Tennis get down to the grooves on new album ‘Pollen’
Album opener ‘Forbidden Doors’ unfurls with unhurried energy. As synth lines keep getting added to the track, the rock-solid drum groove at its centre never wavers. That seems to be the thesis statement of Pollen: just let it happen. As ‘Glorieta’ pops to life with the strum of an acoustic guitar, Moore steps up with some of her most indelible melodies. Occasionally, Moore’s vocals have been lost among the torrent of sounds that make up Tennis’ songs. However, this time out, it’s not just treated like another instrument: it’s as up-front as it’s ever been.
Moore also gets some solid lyrical swipes throughout the album. Sometimes it’s clever, like when she substitutes “serving face” for “serving fate” in ‘Hotel Valet’. Other times, it’s straight-up hilarious, like when she claims, “I’ve never been wrong about anything or anyone” before falling down a sonic soundscape in ‘Never Been Wrong’. Moore’s lyrics have always been sharper and funnier than she gets credit for. The loopy stories and cutting remarks that she strings across Pollen amount to a major reason why listeners need to comb over the album’s songs more than once.
If there’s a critique to be had, it’s that Tennis never fully commit to getting dirty with their grooves. With Moore’s high, piercing vocal tones and Riley’s reliance on the upper octaves of his keyboards, there’s not a lot of bass to be found on Pollen. It’s usually synthetic and pulsating, like on ‘Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight’ and ‘Gibraltar’. When it does pop out, as it does on tracks like ‘Paper’ and ‘Pillow for a Cloud’, the lines are kept simple. It might seem like a quibble, but it keeps some of the best tracks on Pollen from truly ascending into the stratosphere.
Still, it’s only the small things that are worth complaining about. Everywhere else, Tennis not only gets lost in the swirl but seem to be having a ton of fun doing it. After chasing down cheap thrills on ‘One Night With the Valet’, the pair’s rumble returns to lush territory on ‘Pollen Song’ before reprising their original quest, in a more subdued fashion, on ‘Hotel Valet’. The little bits of continuity help make Pollen feel like a complete experience even when the album’s tracks go off on their own far-flung adventures.
I wasn’t quite emotionally moved by Pollen, but I sure as hell was physically moved. Maybe it was the third-on-fourth-on-fifth drink that kept appearing in my hand, but with each subsequent song, I felt myself finding moves that I didn’t even know I had in my repertoire. It all just adds to the intoxicating aura that Tennis cast whenever they put out a new album. Pollen isn’t really a dive into new territory as much as it is doubling down on what makes Tennis such a great band in the first place. With grooves like this, who could possibly resist getting down for a little while?
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.