Tennis

Tennis

“Take Me Somewhere”

Tennis may be Denver’s answer to Beach House, though they’re a real husband and wife duo, and don’t just sound like one. Patrick Riley plays perfectly charming electric guitar lines while his better half, singer Alaina Moore – like Victoria Legrand – uses her voice as an incredibly evocative instrument, which could become one of her gen’s most recognizable. On title track, “Cape Dory,” Moore sings, “I know a place and hidden by the sea/ We can drift all day in the gentle breeze.” Of course, the story of Cape Dory can’t be told without the telling of the couple’s boating adventure, and eight months at sea doesn’t always lead to great works of art. But Cape Dory, for all it’s ’60s bubblegum pop-biting chord progressions and basslines, is a seaworthy little schooner. Leaning heavily on the production values of the endless stream of amateurish dream pop, Tennis seem to be saying something a little more complex and interesting, which is what Oxford, Mississippi’s Fat Possum label must have seen in the band. The album’s slow-motion subtlety also puts them in the vein of Beach House circa Beach House or Devotion, which means they could produce a masterwork like Teen Dream in a few more years.