The Tubs Hard Life - limited yellow and blue swirl vinyl

The Tubs Hard Life on limited yellow and blue swirl vinyl LP.

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 and 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.

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.