The Tubs – “Freak Mode”

Get psyched: The Tubs have a new album on the way. Cotton Crown, the brilliant UK indie-pop band’s follow-up to last year’s debut Dead Meat, won’t be dropping until March 2025, so don’t let yourself get too psyched yet or else you might explode. Also, given the subject matter, I now feel bashful about telling you to get psyched.

Owen “O” Williams wrote the new album in the period following the suicide of his mother, folk singer Charlotte Greig. (That’s a photo of Greig nursing Williams on the cover art.) Williams being Williams, his grief plays out in a series of strained social interactions, including on lead single “Freak Mode,” out today. He says it’s “about dating while grieving the death of my mother. It’s about making wacky tragicomic romantic assumptions and being an emotional freak, but also kind of being self aware about that and explaining it to whoever you’re shagging.”

“Freak Mode” keeps up the classic Tubs vibe of Williams bellowing like Richard Thompson or Eddie Vedder over jangly ’80s indie-pop that would fit right in between Smiths and R.E.M. tracks on your college radio show. Watch the Taylor Stewart-directed video below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The Thing Is”
02 “Freak Mode”
03 “Illusion”
04 “Narcissist”
05 “Chain Reaction”
06 “Embarrassing”
07 “One More Day”
08 “Fair Enough”
09 “Strange”

Cotton Crown is out 3/7 via Trouble In Mind. Pre-order it here.