Indie pop duo Tennis make their return with “Weight of Desire,” a track that simultaneously elevates and admonishes feelings of passion and longing, reflecting how we inevitably come to idealize desire itself.
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Stream: “Weight of Desire” – Tennis
Across Tennis’ discography, certain constants remain: Evocative lyricism paired with production that draws from a wide array of genres and eras.
The result is a uniquely diverse, expansive catalog of catchy and cathartic indie pop music that maintains certain through-lines from project to project, with a marriage of spacey textures and more folksy, acoustic elements at the heart of the band’s artistry.
With “Weight of Desire,” Tennis assure fans that they’re only building upon the elements that made their previous album, Pollen, as successful and well received as it was. Lead singer Alaina Moore’s vocals come together with spellbinding production from her creative counterpart, producer, recorder, and husband Patrick Riley, making for an intimate and emotional listening experience on the track.
Released February 7th via Mutually Detrimental, “Weight of Desire” is the lead single off Tennis’ forthcoming seventh studio album, Face Down in the Garden. Offering some insight into the record’s intimate, narrative-driven approach, Moore shares, “In Face Down in the Garden, I trace the arc of my life through a series of vignettes: A first moment of connection, a conversation at a wedding, a night offshore, a tour diary.”
“Weight of Desire” seems to embody the introspective and personal stories that we’ll catch a glimpse into with this project, the track falling under the ‘first moment of connection’ idea that Moore talks about.
All the choices that I’ve made
Are coming back around for me
Now I’m two steps from the water
And it’s so clear that I do this to myself
I feel the weight of desire
I feel the weight of desire lead me on
The opening lyrics, paired with the slow, almost gelatinous production, suggest a force pulling Moore in — one she seems to surrender to. Desire, in this context, feels more like something that lands her closer to choices and moments that are ultimately unsatisfactory. Think of lyrics like “All the choices I’ve made . . . / I’m two steps from the water / And it’s so clear that do this to myself” – there’s a melancholy, both in the lyrics and within the band’s production, that paints desire as this personified and unreliable leader, like the blind carrying someone into a situation based purely on emotion while disregarding all the other times desire has led them astray.
Tennis implicitly (and to some degree, explicitly) acknowledge desire’s somewhat consistent inability to lead to anything worthwhile. Regardless, Moore is still drawn to the subject of the song, despite knowing where desire led her before. It makes for a poetic contemplation on how longing and hopeful romanticism, while sweet in the moment, can very well lead to a thorny dead end. Once again, despite it all, Moore finds herself falling into the gravitational force that is desire.
Now I stare at things breathing
At all the things that are living
Cause I want to and I feel it
And it’s so clear that I do this to myself
I feel the weight of desire
I feel the weight of desire even now
Production gently speeds up and swells during the tail ends of the chorus, perhaps to mirror that denial of previous choices and outcomes in relation to desire. It feels good, intoxicating and addicting even, to fully embody desire at its sweetest and kindest form, rather than take into account all the times it has failed, and that sentiment is clear through the production.
“Weight of Desire” is a promising and hypnotic single off of Face Down in the Garden. If it’s any indication of where the duo is at with their sound, fans will be glad to know that they’re only taking what already makes their tracks so addictive and injecting them with more of that essence.
“Weight Of Desire” is out on all music streaming platforms and Tennis’ seventh studio album releases on April 25th via their own label, Mutually Detrimental.
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Stream: “Weight of Desire” – Tennis
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© Blossom Liu, Daniel Gray
© Blossom Liu, Daniel Gray
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