Indie group Tennis claims that a Pitchfork writer offered a “cliff-notes level” assessment of their new album.
Tennis (Credit: Darren Vargas)
Indie pop duo Tennis recently released their final album, Face Down In The Garden, on their own Mutually Detrimental record label.
What was supposed to be a celebratory farewell album and a lengthy tour across the US were hampered by a review on music publication Pitchfork, which the band, comprising husband and wife Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, responded to on social media.
Face Down In The Garden, the band’s most confident LP, was released on 25 April, and a review written by journalist and culture writer Shaad D’Souza was published on Pitchfork a week later.
“For the last seven albums, I’ve watched seven male pitchfork writers bend over backwards to offer the worst, most uncharitable interpretations of our music,” the band’s statement began. “They cherry-pick lyrics without context, interpolate meaning that isn’t there, or are overly reductive, making me out to be as banal as a greeting card writer.”
After mentioning the band’s review and conversation with writer Evan Rytlewski about their song Swimmer, Tennis then turned to Face Down In The Garden, and alleged that D’Souza “barely” engaged with the material presented on the album.
The band wrote, “Instead, he uses the assignment as an excuse to write a boring meditation on ‘vibe’ music, listing off other bands that are vibey without offering a single ounce of insight into the album he’s reviewing. His only complaint with ‘At The Wedding’ (one of the few songs he bothers to mention by name) is that the story is too anodyne to bother relating to a friend. Ouch! Therein lies the difference in our taste.”
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In their response, Tennis claims that D’Souza offered a “cliff-notes level” assessment of At The Wedding. “I don’t understand how the everydayness of a song’s subject matter disqualifies it from being good,” they wrote. “Just say you’re bored, D’Souza! This is about you, not me. All of his complaints feel like nit-picking. And if we’re doing that, he uses the word ‘soporific’ twice.”
Adding that critics are critiquing songs, and an artist like Moore has to “sing this shit and it has to slap,” the band stated that there’s more to music than language.
“Not everyone can or should be a Joni Mitchell or a Leonard Cohen,” the statement continued, “Some people, people like me, actually prefer the ‘slightly dull, unadorned specificity’ of a song that lets the melody shine.
“Our pitchfork ratings across our entire catalog haven’t varied within one or two tenths of a decimal which is absurd because our growth as writers and producers is so obvious, even to the most casual music listener.
“What are we being rated against if not ourselves? It’s simply not the case that we’ve stagnated for the past 15 years. Listen to Swimmer and tell me it’s not an improvement upon Ritual In Repeat (which is bizarrely our highest rated album, though we consider it to be our most uneven). Even their praise misses the point. ‘12 Blown Tires,’ the only song D’Souza likes, is not about a ‘head-over-heels crush’ as he claims.”
Moore added that the music writers mentioned in the band’s statement are “determined” to make her out as “stupid or shallow or imperious,” then mentioned the fact that the latest Pitchfork album review is a “two-minute read,” which “tells me that pitchfork isn’t above the attention economy, even as the entire write up is spent dismissing our music for its marketability.”
You can see the full statement below.
Face Down In The Garden contains the final recordings from Tennis. Upon announcing the album last month, the duo said, “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.
“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. In that light, the upcoming tour 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.”
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