The Tubs – Dead Meat

Catchy pop might dominate the mainstream, but too often has been derided in alt-circles for that very thing....
The Tubs : Dead Meat
7.6 Trouble In Mind
2023 
The Tubs : Dead Meat

Catchy pop might dominate the mainstream, but too often has been derided in alt-circles for that very thing. Yet time & again, indie artists from who-knows-where deliver some earworm songs that you won’t lose your cred listening to. This goes back to early R.E.M., New Zealand’s long alt-pop history, and now add to it Wales’s The Tubs with Dead Meat.

Composed of members from the likes of Joanna Gruesome and Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs instead go for the jangle-pop of Athens, GA and Flying Nun Records. They do tilt a little more wistful than straight-up shiny happiness, but particularly know how to add a push to it all in songs such as “I Don’t Know How It Works”, “Round the Bend”, and closer “Wretched Lie”. Singer Wen “O” Williams’ quite high vocals might not be for everyone, though.

You may roll your eyes at whatever’s at the top of the charts, whatever the tweens are listening to now (and whatever you listened to then, back when you were a tween), but pop is still popular, and there’s a reason. So, instead catch catchy alt-acts like The Tubs.

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