The story: Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy buys a boat and goes sailing around the American coast. Girl quits job and joins boy sailing. Boy and girl run out of money and are forced to return home. Girl gets depressed and relives her time on the boat by writing songs about their experience. The rest of us would have brought a photo album, tennis made a record.
It’s a nice story isn’t it? But nice story a good album does not make and ‘Cape Dory’ is not the success many hoped it would be. You see, Tennis were to 2010 what Best Coast were to 2009, a group that steadily released a series of impressive 7 inch lo-fi singles, toured the country picking up great reviews at every town, and ended the year promising a ‘cleaned up’ full length that would set the bar even higher. They were one of the cult hits of the year and the fanbase anticipating this album must be bigger than the group had ever anticipated. I was one such fan, in fact their single ‘Marathon’ was one of my favourite songs of last year. I loved ‘Marathon’ for it’s melody, the unusual storytelling and it’s concise pop charm. But that concise pop charm has been stretched to breaking point on this album, in fact ‘Cape Dory’ itself is basically an extended version of Marathon; therefore, a charming 2 minute pop song becomes a slightly tedious 30 minute album.
The repetitiveness is my first complaint, my second is the muddy production. The album has a slightly more polished sound than the singles but it has been recorded on a very cheap budget and it shows. This is mainly a problem because the group place such an emphasis on those dreamy lyrics, and when those lyrics are hard to decipher then you aren’t doing the songs justice. The guitar, bass and Keyboards also blend into each other in an unsatisfying way and the drum sound is a bit too harsh in comparison with the poppy melodies. I think the group would obviously have benefited from a seasoned producer and a bigger budget but perhaps those weren’t options they had, we don’t know. Whatever the case ‘Cape Dory’ is let down by poor production.
A good producer would also have attempted to squeeze more ideas out of the group. I’m more than willing to get on board (Excuse the pun) with the nostalgic storytelling but there really isn’t enough diversity here to hold my attention. As I mentioned earlier, ‘Marathon’ is the key track and it neatly summarizes the group’s concept of songs about sailing, but over the course of ten tracks this theme wears itself out. Musically as well they never move beyond a pleasant, mid-tempo swing that has signifiers of all the great 60’s sounds – Wall of sound reverb and ‘Be My Baby’ drum beat etc – without any of the memorable hooks.
To be fair I am probably moaning a bit too much. I’m a fan of nostalgic, sunny melodies and Tennis are clearly capable of writing them. Plus, the lyrics that I can work out are very well written and the band know how to tell a big story in a couple of minutes, which is much harder than it looks. The best songs are the singles and they sound better than ever. Opener ‘Take Me Somewhere’ is nearly as good as ‘Marathon’ whilst ‘South Carolina’ and ‘Baltimore’ remind me why I liked the band so much in the first place. Of the new tracks there is nothing bad here – there is nothing great either, but the songs themselves are solid if heard in isolation (listened to in a row it’s hard to distinguish one from another). If I did have to pick a highlight from the new ones then it would probably be the title track which most strongly evokes the sense of nostalgia that the group were aiming for.
‘Cape Dory’ is an enjoyable record with a few great singles, but the concept doesn’t stretch to an album, and people were expecting this to be a great album. Tennis are like that couple who go on an awesome holiday, and then never shut up about it when they get home. They show you their photos and they are all the same – the couple stood in front of some landmark or other, smiling blankly at the camera. Sure, the odd photo makes you envious and at least it takes your mind of the greyness outside your window, but in the end you just want to strangle them. And as I said at the beginning, Tennis made a record rather than a photo album. It gets a 7 because I like the band, I like the concept and I love the singles, I just wish it worked better as an album.
7/10
Pop goes the Weasel 