sailboat as they gave you a personal performance. Their songs are mostly short, snappy and best of all, catchy.

“Marathon” utilises handclaps that prove so narcotic you’ll be in a loving daze long before the drum beat even dare to kick in. “Baltimore” should definitely be used by that city’s tourist board and “Seafarer” makes me compelled to go to beach and have an amazingly good time, with every single one of my friends. I don’t think I’ve genuinely felt this good listening to an album for quite a while.

I listened to Cape Dory at least 3 times consecutively because it’s just darn hard to stop with music so absorbing. So absorbing that I often lost track of what song I am actually listening to. Not to discredit Tennis in anyway, as the flowing nature of Cape Dory is one of it’s greatest qualities, but I couldn’t help but feel that the album only works as a collective.

But then again, that’s not so bad. As much as I love Male Bonding, Wavves, Fair Ohs and the like, Tennis’ Cape Dory is the only album you’d ever need for a beach party. Why? Because it’s the kind of beach pop that will appeal to everyone. An incorporation of girl-group pop and lo-fi in music may not be all that uncommon recently, but Tennis pull it off with such grace and aplomb, they have firmly granted themselves a place amongst the beach-pop greats.

Tennis – Marathon