Two years ago, when Leeds band Yard Act dropped their debut album The Overload, we were arguably at the commercial apex of the recent ‘indie/post-punk’ boom that began with IDLES Joy As An Act Of Resistance back in 2016 and now, only a week later than the Bristolians released album number five TANGK, the Northerners unleashed their sophomore effort, Where’s My Utopia?
Opening with a sample that sounds like it should be introducing someone like James Brown, Yard Act start the subversion early as this is followed by an almost mumbled welcome from vocalist James Smith before we are launched into what I could only describe as a combination of funk and hip hop for An Illusion, which more than sets the scene for what’s to come.
From there the album has the feel of being a complete concept piece as various clips and samples intersperse the songs giving the sensation of retuning a radio earlier on while it all merges together (in a good way) later on.
We Make Hits continues with the subversion as they seem to be sending up themselves, their fans and the entire scene they’ve been associated with, something which the whole record does in terms of style as it goes on to marry the kind of post-punk sound that marked The Overload with not just funk and hip-hop but disco, electronica and more.
Through that though their concerns remain broadly the same, and just as relevant, as comment is made on life in modern Britain ranging from healthcare funding (An Illusion) to bullying (Down By The Stream) to the current government’s policies regarding the ‘working class’, but all without being directly hectoring and letting their stories do the talking.
When The Laughter Stops is possibly the record’s highpoint as all the diverse sounds come together along with an appearance from Bristol’s Katy J. Pearson who, elsewhere, has been compared to Kate Bush and Dolly Parton (and who I am to argue).
Blackpool Illuminations feels somewhat reminiscent of The Overload’s Tall Poppies but with a more direct, almost therapy session like, feel that mixes spoken word and their new found musical style with the two merging as it goes on.
The record closes with A Vineyard For The North that combines almost euphoric rave moments with a feeling that an inevitable apocalypse is approaching in a hurry, while also somehow feeling like something of a relation to The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu’s It’s Grim Up North (I half expected Jerusalem or similar to fade in to close things).
Where’s My Utopia? then finds Yard Act upending pretty much all expectations musically while sticking to their guns lyrically and combining the two with terrific effect, taking what could be a rather thematically depressing record and instead saying ‘let’s party’ and destroying generic conventions to bring the funk to ‘broken Britain’.
Tommy Girard 
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