The Tubs Announce New Album Hard Life: Hear “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?”
The Tubs, your jangly, folky British post-punk favorites, announced their signing to Merge Records this past spring by successfully translating Metallica's classic heavy metal ballad " Fade To Black " into their own signature style. The news came barely a year after Cotton Crown , yet it portended a new album announcement sooner rather than later. Today it has come: Tubs LP3 Hard Life will be out on the never-forgettable date of 9/11. The post The Tubs Announce New Album <em>Hard Life</em>: Hear “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?” appeared first on Stereogum .
The Tubs, your jangly, folky British post-punk favorites, announced their signing to Merge Records this past spring by successfully translating Metallica's classic heavy metal ballad " Fade To Black " into their own signature style. The news came barely a year after Cotton Crown , yet it portended a new album announcement sooner rather than later. Today it has come: Tubs LP3 Hard Life will be out on the never-forgettable date of 9/11.
Lead single "Who's Gonna Love You Now?" presents the Tubs in their element: rhythm section brimming with nervous energy, guitars chiming and tangling, Owen Williams bellowing with Richard Thompson-esque gravitas. "So say you’re gonna move to London/ Well who’s gonna pay the rent?" he sings. "Say you’re gonna join the TSG/ Well, it’s your life/ Baby it’s your life/ But who’s gonna be there waiting when it falls down?" No one's making neurotic finger-snappers like this crew.
Per Williams, on Hard Life he pairs his familiar persona, "navel gazing about romantic abjection, London squalor, and the indignities of grief and OCD", with a second that "doesn't have much time for the first, often haranguing him for his self-indulgence and immaturity; sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly." It's this "scold" persona we hear on "Who's Gonna Love You Now?"
This is a sort of Northern Soul, Royal Headache influenced pop number with organs. The lyrics are from my scold persona - it’s a kind of anti-sexual freedom, pro-monogamy song. I sermonise that the other Owen will end up lonely and unhappy if he takes a grass is greener approach to life, moves to London and so on. I think the scold doesn’t live in London. Whereas I and the classic Tubs persona do.
TRACKLIST: 01 "Hard Life" 02 "Who’s Gonna Love You Now?" 03 "If You Don’t Love Me" 04 "Stoop To Me" 05 "Heaven Or London" 06 "Didn’t I Say?" 07 "Do Yourself A Favor" 08 "Now And Then" 09 "The Way It Goes" 10 "Hell" 11 "In Your Place" 12 "As Long as You Leave"
Hard Life is out 9/11 on Merge. Pre-order it here . As far as we know, the statue is not in the band.
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