Opener “It All Feels the Same” from Tennis’s new effort, Young and Old, accurately pinpoints the potential dilemma for any band facing the dread of the sophomore slump. The question of how to maintain a sound while developing as band without sounding redundant or losing your way is not easily answered.
By the end of the first track, Tennis has solved this problem resoundingly. “It All Feels the Same” begins with the husband and wife duo’s recognizable reverb-twinged, twinkling guitar picking, along with a sparse tambourine and rhythm guitar. One measure after Alaina Moore’s echoing vocals are introduced, the synth rolls in softly and the drums kick in. The band builds on this sound, and half way through the song, they sound as big as they ever did on their debut, Cape Dory. Then, the guitar gets crunchier and faster, the synth and vocals louder, the drums more pronounced and crash-filled, and the band is more developed and forceful than ever before. The track sets the tone for an album that proves that Tennis has cleared the sophomore slump by a wide margin.
Track two, “Origins,” the album’s first single, drops in fully formed. Moore’s punchy, staccato vocals in the chorus float on a flowing, saxy synth line that buoys them wonderfully. In the following musical interlude, the guitar goes crunchy, then whiny, then shimmers away to lay bare Moore’s vocals. The band diverges again with the percussion-driven and slower “My Better Self” before picking it up with a more familiar number, “Traveling.”
Rotating between these various formats fluidly and more skillfully navigating their arsenal of sounds than on Cape Dory, Moore and Patrick Riley seem right at home with their new takes on songcraft. The band maintains their sweet melodies and that tone that has us all envisioning sun-soaked photographs of a sailing couple clad in white shorts and navy striped polos with their collars popped, but offers enough new depth to convince us of their maturity.
Tennis doesn’t have to be the most challenging or original of their age; being one of the most listenable and pleasurably infectious bands making music today is enough to garner them constant rotation on the Pop Press playlist.
