Yard Act will release new album ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ on March 1st.
The Yorkshire band’s debut album ‘The Overload’ was recorded over lockdown, with their knack for surreal lyrics and ear-worm chorus lines transforming them into 6Music favourites. Clash reviewer Megan Walder swooned over the record in our review, writing: “Sack off therapy, just stick this on.”
Hitting the road, Yard Act played across the country and beyond. In the following months, ‘The Overload’ was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, with the band selling out London’s eventim Apollo.
Playing some intimate shows at Leeds’ very own Brudenell Social Club earlier this year, Yard Act have now completed work on their second album. It’s titled ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ and will be released on March 1st; also in March, you’ll be able to catch them on their biggest ever UK tour.
New single ‘Dream Job’ is out now, and it feels like an apt point of transition – recalling the work on their debut, while pointing to fresh sonic environs.
Yard Act’s James Smith says…
“‘Dream Job’ feels like an apt introduction to the themes explored on ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ – though not all encompassing. In part I was scrutinising and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, whilst also trying to address how the music industry is this rather uncontrollable beast that hurtles forward unthinkingly and every single person involved in it plays their part. Myself included, obviously.”
“As with pretty much everything else going through my head last year, trying to find the right time to articulate the complexity of emotions I was feeling and the severity to which I was feeling them couldn’t be found – or accommodated, so instead I tried to capture it in a pop song that lasts less than three minutes once the fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and bad. I’m still glad that everything that happened to me happened.”
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Phoebe Fox
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