Review: Tennis - Cape Dory

Artist: Tennis
Title: Cape Dory
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Fat Possum
Genre: Surf pop / dream pop (despite the album cover, suggesting some cheesy 80's electronic radio friendly album, one would normally try to avoid.)
Rating: 88 / 100

Yes, I am definitely aware of the fact that this is already the third album I review on here of a band that is part of this new wave of American lo-fi, female-fronted (surf) pop bands. First we had the new Dum Dum Girls EP, followed by the third Vivian Girls album and now we have this debut album by husband/wife band Tennis. Even 'though they're pretty new to this genre, they already accomplished two things: 1) getting signed to Fat Possum Records (Dinosaur Jr., Wavves, Smith Westerns) and 2) alomost becoming my favourite in this genre in a very short amount of time.

Searching a bit on the widespread interwebz, you'll notice the two members (Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore) who together formed Tennis have a pretty strange history. They met in college, sold most of their possessions and decided to travel the seas together for almost a year on a sailboat. Their temporary life on the ocean is now translated into this record: Cape Dory (which is a brand of yachts, apparently). The sound is exactly what you would expect from a record probably mostly inspired by the seas, sailing and the American coasts; sunny, lo-fi, simple, but very effective. Yes, like Best Coast, you're totally right, but atmospherically speaking they are so different. Best Coast fans will adore this record, that's for sure, but Tennis is definitely different enough to be able to stand out, and not be called superfluous. One of the reasons being their dreamy, relaxt atmosphere. It's like sailing indeed, it's even more like laying down on a boat's deck, with the only thing to worry about it whether the next bottle of wine will be red or white.

Tennis is a very delicate addition to the modern American pop scene, with Cape Dory only being their first effort, they are an extremely promising band from which I would love to hear more in the future. They seem to be the umpteenth in a line of excellent signings of Fat Possum Records, which hopefully will not come to an end in the near future.

"You never have to go to work"

Selwin.