BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY

Yard Act are back with a new sound for their second album, Where's My Utopia? Here, they discuss the record's more personal focus, and how the fantasy of making it big measures up to living through it

- AARON PARSONS

SINCE RELEASING THEIR DEBUT ALBUM The Overload in January 2022, Yard Act have secured a list of achievements that any misty-eyed band striving for greatness in their rehearsal rooms would die for. A reworking of a track with famous fan Elton John? Tick! A five-night soldout homecoming in their native Leeds? Tick! Being, er, upstaged by a rhino? Again, it's a tick.

To add a bit of context on the last point, in November, frontman James Smith found himself standing on a stage in Meanwood, Leeds, joined by the mascot of rugby side Leeds Rhinos, to turn on the Christmas lights in front of a crowd of bemused locals - which feels like a roundabout way of saying that Yard Act are something of a big deal round those parts.

It's all testament to how The Overload became an album that pricked up the ears of not just Yorkshire, but the world, cementing Yard Act's status as one of the most promising bands around. As Rolling Stone UK's five-star review of the record explained, the band were the latest in a strong line-up of British and Irish bands to spearhead a post-punk revival - but what separated Yard Act from the pack was their ability to indulge in the strange and surreal. Through Smith's lyrics, we were presented with characters like the unscrupulous landlord Graham, who helped paint an image of a Britain where altruism and compassion were in seemingly short supply.

But on Yard Act's second album, Where's My Utopia, band leader Smith turns the gaze on himself to offer a powerfully honest reflection on life at the top and the moments when longstrived-for success isn't all it's cracked up to be.

On album track 'Petroleum', which zips along with a hip-hop groove, Smith reflects on the reallife moment when burn-out from an intense tour schedule led him to dramatically turn on the crowd at a show in Bognor Regis, berating them for what he perceived as a lack of reaction.