punk this week: the tubs, soul glo, bed maker, twisted teens + 13 more

Hey, it’s Punk This Week—see/saw’s punk and rock'n'roll new releases roundup and recommendations column. We’re leading off with an outstanding new album from the Tubs, stellar album announcement singles from Soul Glo and Twisted Teens, plus new records by Bed Maker, sprgrs, Day Residue, and more punk bands from around the globe.

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The Tubs: Hard Life [Merge]

Some bands jangle their way into the punk column—Hedge Burners, Deadbeat Beat, and Mesh immediately come to mind. The Tubs, who have ballooned in significance to the point where they’ve shirked the necessity of the “(mem. Joanna Gruesome, Ex Vöid)” signifier (though sneakily I have done it anyway because I love those bands), return with a towering achievement in jangle pop with Hard Life. The London band’s first album on Merge is end-to-end beatific. It’s the kind of record that’s densely packed with outstanding hooks and lyrics. 

Ebullient keys and ringing guitars create this kind of heartland rock that’s enmeshed itself with Talk Talk, the Blue Nile, and Peter Gabriel pop aesthetics. These are gorgeously crafted, fiddle-bolstered songs about that unreachable “correct” feeling. So many records about anxiety or fucking up simply ratchet the tension as hard as possible, but Hard Life flies through the air with the greatest of ease. It’s an exceptional album for the romantics, and the title track’s music video is a masterpiece.