Yard Act – ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ review: a weird and wonderful leap forward

29 February, 2024

Yard Act

“I attained perfection / So why the fuck was I still wondering what wankers would think of album two?” murmurs James Smith, Yard Act’s inimitable frontman. It’s the concluding remark on ‘Blackpool Illuminations’, a seven-minute spoken-word tale that vividly recounts trips to the seaside town with his parents, eventually juxtaposed against those with his own child. Indeed, this “perfection” he refers to is not their Number Two debut album ‘The Overload’ (2022), but his son, born in amongst the pandemonium of Yard Act’s sharp rise to fame.

Musings on fatherhood and his relationship with his folks (“I think you’re most in love with your parents”) are resemblant of a changed Smith, who simultaneously wrestles with the trials and tribulations of their success on ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, the Leeds quartet’s second album. Its goal was to merely make sense of their newfound status, plucked from spare moments amidst their record-breaking, relentless touring schedule. Always destined to outgrow the shallow ‘post-punk’ label, the band flex their creative muscles on the eclectic 11-song collection that tears down the very concept of genre.

Ever ones to poke fun at themselves, Smith wastes no time doing so (“Post-punk’s latest poster boys”) on ‘We Make Hits’, a track that re-affirms their underlying motivation: four brothers who relish their shared songwriting experience: “We just wanna have some fun before we’re sunk.” The clearest example of this is lead single ‘Dream Job’, which finds its place as the record’s accidental party number. It’s far from an open-top bus parade, though Smith smiles and waves in superlatives, simultaneously taking a dig at the “game” Yard Act continue to navigate their way through: “I place a bet on a game knowing no one will score”. As they recently noted to The Times: “We’ve hit the big time but we still can’t afford a house”.

Co-produced by Remi Kakaba Jr of Gorillaz, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ is sonically playful from the get-go. Tracks like ‘The Undertow’ could have certainly found a home on Gorillaz’ 2010 concept album ‘Plastic Beach’, scurrying between hurried string sections and a throbbing bassline. Light shades of disco and art-rock take centre stage on ‘Grifter’s Grief’ and ‘When The Laughter Stops’, the latter of which enlists Katy J Pearson to help deliver the album’s most vital message. As Smith sheds a light on the rut he once found himself in (“the victim shot dead in the cold open”), we’re reminded of the layer of vulnerability that exists between the zingers.

In between samples from their comedy pals – standups Nish Kumar and Rose Matafeo – and references to all sorts of uniquely British phenomena: from ‘Fizzy Fish’ to Calpol and, er, Milton Keynes. Where’s My Utopia?’ marks an outlandish yet assertive second chapter for Yard Act, going toe-to-toe with the peculiar world that we find ourselves in.