Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?
Release Date: 1st March 2024
Recommended Track: Dream Job
In this sophomore release, we find our new age troubadours Yard Act navigate the waters of the difficult second album with a firmly established confidence and unbridled ambition.
Where’s My Utopia? offers the listener 43 minutes of genre fusing exploration, with refreshing unrestraint from an artist that refuses to be pigeonholed. The album returns with front man James Smith’s trademark, cynicism and narrative wit at the helm, however with a new found focus on introspection, instead of the established caricatures that were the emphasis on the previous 2022 album The Overload.
Those familiar with their catalogue will notice a departure from those angular, sparse and guitar driven post punk singles on Where’s My Utopia?, in which the band have traded such motifs for spotlighting a variety of multi-instrumental samples, switching from hip hop-esque backbeats and brass adornments to unexpected mid song monologues and string sections. Driving bass hooks frequently cement all these sections together in a way that compliments the newfound variety, and serves to embellish Smith’s storytelling as we pass through each chapter.
‘An Illusion’ opens on a sound bite introducing the listener to the “greatest voice of the entire century…” with familiar playful building interplay between the guitars and bass, layered alongside call and response lo fi beats, reminiscent of many 1990’s art pop heavyweights that precede it. The hook filled single ‘We Make Hits’, bursts with familiar cadence and tongue in cheek lyrics, while ‘Down by the Stream’ executes a bouncy sample riddled backbeat before rolling out a stark and sudden reflective monologue.
‘Dream Job’ echoes back to their roots, with a bass groove and rolling percussion that blends funk and disco elements effortlessly with post punk lead guitars. In contrast, ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ has Smith candidly narrate over a sprawling soundscape for nearly eight minutes, only to sign off his uncertainty of the reception for this record to be ultimately overshadowed by his personal milestones in family life.
Alongside producer Remi Kabaka Jr. (Gorillaz), Yard Act have successfully held onto their more recognisable tropes, without exhausting or diluting them in order to create breathing room for their new found sonic exploration. Smith had previously commented on writing without restriction (upon removing hesitation on how to perform said tracks live), and this seems to have given them the freedom to push those boundaries. Where’s My Utopia? feels like an accessible progression, whilst still celebrating their established foundations.