Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
Tracklisting:
1. An Illusion
2. We Make Hits
3. Down By the Stream
4. The Undertow
5. Dream Job
6. Fizzy Fish
7. Petroleum
8. When the Laughter Stops
9. Grifter’s Grief
10. Blackpool Illuminations
11. A Vineyard for the North
Yard Act have announced their new album Where My Utopia? alongside its lead single & video‘Dream Job’.
Out on 1 March 2024 via Island, Where’s My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds band’s critically-acclaimed debut record The Overload which arrived in January 2022. The Overload was shortlistedfor the Mercury Prize after a slew of positive reviews, national radio playlistings and a placing at #2 inthe Official Charts. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member RemiKabaka Jr. ‘Dream Job’s video was directed by James Slater, the band and director’s 7th collaboration(“with many more to come”).
Having already announced a huge run of shows in the UK and EU for spring 2024 - including theEventim Apollo Hammersmith on 27 March - Yard Act have today revealed plans for their biggesthometown show to date at the 5,750 capacity Millennium Square Leeds on 3 August. For access totickets, General sale for Millenium Square is on 10 November.
Speaking about ‘Dream Job’, Yard Act’s James Smith said: “‘Dream Job’ feels like an apt introductionto the themes explored on Where's My Utopia? - though not all encompassing. In part I wasscrutinising and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, whilst also trying toaddress how the music industry is this rather uncontrollable beast that hurtles forward unthinkinglyand every single person involved in it plays their part. Myself included, obviously. As with pretty mucheverything 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 oncethe fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and bad. I'm still glad that everything that happened to mehappened.”
Yard Act opened the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival this summer as well as makingappearances at Latitude (headlining the BBC Sounds stage, no less), Fuji Rocks, and Boardmasters.The band will return to North America in November with a run of headline shows across the US,culminating in a slot at Mexico City’s Corona Capital Festival. The Leeds band also shared astandalone single ‘The Trench Coat Museum’ this summer. Co-produced by the band and Kabaka Jr.,
‘The Trench Coat Museum’ was instantly added to the BBC Radio 6 Music A-List upon release andsparked feverish discussion about the band’s next exciting chapter, which begins today.Earlier this year, Yard Act delivered an unprecedented five night residency at their hometown’sBrudenell Social Club which was awarded four stars each in reviews from Rolling Stone UK, TheTelegraph, and The Times. The band were joined by a stellar lineup of comedians; Phill Jupitus, NishKumar, Lolly Adefope, and Harry Hill. Yard Act also made their festival headline bow at Dot To Dot inBristol & Nottingham, performed at Primavera (Barcelona, Madrid & Porto) and played their maidenshows in Australia and New Zealand, truly making their mark on the global stage in 2023.
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What do you do when everything you’ve ever wanted suddenly lands in your lap, but the questions stillkeep on coming?
Since first steering their golden Rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020, Leeds quartet Yard Acthave become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. Along the way, they’ve tickedoff milestones ranging from a Number Two chart placing and Mercury Prize nomination for debutalbum The Overload, to a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a string-ladenreworking of album closer ‘100% Endurance’.
Yet, whilst the band’s trajectory continuously shot upwards, vocalist James Smith and his wife hadalso welcomed in a son. And it’s this duelling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, driveand everything in between that forms the narrative backbone of brilliantly exploratory second albumWhere’s My Utopia?
Written in snapshots of time between a relentless touring schedule, and produced jointly by the bandand Gorillaz’ Remi Kabaka Jr, the quartet’s second act is a giant leap forward into broad and playfulnew sonic waters. “The main reason that ‘post-punk’ was the vehicle for Album One was because itwas really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we've had theconfidence to embrace it,” James explains. Across the record, influences ranging from Fela Kuti toEnnio Moricone via Spiller’s ‘00s pop smash ‘Groovejet’ make themselves known.
It’s a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself thanever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs thatstare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman’s own fears and foibles to create asort of Promethean narrative - but with jokes. “You can commit to the idea that we’re just animals whoeat and f*ck and then we die, and that’s fine,” he suggests. “But for me, creativity always seems to bethe best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.”
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