Leeds outfit Yard Act make music that lines up with the current wave of talky Brit indie bands quite easily. Yard Act get more interesting when leader James Smith indulges his inner Mark E. Smith, or channels Jarvis Cocker briefly on the band's many numbers that have a lanky appeal. The group's new record, the wonderfully-titled You're Gonna Need a Little Music, their first effort since their 2024 album, Where's My Utopia?, is quite possibly this band's best yet.
"New Beginnings" churns with a kind of pub rock appeal, a little Dr. Feelgood or Tom Robinson Band vibes here making this one of the standout cuts on this 2026 long-player, while "Tall Tales" is shouty, combining a hint of Pulp with a dash of Steely Dan. How can something be both noisy as hell and a bit muso too? Listen and learn. Elsewhere, "Fiction" has a brash early XTC funk-pop-a-roll about it, while the title track to You're Gonna Need a Little Music finds James Smith leaning hard into his strengths as a very Jarvis Cocker-like frontman on a track which neatly mixes slouching synths-pop with talky bits. "Cherophobe Rock", a real highlight here, manages to sound like Supergrass a little, and provides yet another example of how deftly this group has finally managed to blend their frontman's outsized vocals and performance style with a clattering post-punk sonic attack.
On previous records, Yard Act sounded like they were trying too hard. And while there are bits on You're Gonna Need a Little Music which are a little hectic, the band sound more at ease with what they're doing here. Earlier efforts sounded too much like The Young Knives to me, but there's a lot more of a natural energy to this stuff in 2026, and the hooks are stronger. Yard Act, finally coming into their own, have made their best album to date finally, and there's a lot of clever stuff on You're Gonna Need a Little Music.
You're Gonna Need a Little Music by Yard Act is out on July 17.
[Photo: James Winstanley]