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.