Yard Act’s third album ‘You’re Gonna Need A Little Music’ trades laptop wit for full-band chaos. Our review of the Leeds band’s boldest record yet
Yard Act have spent two albums apologizing for their own success formula, and on their third they finally burn it down. You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, the Leeds quartet’s follow-up to 2022’s Mercury-nominated The Overload and 2024’s disco-flecked Where’s My Utopia?, ditches what frontman James Smith has dismissed in interviews as their “laptop albums” for something recorded the old way: four musicians in a room, tracked between their own newly built Leeds studio and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the Beck and M83 collaborator who knows a thing or two about maximalism.
The band was confident enough to debut the whole thing live at surprise gigs at London’s Unit 58 and the Brudenell Social Club car park in May, playing it front to back the moment it was announced.
The result is the heaviest, gnarliest record they have made. Opener “Empty Pledges” arrives on four minutes of grinding guitars and eerie grandeur, with Smith declaring “I’ve got absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing new to say” and daring you to disagree. “Redeemer,” the lead single, is an industrial stomp that builds to a voice-cracked cry of despair, Yard Act at their most full-blooded.
“Fiction” sets Smith’s motormouth against Sam Shipstone’s crunching riffs, while “Cherophobe Rock” and “Thrill of the Chase” deliver the rollicking, feet-moving energy this band has always had in reserve. The palette swings from stark industrial rock to psychedelic Britpop to honkytonk, sometimes within a single side.
The Voice Versus the Volume
The album’s central tension is whether all that noise serves its greatest instrument. Smith’s voice, that yelping, crooning, breathless Leeds patter, remains ninety percent of the appeal, and the record’s best moments give it room. “Janey Said” is the standout, a reflection on love and an ex with what The Skinny compared to the energy of The Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come for Free, complete with a fourth-wall wink: “I’ll probably get a good song out of this.”
“Talky Talky People” has the easygoing charm of a Blur B-side, and the piano-led title track swings with a warmth the record rarely allows itself. But the criticism has teeth too: Clash landed a bruising 5/10, arguing the fuller arrangements bury Smith and that with time, budget and studio access the band has become cluttered and over-upholstered, losing sight of what made them special.
That split verdict is the story of the record. NME heard a confident “two-for-one deal” melding wonky piano with bulky garage rock and suggested closer “Over the Barrel” might convince you it’s one of the albums of the year. DIY read it as a deliberate retreat from Smith’s role as Britain’s post-Brexit commentator, circling his subjects rather than naming them. Both readings are true; the album is packed with ideas and occasionally tripping over them.
The Post-Turner Vacancy, Filled Differently
The larger context is what Yard Act represent. Since Alex Turner drifted into lounge-lizard abstraction a decade ago, British indie has cried out for a gobby, clever-clogs heir, and Smith inherited the vacancy almost by default when he and bassist Ryan Needham traded beats and bars over lockdown. Three albums in, the band’s refusal to simply re-run The Overload is admirable even when it frustrates. You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is not their sharpest record, but it is their bravest, an album that bets its charm can survive distortion. On “Empty Pledges” Smith snarls, “By now you’re either with us or you’re not.” For those still with them, there is plenty here worth the argument.
