Tennis System - Lovesick
This is furious noise
It is impossible to read music that taps into the shoegaze lineage without finding mention of My Bloody Valentine or The Jesus and Mary Chain. While the aforementioned bands are certainly the epicentre of the genre, bands like Los Angeles' Tennis System aren't all too interested in being just another page in the Kevin Shields songbook. Unlike the genre's progenitors, Tennis System only graze the often plodding, overly moribund nature of shoegaze, and instead find more inspiration from uptempo punk urgency. Lovesick, their third album, is a culmination of what the band call their "putting it all on the line" mentality, wrapped in fuzzed-out, loud guitars, breezy percussion work and that 'let's go' punk attitude.
Songs like "Alone" and "Esoteric" come cut from the same mold that crafted early emo band Cap N' Jazz; manic, loud, frenzied, while opener "Shelf Life" digs deep into the fuzzy, distorted heaven of Jawbox meets Burning Airlines. The song itself feverish sudden changes, one that mimics what vocalist/guitarist Matty Taylor told Flood Magazine about the song's "journey of realization, denial, and finally acting upon things". It's true then that songs on Lovesick owe more to J. Robbins than Kevin Shields, but it is not to say the album is not without its more shoegaze moments. It's the moodier soundscapes of "Cologne" and almost whispering "Fall" that paint from that brush.
The album's strongest outing is the terrific "Turn". It is a song that is a well constructed effort combining early emo and elements of shoegaze with the furious noise of guitar powered alternative/punk, packing together all the best qualities of the band in alluring freneticism.
As the title track closes proceedings, the listener is left with a sense of aural delight that came with albums like Loveless, or Trail of Dead's brilliant Source Tags & Codes. It doesn't mean to say Lovesick is a trailblazing record, but what it does mean is that the album's tightly wound energy and furiousness explodes in euphoric delight- even if it is temporary. In the song "Lovesick", Taylor sings, "please don't let me burn out"... and perhaps, with this much aural euphoria, it is inevitable. But as the saying goes, "it's better to burn out..."
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