After announcing the release of their fourth album, Yours Conditionally and sharing the harmony-laden "In the Morning I’ll Be Better", Denver indie-pop duo Tennis have released a red-hued, retro-inspired music video for the similarly heavenly "Modern Woman".
In the Luca Venter and Kelia Anne-directed video, Alaina Moore scrutinizes her reflection at a dinner table, in front of her dressing table, while lounging on a bed, and while ironing a red dress. Anna Gaca has described the song as a "mannered, sarcastic meditation on womanhood, delivered with a dose of melancholy sincerity". This description is apt enough, although there is a certain amount of mystery in the song's lyrics:
'Kate, I'm so afraid you'll hate meI think I might have made it trueThere's no need to implicate meYou would never want the proof
All I want is comfort in a touch or a lookAll I want is to get back the closeness you tookI know, that's the way you appreciate meEven though we haven't spoken lately, oh
I think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so realI think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so real
Kate, I know a modern womanBy the look and by the feelWe both got imposing figuresGetting good at striking right deals
All I want is comfort in a touch or a lookAll I want is to forget the way you mistookNo, I'm not asking for forgivenessI'm just getting tired of living with this
I think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so realI think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so realI think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so realI think I might have made it realI think I might have made it so real'
Lyrics: MetroLyrics
The increasingly layered track builds into a cathartic climax, but the context between Moore's lyrical persona and 'Kate' is never clearly defined. Is she singing to herself? Is there a crisis of feminine solidarity with another woman? A love triangle with an off-stage husband or lover? What exactly has been made 'so real'? This uncertainty makes you hang on to every emotional inflection in Moore's vocal delivery, hoping for certainty as the song swirls in ambivalence.
