THE TUBS - Hard Life

For The Tubs the time has come to reap the rewards of a career that so far seems to know no missteps. Frontman Owen Williams, after roaming far and wide with bands of solid potential such as Joanna Gruesome or Ex-Vöid, seems to have found the perfect fit between jangle-pop and power pop. His is a creative drive that doesn't pander to the predictability of so many indie-pop bands, nor does it settle for deceptive aesthetic conventions.
The Welsh band draws on a musical heritage that runs from Teenage Fanclub to R.E.M., from the Go-Betweens to the Smiths, but above all from Hüsker Dü to the Replacements, and it's telling that the Tubs marked their move from their old label, Trouble In Mind, to Merge with an intriguing cover of a Metallica song, "Fade To Black".
After the departure of guitarist George Nicholls (who nonetheless continues to contribute in the studio), the band settled into a quartet made up of Owen Williams (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Dan Lucas (guitar), Taylor Stewart (drums) and Max Warren (bass). There's no shortage of outside contributions — Lan McArdle (vocals), Rachel Kenedy (keyboards) and the aforementioned George Nicholls (guitar) — but it's the presence of folk-jazz violinist Chris Haigh that stands out as the defining touch of this new album.

Recorded at the London studios of Sam Ayers and Rachel Kenedy, "Hard Life" showcases all of the band's strengths. First and foremost is Owen Williams's voice, a concentrated blend of the potential of Paul Weller, Bob Mould and Richard Thompson, while the band hones a mix of harmonic instinct and instrumental euphoria that keeps the tension constantly high. The album is indeed marked by a relentless string of hooks and a cascade of chords that, however sparse in number, land with an overwhelming opening punch.
The jolt of energy in "Who's Gonna Love You Now?" is breathtaking, and the celtic-jangle-pop of "Stoop To Me" is pure Hüsker Dü, while also paying tribute to Fairport Convention. All this wit and grit adds up to a flawlessly executed record, finding its perfect synthesis now in the hundred and two seconds of "Hell", now in the more generous five minutes of "In Your Place", a flourish of arpeggiated guitars and folk melodies that ring out like an anthem, just like the title track that opens the album with a guitar scrape that could have come straight off the first Big Country album.

The lyrics offer another intriguing and original creative angle: Owen Williams converses with himself, creating an imaginary counterpart that the author uses as a critical conscience. Sexual obsessions and love triangles, professional doubts, emotional uncertainties, the never-overcome pain of his mother's suicide, and an irreverent political streak are the guiding threads of songs that are often self-referential yet biting.
As compact and solid as it is, "Hard Life" also offers brilliant detours like the celtic-funk-pop of "Do Yourself A Favour", a Prince song recorded by Jesse Johnson in 1986 and finally released in the author's own version on the deluxe reissue of "1999". The Tubs' version is scorching, rich with delightful jangle-pop guitar flourishes and elevated by a scratchy violin riff. Equally splendid is the gorgeous closing ballad "As Long As You Leave", with an excellent George Nicholls fully channelling Bert Jansch/Richard Thompson. There's no shortage of highlights on "Hard Life": "Now And Then" recalls the fluid energy of the Manic Street Preachers, while "In Your Place" is pure Smiths-style alchemy. At the same time, the softer "Didn't I Say?" provides the perfect interlude between the first and second halves of the record with its more folk-inflected movements. With equal intensity, "Heaven Or London" pays tribute in its title to the Cocteau Twins and borrows the language of shoegaze for yet another wild harmonic sequence destined to spill over into sprawling live versions.

The Welsh band's third difficult album not only confirms the calibre of Owen Williams and co., but also gives this turbulent yet musically stimulating year one of its most joyful, vibrant, romantic and passionate chapters: a burst of freshness that will sweep you away.

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01/09/2026