The Tubs' new album Hard Life doubles down on wry self-mockery

Welsh band the Tubs have released their third full-length album, Hard Life, following up on Cotton Crown, a record that regularly appeared on best-of-2025 lists and brought the band unexpected attention from prominent music press, including a profile in the New Yorker.

The group's sound is often compared to folk-rock legend Richard Thompson because of frontman Owen Williams's vocal style, but musically the Tubs lean closer to pre-Madchester indie rock, mixing distorted guitars with bright acoustic and 12-string parts and melodies reminiscent of Hüsker Dü, the Replacements and early R.E.M. The album is also generously decorated with violin, echoing the Go-Betweens' late-1980s records.

Despite the band's rising success, it doesn't appear to have lifted Williams's mood — across the album he repeatedly threatens to quit the band and voices discomfort about touring and fame in America. This blend of diaristic honesty and dark comic self-loathing has long been a hallmark of his songwriting, with lyrics that touch on his mental health struggles and his mother's suicide alongside a deliberate exaggeration of his own unlikability.

On Hard Life, this approach goes a step further: some songs appear genuinely heartfelt, while others are written from the perspective of a character whose sole purpose seems to be pointing out what an unpleasant person Williams is. The track Do Yourself a Favour reworks an unreleased 1982 Prince recording found on the deluxe edition of the album 1999.

The reviewer suggests some of the acclaim may stem from nostalgia among listeners who grew up hearing similar sounds on late-night radio in the 1990s, but concludes that Hard Life is a moving, funny and powerful record that proves the band is simply very good at what it does.