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Cape Dory is a debut swathed in love-struck naiveté — the kind of swooning, summery idealism that could result from, say, romantic companions spending eight months traveling along the Atlantic coastline together. And that’s exactly what Tennis (a/k/a Denver-rooted married couple Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore) did. That backstory explains Cape Dory’s excess of water-related imagery (“Bimini Bay,” “Long Boat Pass,” and “Seafarer”) and lovey-dovey lyrics (“Take me out, baby, I want to go sail tonight/I can see the ocean floor in the pale moonlight”). Still, Tennis make it all work, keeping their affection genuine even as they come perilously close to being saccharine and grating. Moore’s harmonized ooh-wooh-oohs rise like blasts of warm air, and the sparkling hooks give her croons an abundance of good material to work with. Don’t expect anything in terms of experimentation — this makes stellar mixtape fodder for an indie-pop prom night also scored by Dum Dum Girls and the Morning Benders. The timing of the release is a shame, though — it’s a soundtrack for days slaked by lemonade, not hot chocolate.
