Tennis

The core of Tennis is the singer/keyboardist Alaina Moore and guitarist Patrick Riley. They emerged in 2011 with a lo-fi album containing songs with overt 50s style pop ballads (practically doo-wop) chronicling their sailboat trip along the Eastern Seaboard. Not only did their sound get more polished with each successive album, but their reference points also started shifting upwards a decade, more or less, until it appears to have caught up with contemporary pop recently. Their style swings back and forth between romantic ballads with a strong backbeat and dancey pop tunes that are light on the feet. They write melodic tunes without getting trapped in excessive sweetness. Their earlier, throwback period constitutes a particularly fascinating portion of their catalog.