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Yachts and music. It's not all J-Lo and Duran Duran you know. The story behind the debut album by Tennis has been well documented since the first demos hit blogland in the summer. Each one of the previous tracks are included here, rerecorded, tarted up. If 'tarted up' can mean 'sound like a batch of long forgotten early 60s classics, discovered in the dusty corner of a defunct record label's vault' that is. Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore make seemingly effortless work of crafting the kind of timeless melodies that the likes of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson drove themselves insane trying to create.
There's little on 'Cape Dory' that hasn't been done before, it certainly borrows from the past and makes no effort to hide the fact. Guitars twang with the treble of a lo-fi Duane Eddy, slightly fuzzy, distorted vocals coo as romantically as The Shirelles trying to impress the boy of their dreams on prom night, no song outstays its welcome (the longest track clocks in at a mighty 3 minutes and 12 seconds) and the entire album is impossibly pretty without ever making you reach for the sick bag. The tropical tint (and the fact that's it's essentially a concept album(!) about sailing) sets it apart from the rest of the current crop of throwbacks. Imagine Beach House after a heavy night on the Lilt and you're halfway there. A delight from start to finish.
Stream: Marathon
Free download: Take Me Somewhere
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