Yard Act - You’re Gonna Need A Little Music

The teaser trailer for ‘You’re Going To Need A Little Music’ landed less like an album announcement and more like a eulogy. As their famed Rover goes up in flames, the solemn thump of a lone bassline seems to toll for something larger than a contemporary record cycle. If this is the end of the world, are Yard Act going to be the ones to save it?

Don’t ask James Smith. On opener ‘Empty Pledges’, the frontman declares “I’ve got absolutely nothing – absolutely nothing new to say!”, and for once, you believe him. Where ‘The Overload’ (2022) chronicled the throes of post-Brexit Britain and ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ (2024) turned inward, this feels like a deliberate retreat from his role as commentator. Make no mistake, he’s still sharp: ‘Empty Pledges’ points to all-too-familiar u-turns, while ‘Janey Said’ filters his anxiety through an alter-ego - albeit one where he circles his subjects, rather than naming them.

Overall, though, his medium has become the music. The industrial grind in ‘Redeemer’ is the band’s heaviest sound to date, its pressure building until the track culminates in a voice-cracked cry of despair. On ‘Cherophobe Rock’, the mic gets turned up until the vocals crunch – whatever the opposite of ASMR is, this is it. There are moments of release: ‘Talky Talky People’ has the easygoing charm of a Blur B-side, and the title track’s piano swings with a warmth that the record rarely allows itself. These moments feel less like a solution, and more like borrowed time.

The album’s closing gesture says it all. After ‘Over the Barrel’ dissolves into a katzenjammer of screeching guitars and the discordant clanging of piano, the music stops and a tentative plea is left standing: “I want you to break through”. It’s not a rallying cry; it’s barely even a whimper of hope. But then, maybe that’s exactly why we need a little music.