Tennis to leave the court for good after upcoming album

It’s game over for Tennis after the duo’s forthcoming seventh studio album, Face Down In The Garden. The popular indie outfit and husband-wife pair (Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore) announced the album in February, along with a near-biblical litany of woes: “We blew tires and lost an engine. I developed a chronic illness. We took a doomed voyage that culminated in an attempted robbery at sea. Fragments of songs that first arrived like gifts from the universe later refused to be completed. Our days were awash in major and minor crises that dragged the album out endlessly.”

After turning inward, Moore was able to drum up the nine tracks of Face Down In The Garden. Still, considering this harrowing journey, the break doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. “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,” she continued in a new press release. “This will be our last studio album, at least in this configuration as Tennis. We are ready to pursue other creative projects and to make space in our lives for new things.”

Tennis also released a new single alongside the announcement called “12 Blown Tires” that details some of their cosmic bad luck. “On a cross-country drive at the end of tour, our van and trailer blew four tires in quick succession,” Moore wrote of the track. “That particular stretch of highway was a tire graveyard. I counted the shredded remains of twelve tires from where we sat on the side of the road, swapping out our last spare. Our bad luck was heavily contrasted by the good night we’d just had in Houston. The highs and lows of touring are unnatural, disorienting. On the shoulder of I-40, I began writing the lyrics to ’12 Blown Tires.’ It is a constellation of memories from the road, and of our marriage, two endeavors that are completely, hopelessly entangled.”

The band already announced a North America tour, which now “feels more poignant, like a concluding thought. These two kids from Denver who only ever dreamed of playing a few house shows are very fulfilled. Perhaps we’ll see you on the road. As always, thank you.”

Riley and Moore are leaving fans with one last gift before they go. The band also announced a new EP of previously unheard tracks from the beginning of their career to “bookend” their departure. The eight-song collection, titled Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009-2010 releases May 16. Face Down In The Garden arrives later this month, on April 15. 

You can find ticketing info here and check out the tracklists and cover art for both albums below:

Face Down In The Garden tracklist:

At The Apartment
Weight Of Desire
At The Wedding
Always The Same
Sister
Through The Mirror
I Can Only Describe You
12 Blown Tires
In Love (Release The Doves)

 

Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009-2010 tracklist 

South Carolina (Demo Version 11.5.09)
Marathon (Demo Version 01.14.10)
Baltimore (Demo Version 09.03.09)
Pigeon (Demo Version 08.26.09)
Key Largo (Demo 08.20.09)
April and It’s Still Snowing (Demo 09.01.09)
Cape Dory (Demo Version 11.03.09)
One Day This Will Be a Good Songgg (Demo 01.19.10)