Yard Act are a funny one for me, being a group that I've always felt like I should like way more than I actually do. They burst onto the scene in 2021 with the Dark Days EP, which was quickly followed up in early 2022 with their debut record The Overload. Being politically charged post-punk that was very in vogue in the post-Brexit / Covid lockdown era (e.g. Fontaines D.C. and IDLES), it should've been right up my street. However I felt it was already behind the curve, with a glut of other bands with a similar stark post-punk sound and talk-sung lyrics in the vain of Mark E. Smith around at the time. The fact that two weeks later, Black Country, New Road released Ants From Up There and basically shook off any tethers of the Post-Brexit / Crank Wave stylings made Yard Act the posterchild for 'Radio 6, post-Brexit, post-punk landfill' to me. This was probably a little unfair of me, as The Overload has aged better than some of the other albums from the scene (does anyone even remember Dry Cleaning or Goat Girl?); as frontman James Smith's witty, sarcastic lyrics have held up rather well and the post-punk and dance-punk grooves are incredibly tight and well performed.
It was only upon the release of their second album, Where's My Utopia? in 2024, that I started paying more attention. The group broadened their sound, taking more influence from fellow West Yorkshire bands Pulp and Arctic Monkeys, and took a different direction with the themes of the record, essentially being this meta-commentary on the band's place within the scene and how they're not ashamed to make more pop-leaning tunes, music snobs be damned! (One of the singles was called We Make Hits, so it's hardly subtle). I enjoyed Where's My Utopia? way more than The Overload, but I still wouldn't say the band had truly found who they were yet; or that the album was a must listen for the genre. I was intrigued where the band would go from here, as it felt to me as if they were caught in a no-mans land. Too on the nose and derivative to be put in the same bracket as the arty, experimental Windmill Scene bands; but also too politically charged and uncommercial to really fit in with the Radio 1 acceptable indie rock.
That brings us to You're Gonna Need A Little Music, which sort of slots in the middle sound-wise between their previous albums. It's more rock leaning (and definitely their heaviest album) than WMU? but retains a lot of quirky, stuffed to the brim songwriting and poppy, melodic sensibility. That is made clear by the opening cut, Empty Pledges, and its crashing, thunderous drumming and cacophonous piano hits. The track is from the perspective of Smith coming back to Leeds after years away and the vibe changing with former friends, where neither party really relating to each other anymore. The track builds to an intense climax that sets the tone for the record, which is more in your face and fiery than .
New Beginnings follows up with one of the most straightforward indie rock tunes the band has recorded thus far. The song has an earworm hook and a bouncy riff. I like the imagery around framing making life decisions that pan out well like a smug lottery winner, but the song overall is a little too repetitive for me after the third time the singalong chorus comes around. It's all very arms-in-the-air and festival friendly. Tall Tales, similarly, has interesting ideas around deception and how people aren't always how they first seem to be; but the chorus is simple and repetitive, and just does not do it for me. Fiction rounds out the first leg of the record and further delves into this idea of competing truths, and the cynicism and profiteering that occurs when pitting people who are so steadfast in their opinions against each other. It is one of the more on the nose tracks the band has written, and honestly to me is a little obnoxious. The refrain is literally "I sing my thesis to you / you sling your faeces at me / we're all bananas to the monkey in the tree".
It's only when the title track comes around, and the band moves away from the more generic indie rock / post-punk instrumentation, that my interest really returns to the record. The song is a Pulp-esque disco rock jam where Smith croons in his lower register about evocative story-telling and how embellishment of events makes them more memorable. The song's protagonist is deliberately presented in a seedy and sleazy way, and there's even a murder plotline involving the sister of 'Janey', a recurring character throughout the lyrics of the album. The drama and excess of the tune certainly go over a lot better than the fairly thinly sketched cynicism and more run of the mill indie rock instrumentation of the album after Empty Pledges. Cherophobe Rock takes aim at those pretentious folk who take themselves too seriously, with an instrumental that has a bit more of an umph too it than some of the earlier tracks. I like the energy of the song, but I do find the lyrical content funny from a band that I find can come across a little smug and self-satisfied themselves.
Thrill Of The Chase is where the album really kicks into another gear. The song is a breakneck rap-rock jam where Smith lets go of his more composed and sarcastic delivery and morphs into a full tirade, taring into performative virtue signallers and the endlessly changing standards they hold, and the pointlessness of 'chasing' this degree of perfection. Janey Said then flips the energy completely, slowing everything down to essentially a poem set to very minimal and hazy music. The imagery of the song paints an evocative if slightly surreal image of James meeting up with the character of Janey for a catchup, and framing his worries about life and the band (whether it will last, or will fall apart) as insignificant to whatever her struggles are. What she's feeling is never explicitly described, but James knows something is off. It's a really clever track that really encapsulates that feeling of watching an old friend struggle but not knowing how to help.
Following this, Redeemer comes crashing in, bringing back all of the intensity and fire that had previously been building up through Cherophobe Rock and Thrill Of The Chase. The song is this moody and sludgy tune that recalls the dark bitterness of Arctic Monkey's Humbug - a vibe perfectly fitting for a track about clinging to your chosen messiah-figure as the whole world falls apart around you. The song is pointed and angry, and has only grown on me since it was released as the lead single for the record. Unfortunately the album returns back to the more jaunty indie rock for it's last two cuts and kind of drops off a cliff for me. Talky Talky People once again returns to the topic of people who talk too much and don't know when to shut up, but the repeated hook of "Talky talky people" just feels rather amateurish to me. Over The Barrel is just as tacky to me, with its bouncy indie rock bassline and syncopated 'carnival'-style piano hits. The song sounds like the end to a panto or something to me and it just feels jarring after the angrier and heavier second half.
I think You're Gonna Need A Little Music is a mostly good album and Yard Act's best effort so far; but they still feel like a band that hasn't quite found their niche yet. The more indie leaning cuts don't hit me the way the heavier ones here do. I'm intrigued by where the band go from here, as the scene they broke through as part of doesn't really exist any more, and the album didn't chart nearly as high as their previous two - suggesting that the audience appetite for this kind of politically charged, wordy post-punk might not be there anymore. As it stands though, YGNALM is solid and have come back to it multiple times since it released in July, which is more longevity than any previous Yard Act project has had for me.
Top Tracks: Empty Pledges, You're Gonna Need A Little Music, Thrill Of The Chase, Janey Said, Redeemer
7/10
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