Pollen. Tennis

Tennis walks a small rope in my musical book but manages to come across the divide with ease. It could be so easy for me to dismiss the dance and electronic elements in the duo's music. Had I done so, I would have missed all the rock elements on Pollen and the fun in general on the album.

Tennis, it must be one of the hardest to google bands on earth with The Men, was on this blog once before I noticed, in the very early days in 2012. "With the sometimes The Doors like organ and the very clean sound of Riley's guitar I think they've created a spot for themselves in the universe", I wrote then. That organ is all gone, the guitar popping up only incidentally, the voice of Alaina Moore still knows how to draw the attention to it.

Pop is the word that comes up first. The mood goes back easily about 55 years in a song like 'Pollen Song'. The music only in part, as there's too much modern stuff going on at the same time. 'Pollen Song' has that Air like bass sound, from 1998, so, let's face it, including that 1960s soft porn music sound. The modern sounds surrounding the bass draw the song into the present.

Promo photo

The duo from Colorado releases its seventh album with Pollen. In other words I've missed four in the past eleven years. Such is the way of the music world. It's impossible to keep track of everything. My second Tennis album lands well and that is what counts.

Pollen is an electronic album. This is where it all starts. Electronic beats and pulses. Synths creating the layered melody(ies) with Moore singing over it all. As such Tennis is a real studio project that will have to make an effort to translate its music to the stage. (Unless it all comes out of a computer of course.) It must have found its way, as Tennis is embarking on its most extensive tour ever this year.

Should you be contemplating to listen to the album, expect pop, with a few different moods, caused by the fact that Alaina Moore either sings high or low. Sometimes reminding me a little of Stevie Nicks in the deeper segment. I prefer the somewhat faster songs in general.

In 'Never Been Wrong' the electric guitar comes out its case, with Patrick Riley showing his chops. The acoustic comes out for the final song, 'Pillow For A Cloud'. The songs take care of the album being more varied, so better. In general Pollen is an album to relax with.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Pollen here:

https://tennispollen.bandcamp.com/releases