Another album review?! What can we say, we’ve been feeling musical around the AMP office lately; sue us. Here are a couple of refreshing yet nostalgia-heavy albums that have rocked our shit recently, check ‘em out!
Tennis – Face Down in The Garden (2025)
There’s nothing more devastating than discovering a band immediately after they’ve moved on to greener pastures, artistically speaking. This was the case when I found the Denver-based indie-pop duo, Tennis, at the very beginning of this year. Their seventh and ultimate studio album, “Face Down in The Garden,” marked Tennis’ fifteen year anniversary, and holy hell what a way to go out. The husband-and-wife duo consisting of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley combines nostalgic, dreamy synth-pop with bittersweet vocals that only a woman with an impeccable perm could deliver. In short: I’m obsessed with this album. It’s soothing. It’s devastating. It represents love in sonic form. It’s everything to me right now.
While nearly every track feels like a standout in its own way, “Weight of Desire” stands out particularly to me as a soul-baring lament of one’s own choices. “All the choices that I made/ Are coming back around for me/ Now I’m two steps from the water/ And it’s so clear that I do this to myself,” Moore’s achingly soft voice delivers the words in a breathy croon, resonating deeply with me as someone who constantly struggles with the urge to self-sabotage.
Other standouts include the track “Sister,” an upbeat yet sentimental tune. I can only assume the lyrics refer to Moore’s own sister as she sings, “You have your dreams and I have mine/ And for a little while, they’ll be entwined,” alluding to the way loved ones will inevitably part and rejoin you throughout the course of their lives, and the connection that comes with shared aspirations.
Tracks like “Always the Same” and “At the Wedding” embody a melancholic sort of sensuality tied together by hypnotic, 70s style melodies reminiscent of The Carpenters. All in all, “Face Down in the Garden” is a poignant exploration of memory, unconditional love, and a perspective that can only come with the passage of time. It’s a wonderful send-off for Tennis, and I’m so happy that I discovered it when I did.
Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer (2025)
Ninajirachi’s most recent album opens by asking us, “Um… do you wanna listen to it?” The answer, 39 minutes later, is a resounding yes. It would be a lie to call the album genre-defying, or -bending, or anything that implies it is anything other than what it is — in-your-face EDM. The Australian DJ’s previous entry is called “girl EDM,” and that remains descriptive of “I Love My Computer” as well, a concept album laden with layered, hypnotic beats and strange samples that blend into the soundscape so effectively you’d have no idea they’re anything but a single color woven into Ninajirachi’s musical tapestry.
“I Love My Computer” is a well-executed, highly confessional concept album about the artist’s relationship with her computer and the music she makes with it. Most on-the-nose for this endeavor is the audacious “Fuck My Computer,” which declares repeatedly in autotuned monotone, “I wanna fuck my computer/ ‘cause no one in the world knows me better.” The low, largely repetitive vocals are simple and effective, especially when contrasted to a production I can best refer to as sparkly. “iPod Touch” is a 2000s-influenced jump to the past, when technology was just listening to an iPod Touch with your best friend.
This relationship to her computer is an enduring one. “Infohazard” is a haunting, echoing piece with elements from old-school Nightcore (the band. yes, it was originally a band) about encountering a snuff film as a child. “Sing Good” is the only song on the record in which we hear Ninajirachi’s unfiltered voice as she sings about electronic music being a way for a child who couldn’t sing or play instruments to make something beautiful.
In the present day, a lot of EDM seems a little conscious of itself. Beat drops are largely a thing of the past, and many artists seem to view electronic as something to be grafted onto other, more respectable genres rather than something to be celebrated outside of molly-popping ravebaes. Ninajirachi’s “I Love My Computer” rejects this notion entirely. It is bold and in your face that electronic music is a lot more than Skrillex air horns and nightcore anime playlists. It’s a portal to music that is truly for everyone, and Ninajirachi is inviting us to step through.
