Yard Act - Where’s My Utopia?
Remember post-punk?
It was the sound of the second half of the last decade, and during the pandemic you couldn’t move for heavy guitars and shouted lyrics.
Yet, as is proper, its main proponents have moved on: Fontaines D.C. (whom the title never sat comfortably with) accepted being defined by post-punk until it stopped being useful (namely album two), while recent collaborators LCD Soundsystem and Nigel Godrich influenced IDLES’ current output, both of who operate in different stratospheres to metallic riffage.
Yard Act were latecomers to the game but were savvy enough to realise the genre’s uses (cheaper, easy to understand) while simultaneously cocking a snook at it.
Like the scene’s other key players, the Leeds band have moved on and broadened their sound and influences, with second album Where’s My Utopia? throwing numerous other influences into the mix while still sounding inimitably like themselves.