Tennis unravel the weight of longing, love, and fatigue in “12 Blown Tires,” a churning, emotionally charged farewell – and the devastatingly beautiful, harmony-laced standout off their seventh and final album, ‘Face Down in the Garden.’

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Stream: “12 Blown Tires” – Tennis

There’s a quiet power in endings that land with grace.

They don’t always need to be grand or definitive, loud or dramatic; sometimes, the most moving farewells are the ones steeped in reflection, resonance, intention, and restraint. Tennis’ “12 Blown Tires” is one such goodbye: Bittersweet and beautiful, poignant yet provocative, it’s a song that embraces the weight of parting ways with soul-stirring strength, gentle grief, and emotional clarity.

Tender and heartfelt, lush and loving, brooding and bittersweet, “12 Blown Tires” aches unapologetically, inside and out. It’s a standout moment on Face Down in the Garden, the band’s seventh and final studio album – and it captures the spirit of departure with cinematic grace and emotional depth.

I had the privilege of seeing Tennis for the final time last night at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, and the experience left me equal parts heartbroken and grateful. Their live show has always been more than just a performance – it’s a portal, a kind of quiet catharsis. There’s something magical about how Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley (and their band) bring these songs to life onstage: The intimacy, the rawness, the unwavering chemistry between them. Hearing “12 Blown Tires” performed live, wrapped in harmonies and tension, made the reality of their goodbye hit all the harder. For so many of us, Tennis have been the soundtrack to moments big and small – and seeing them one last time felt like both a sendoff and a celebration of everything they’ve built.

I’ve been a fan of Tennis since 2013 – their song “Petition,” off Young & Old, still holds a near and dear place in my heart. 2014’s Ritual in Repeat was one of the first albums I ever reviewed (positively, I might add!) for Atwood Magazine, and 2017’s Yours Conditionally remains one of my favorite albums of all time: A masterpiece, a triumph, and a masterclass in musical and emotional storytelling, full of timeless gems that sound just as fresh and tender today as they did eight years ago.

Making excuses looking back
I’m getting good at ignoring the past
Seems like our luck was all we had
Hold me so long without having to ask
For me again, I go on counting

Press my desire to the margins
I’ve been face down in the garden
You’re quick but time moves faster
Love like a natural disaster
When I walk I’m barely touching the pavement
You smile and laugh while you’re waving
To me again, I go on counting

No flower withers
No flower withers in your hand,
in your hand

Up there with the very best Tennis songs, “12 Blown Tires” feels like the closing of a chapter that’s been written lovingly, carefully, and completely. Inspired by a surreal moment on tour – four blown tires, a high from a great show in Houston, and a roadside graveyard of shredded rubber – the song is, in Alaina Moore’s words, “a constellation of memories from the road, and of our marriage, two endeavors that are completely, hopelessly entangled.”

I know you are the golden son
And where you walk new lifе has begun
Waiting for fate to make it fast
Hold mе so long without having to ask
Twelve blown tires in under a mile
Twelve blown tires in under a mile
Looking for a stone in a dust pile
Counted twelve blown tires in under a mile

It’s a vignette of beauty and breakdown, of love and loss and time’s slow, unstoppable movement.

Alaina Moore and her husband and Tennis bandmate Patrick Riley distill the chaos, the connection, and the passage of years into four haunting minutes of music that manage to sound both expansive and deeply intimate.

“When we recorded ‘12 Blown Tires’ a few months later, I had the sense of distilling the past 15 years into four minutes of music,” Moore says. “It felt like the end of something, though I wasn’t sure what.”

Now we know what. With Face Down in the Garden, Tennis have chosen to close the book on their project – at least “in this configuration,” as they put it – and move toward new creative endeavors.

“Patrick and I spent most of our 20s and all of our 30s focused on Tennis. It has been the most joyous, bewildering, challenging, and humbling experience. After finishing Face Down In The Garden, it became clear that we had said everything we wanted to say and achieved everything we wanted to achieve with our band,” Moore reflects. “This will be our last studio album… We are ready to pursue other creative projects and to make space in our lives for new things.”

Swaying backstage at Terminal Five
Fleshed out kissed up I’m feeling alive
Looking for a storm in this weather
Couldn’t even rub two dimes together
When I walk I’m barely touching the pavement
We smile and laugh while we’re waving
Cycling down the drain to the basement
Hang on to the time that I wasted
For me again, I go on counting
I see our fates go on colliding

What made last night’s show feel so special wasn’t just the music, but the intentionality behind it.

Alaina Moore spoke candidly about resisting the urge to go on autopilot – how, instead of disappearing into the music, she was making a conscious effort to stay present: To look out into the crowd, make eye contact, and embrace the human connection that had always been at the core of Tennis’ art. That desire to be fully in the moment, to hold space for something real and shared, felt like a quiet mission statement – one final act of love, authenticity, and vulnerability from a band that never once phoned it in.

And so, Face Down in the Garden becomes a full-circle moment: The farewell after the voyage, the final thoughts before the curtain call. “12 Blown Tires” is Tennis’ love letter to the road, to the music, to one another, and to us. It’s a stunning and stirring reminder of everything Tennis gave us – and everything they made us feel.

Let it play loud. Let it linger.

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Stream: “12 Blown Tires” – Tennis

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 © Darren Vargas

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