Going The Distance
Leeds post-punk crew seize their moment on album two. By Daryl Easlea
Yard Act Where’s My Utopia? ★★★★
Zen City/island 5850836 (CD, LP)
With all the concern about follow-up albums after strong debuts, Yard Act needn’t worry. Their muchcherished Mercury-nominated 2022 debut The Overload felt jaundiced enough at times to sound like an embittered second album. The product of an old indie musical partnership – writers, lyricist James Smith and bassist Ryan Needham – who were on the verge of obsolescence. They refocused and brought their experience to bear with guitarist Sam Shipstone and drummer Jay Russell in a post-punky, sometimes funky stew, showcasing Smith’s unfathomable singspeak. Wrapping a deep-felt passion and love of life within a carapace of sneering, they effortlessly encapsulated the despair of post-lockdown Britain, with its embrace of superficiality and corruption in public office. After being garlanded through a series of small live showcases, the love for The Overload was strong and, within six months, they’d charted at No 2 in the UK and released a collaboration with Elton John.
Two years on, Yard Act could have remade The Overload many times over, but acutely aware of pop’s clock ticking, with little time to lose, it’s as if the group have leapt straight to their sixth album with Where’s My Utopia?. Signs were clearly there in their non-album 12”, The Trench Coat Museum, which came out last summer, with a video that matched every second of its eight minutes, stating on screen: “Despite their swift ascent in the music world, Yard Act were rightly dismissed as a flash in the pan bunch of sellouts. Whereabouts currently unknown.”
The ensuing singles have laid out this witty, ongoing consigning of this public image of ‘Yard Act’ to the bin. There’s Beck homage Petroleum, and the fine, funky and flippant Dream Job – no-wave meets the Blockheads – complete with choreographed promo with its almighty lines, “Step into my office all night long – welcome to the future, paranoia suits you.” Finally, We Make Hits, one of the album’s key moments, has the line, “Two broke millennial men, and we’d do it again.” Smith sings about his and Needham’s dreams coming to fruition – at the end, Smith says, “If it’s not a hit, we were being ironic.”
Whereas The Overload sounded as if it cost around £1.20 to make, Where’s My Utopia? sounds like at least £100 has been spent. Co-produced with Gorillaz’ Remi Kabaka Jr, it has all the unpredictability of the cartoon collective’s records, adding colour and texture to Yard Act’s spindly groove. On one level, it is one very long naval gaze, a realisation that achieving recognition for what a band does isn’t entirely worth it. Smith declares, on An illusion, that after achieving success, he “started self-destructing, buying fridge magnets everywhere I went to prove I’ve been... it’s fucking disgusting.” The detail of the album’s centrepiece, Blackpool Illuminations, continues The Overload’s manifesto of hilarity and heartbreak; a lengthy, detailed recollection of a childhood trip to the resort, in which Smith splits his lip and goes tripping on painkillers.
Like 100% Endurance at the end of The Overload, the author’s message rings through: “I don’t know, I’m never going to get my utopia/i don’t need my utopia, because the unknown is the only hope for a brighter future.”
Overall, the album’s sense of play is strong and, like its predecessor, the good ultimately wins out. The kitchen sink is often thrown in, too – ironic samples from the ‘Scottish play’, scratching, cut-ups, possible swipes at the group’s Fall comparisons: Grifter’s Grief = Cruiser’s Creek? The phrase, “This nation’s saving grace” is used as well. Even at his most scathing, James Smith is a warm and amusing narrator, and the band, aided by Kabaka Jr, play as if their life depended upon it. Where’s My Utopia? could join that select pantheon of hand-biting second albums such as De La Soul Is Dead, Paul’s Boutique by the Beasties and Beauty Stab by ABC that, although initially misunderstood, have gone on to be regarded as career peaks. Let’s see.