Yard Act spent the longest time yet in the studio creating an album. Did they use it wisely? Out 17th of July on Island Records.

The Leeds band are now well established. Overload was a great debut album, the acerbic wit and sense of musical fun won over people from Harry Hill to Elton John. The follow up album, Where’s My Utopia, expanded the horizons of the project, pushing the initial sound further, moving closer to full singing at times, sharper blasts of spoken word poetry and adding in various layers of sound such as as sampling. Whilst they are primarily a post-punk indie-rock band they borrow liberally from the techniques of rap and hip-hop.

The first album was mostly written between James Smith (vocals, lyrics) and Ryan Needham (bass) before later adding Sam Shipstone (guitar) and Jay Russell (drums). The second was written and produced in fragments around their extensive live touring. This album is the first time they have properly recorded in a studio together as a full four-piece. It was recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles, produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St Vincent). They spent nearly five months on it and crafted forty odd songs that they narrowed down to the eleven presented here. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band.”

You’re Gonna Need A Little Music (YGNALM) is an intriguing collection. Yard Act fans will find plenty to love on here, however it doesn’t match the lyrical bite of The Overload. Every other track on that was explosive, humorous, eye catching. Dead Horse, for example, was full of anti-racist zingers:

“The last bastion of hope
This once great nation has left is its humour
So be it, through continued mockery
This crackpot country half full of c***s

Will finally have the last laugh
When dragged underwater
By the weight of the tumour
It formed when it fell for the fear mongering
Of the national front’s new hairdo”

Where’s My Utopia felt like a significant musical evolution for the band, combined with the confessional honesty (or tall tales) of much of the content. YGNALM ultimately feels like a continuation of the musical style and small experiments, rather than the same quantum leap in growth. Opener ‘Empty Pledges’ is like a rumbling express train, intense, without ever quite landing on a pay-off. ‘New Beginnings’ is much better, a fine addition to their live set that has that Yard Act strength of somehow being both rocky and funky all at once. Smith is as close here as he ever gets to proper singing.

‘Tall Tales’ has some of the better lyrics on the album as it dissects Trump and others playing fast and loose with the truth. “Moral bankruptcy reigns supreme in the American dream, the fatted calf suckling at the teat of some f****d up Ponzi scheme.”

‘Fiction’ plays around the edges of trying out a Talking Heads or LCD Soundsystem type track without ever really committing to it. The title track is a grower, it took a few listens to fully appreciate it. Again, that funk vibe is strong with a nagging piano line, it wouldn’t take much to tip it over into a proper disco track or an eighties synth-pop banger.

‘Cherophobe Rock’ and ‘Thrill of The Chase’ feel like a real wake up call. A turn into proper indie-rock. ‘Cherophobe Rock’ thrums along like Jamie T at his finest. About two thirds of the way through, ‘Thrill Of The Chase’ could almost be mistaken for a Prodigy track. Smith spits out lyrics at a furious pace here. ‘Janey Said’ is a total vibe-shift, the slowest track of the album following the most intense.

‘Redeemer,’ like ‘New Beginnings’ is absolutely designed to be a tent pole of their live set. On the record Smith sounds like his voice is about to give way having given it everything.

YGNALM is an album of small gains rather than reinvention. They are getting better at playing their instruments, making small experiments in style along the way. Overall, it is a slightly funkier, more danceable album than their previous efforts, though not without moments of rocking out. They deservedly have a strong live reputation and a number of these tracks will add depth to their already blistering set.

Essential Tracks: ‘New Beginnings,’ ‘Tall Tales,’ ‘You’re Gonna Need A Little Music,’ ‘Cherophobe Rock,’ ‘Thrill Of The Chase’ and ‘Redeemer.’

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