Almost exactly two years after emerging with their debut, Dead Meat, one of 2023’s best records, The Tubs are back with an equally enthralling follow-up in Cotton Crown (Trouble in Mind Records). Like its predecessor, the record hints at latter-day Hüsker Dü while also displaying a penchant for guitar jangle worthy of the Flying Nun label. As such, on songs like leadoff track “The Thing Is,” there’s a certain ferocity that belies its folksy strumming. That aggressive undercurrent seems apt, though, as singer and principle songwriter Owen Williams relates, “You said you’ve never met someone you hate like me… But the thing is, baby, I know I’ll get away with it.”

Throughout the album, Williams explores the duplicitous, neurotic nature of his romances. On “Freak Mode,” he sings in his oh so Richard Thompson–like voice, “Cuz I’m not myself. I’m somebody else, someone who loves you.” Meanwhile, on “Narcissist,” he goes searching for self-destruction, repeatedly pleading to the subject of the song, “You should do it to me.” With honeyed backing vocals from Lan McArdle, who was in Joanna Gruesome with three fourths of The Tubs and is Williams’ bandmate in Ex-Vöid, as well as a beautifully lilting guitar line, it’s hard to resist the song’s inherent sweetness, even after realizing its sentiments are being directed at someone who may be a sociopath. However, that’s the album’s greatest strength: never being what you might make it out to be at first glance. Indeed, it’s so, so much more.