There’s a lot of misery in the music of The Tubs—on Hard Life’s opening title track alone, we hear lead singer Owen Williams sing about alcoholism, deaths in the family, living in a flat with no heat, and suicidal ideation. And not a song goes by where Williams isn’t introducing us to some sad bastard staring down their thirties with no money in the bank or hope in their hearts. Still, it’s no exaggeration to say that Hard Life is one of the most ebullient indie-pop records of 2026, as The Tubs’ radiant folk-rock jangle—redolent of the more melodic, acoustic-oriented songcraft that Bob Mould pursued after Hüsker Dü’s demise—makes even the most bitter sentiments sound positively life-affirming. (Williams’ self-deprecating sense of humor also goes a long way to easing the tension.) But even as his band vividly evokes the golden age of late-’80s/early-’90s college rock, Williams populates his songs with familiar contemporary characters who turn to various modern-world distractions—be it farm-simulator smartphone games or Substack subscriptions—to fill the hole in their soul. Our Favorite Lyric: “No more room in Heaven/Not for the singer of a rip-off band/Far too late to save/Wanking himself into an early grave” (“Heaven or London”)