The Tubs - Hard Life [LP]

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: MRG890LP
Barcode: 0673855089010
Release Date: 11 Sep 2026
Genre: Alternative

The Tubs have never lacked for ambition — on Hard Life, theirs is to complicate the Tub-ullar experience. Having perfected their chemistry across two prior albums, hundreds of shows, and an ever-expanding universe of bands affiliated with London’s Gob Nation Collective (The TSG, Sniffany & The Nits, Spike, and Garden Centre), the London-based Celtic jangle boyband — Williams (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Dan Lucas (guitar), Taylor Stewart (drums), and Max Warren (bass) — push themselves further into the shimmering heart of virtuosic indie rock. They’re joined by frequent collaborators Lan McArdle (vocals), George Nicholls (guitar), and Rachel Kenedy (keyboards), all of whom have orbited various Tubs-adjacent efforts dating back to Joanna Gruesome, but the secret to Hard Life’s lushness is the addition of fiddle player Chris Haigh, an instructor and session musician who left an indelible mark on British pop on Steps’ “5, 6, 7, 8.”

Mirroring Williams’ use of trilling on vocal melodies, Haigh’s fiddle shades the vocalist’s rueful croon like a bruise. On “Stoop to Me,” the folkiest, jangliest pop song on the album, Haigh’s licks complement Williams at his most self-deprecating, the lopsided smile of a guy trying not to let on how wounded he is in unrequited love. On album opener and title track “Hard Life,” it’s the sweetness of the ascending fiddle lines in the mix that weds the harshness of Williams’ lyrics to The Tubs’ fist-pumping anthemics.
The hard line Williams takes here and elsewhere on Hard Life further troubles one’s idea of a Tubs song. The persona familiar to listeners of Cotton Crown and Dead Meat — to quote Williams, “navel gazing about romantic abjection, London squalor, and the indignities of grief and OCD” — is still present, but so too is a second voice, steelier and more experienced. “The second persona doesn’t have much time for the first,” Williams explains, “often haranguing him for his self-indulgence and immaturity; sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly.”

On Hard Life, these voices argue, pester one another, merge into each other, and break apart, sometimes over the course of a single song. They’re two sides of the same coin, people who’ve experienced grief, disappointment, regret, and shame, emerging from the wreckage as changed men. “I’m interested in the way sympathy and patience for someone suffering always runs out eventually,” Williams says. “How this can be a good and liberating thing as well as a sad and brutal thing. But mostly they’re just pop songs.” Exquisite, irresistible pop songs. Spin them until the healing starts, then spin them again.

Tracklisting:
SIDE A
1. Hard Life
2. Who’s Gonna Love You Now?
3. If You Don’t Love Me
4. Stoop to Me
5. Heaven Or London
6. Didn’t I Say?
SIDE B
7. Do Yourself A Favor
8. Now And Then
9. The Way It Goes
10. Hell
11. In Your Place
12. As Long As You Leave

“The Tubs are an exceptional band, casually delivering brutal truths in the most glorious way. Those not already initiated could do themselves a favour.”
“The Cardiff-born, London-based, blessed-with-a-Scottish-drummer DIY indie rock phenomenon knock up a classic”
- MOJO, 5***** Album of the Month

“The end result is a record that is a ridiculously hook-heavy collection of songs - and one that unquestionably positions Williams as one of our most unique and arresting contemporary songwriters.”
“...his mixture of lyrical brutality and self-laceration, without coming across as needlessly indulgent or self-pitying, combined with music that feels so, well, joyous, is what gives such a spark to The Tubs and this record - as well as the sheer pace of the album, which absolutely breezes by with a near constant hit rate and is as lean and punchy as it gets.”
- Uncut, 9/10 Album of the Month

“Frontman Owen Williams gives himself a lovingly stern talking-to, floundering between commitment and endless fresh starts – set to hurtling powerpop, all ducking, diving guitars and twinkling festivity.”
- The Guardian

“If there is a throughline in Owen Williams' huge body of work, it is perhaps a fascination with contrast. Early on, that fascination manifested itself sonically. Joanna Gruesome songs would often contort dissonant sections of noise unwillingly around saccharine melodies. More recently with The Tubs, Williams has soundtracked dark songwriting with hook-laden power pop. On ‘Hard Life,’ the third full length album from his ‘Celtic jangle boyband,’ these juxtapositions are more prominent than ever."
- Still Listening - Interview