YARD ACT – Wheres My Utopia? – LP – Maroon Vinyl

LP-Limited Edition Maroon Vinyl with printed inners and fold out insert.

The return of Yard Act. Wheres My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds bands critically-acclaimed debut record The Overload which arrived in January 2022. The Overload was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize after a slew of positive reviews, national radio playlistings and a placing at #2 in the Official Charts. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. Dream Jobs video was directed by James Slater, the band and directors 7th collaboration (with many more to come).

Speaking about Dream Job, Yard Acts James Smith said: Dream Job feels like an apt introduction to the themes explored on Wheres 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 couldnt 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. Its good and bad. Im still glad that everything that happened to me happened.

Since first steering their golden Rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020, Leeds quartet Yard Act have become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. Along the way, theyve ticked off milestones ranging from a Number Two chart placing and Mercury Prize nomination for debut album The Overload, to a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a string-laden reworking of album closer 100% Endurance.

Yet, whilst the bands trajectory continuously shot upwards, vocalist James Smith and his wife had also welcomed in a son. And its this duelling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive and everything in between that forms the narrative backbone of brilliantly exploratory second album Wheres My Utopia?

Written in snapshots of time between a relentless touring schedule, and produced jointly by the band and Gorillaz Remi Kabaka Jr, the quartets second act is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters. The main reason that post-punk was the vehicle for Album One was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time weve had the confidence to embrace it, James explains. Across the record, influences ranging from Fela Kuti to Ennio Moriccone via Spillers 00s pop smash Groovejet make themselves known.

Its a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontmans own fears and foibles to create a sort of Promethean narrative – but with jokes. You can commit to the idea that were just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and thats fine, he suggests. But for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. An Illusion
2. We Make Hits
3. Down By The Stream
4. The Undertow
5. Dream Job
6. Fizzy Fish

Side B
1. Petroleum
2. When The Laughter Stops
3. Grifters Grief
4. Blackpool Illuminations
5. A Vineyard For The North