
YARD ACT
Where’s My Utopia? (Island)
One of postpunk’s most exciting acts at the moment are Leeds four-piece Yard Act, whose debut album The Overload came out in 2022. Its follow-up, Where’s My Utopia? is very bloody good: instead of just writing The Overload 2.0, the band have genuinely pushed the boundaries of their sound, following last year’s standalone single The Trench Coat Museum.
Single We Make Hits is simultaneously autobiographical, satirical, cheeky, and damn catchy, while the seven-and-a-half-minute-long Blackpool Illuminations sees Yard Act frontman James Smith invoking Jarvis Cocker-esque storytelling wrapped up in one of the band’s most interesting musical adventures yet.
Down By The Stream finds the band embracing their apparently newfound hip-hop influences too, and the Katy J Pearson feature When The Laughter Stops is a more straightforward indie banger. Only two words are needed to describe this record, and they’re a quote from Yard Act’s own song Dream Job: “It’s ace!”
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS