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Yard Act - The Overload (January 7, 2022)

Discussion in 'Music Forum' started by jonasjaevel, Nov 9, 2021.

  1. jonasjaevel

    Regular

    Leeds outfit Yard Act release their debut album and even though 2022 is only seven days old, this album will define the year.

    The Overload is a record of great dexterity and curation, the output of a band who were raised on a 00s digital-revolution buffet of wide musical influences. Growing up on US MTV Hip-Hop, minimal 70s No-Wave and sharp-witted British indie, Yard Act benefit from this rich tapestry of musical near-history, using it to create something that feels like more than a trendy pastiche.

    While time-travelling in parts sonically, The Overload weaves a very-2021 storyline. The group made the decision early on to leave ‘Fixer Upper’ and ‘Dark Days’ off their album debut (“it sounds arrogant, but we felt we had enough good songs without ‘em”), but the joyous specificity of their early lyrical observation is still in fine evidence, plotting a visceral, satirical journey through capitalism and greed. Across the album’s 11 tracks, an unnamed character – a bricolage of characters that Smith has met, imagined, or himself been – finds himself in quite the financial pickle, ricocheting from desk job to desperate illicit activity to police investigation, before culminating in the kind of half-cut personal epiphany that even the most law-abiding among us could relate to. Bookended by cheeky cameo’s from ‘Fixer Upper’s' Graeme and a clear structure of four parts, there is no getting around it — Yard Act have written a soap opera.

    Pulling off a debut album in a pandemic isn’t easy, but somehow, Yard Act have made it work. Recording with Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding) at his Bristol studio, those prolific demos have been sharpened down into something that speaks to the times we live in, creating a statement of intent that survives on nuance – a record of retro influences, recorded in a modern way, that manages to poke fun at society without punching down from a place of lefty superiority. The Overload is a political record, but in the same way that all great observations of human nature are – a messy, complex, knowingly hypocritical snapshot of our current state of play.

    Track list:
    1. The Overload
    2. Dead Horse
    3. Payday
    4. Rich
    5. The Incident
    6. Witness (Can I Get A?)
    7. Land of the Blind
    8. Quarantine The Sticks
    9. Tall Poppies
    10. Pour Another
    11. 100% Endurance


     
  2. Are there really zero replies here???
    Can't wait for this.
     
    jonasjaevel likes this.
  3. Nate_Johnson

    CCRN, MSN Prestigious

     
    jonasjaevel likes this.
  4. Nate_Johnson

    CCRN, MSN Prestigious

    Members of Yard Act, Hookworms, Virginia Wing, Drahla and Cowtown.

    Album out next month.

     
    Carrow likes this.
  5. This album is fucking great. Genuinely feel like they're about to blow up. Oh and it got pushed to 21st Jan but yeah, it rules.
     
  6. Nate_Johnson

    CCRN, MSN Prestigious

    Album is very good!
     
  7. Not a single miss on this one, damn.
     
  8. thenewmatthewperry

    performative angry black man Prestigious

    this turned out to be a perfect debut
     
  9. they're hitting Dublin next month, I have a ticket, it's sold out AND I'm picking up my Tall Poppies Edition of The Overload tomorrow. IT'S ALL HAPPENING.
     
  10. Kinda bummed I missed out on that Tall Poppies variant. BUT I just realized that I accidentally got tickets to both NY shows in March so that's nice. It'll be a Squid sandwich with Yard Act bread that week haha
     
    thenewmatthewperry likes this.
  11. 1) Turned out I didn't miss out on the Tall Poppies variant from the band's webstore, and it shipped today! I hope the international transit isn't too eventful.
    2) Def going to both NY shows - can hardly believe I thought about not haha
     
    Carrow and thenewmatthewperry like this.
  12. kbeef2

    Trusted Supporter

    Best opening verse of any album this year so far
     
    thenewmatthewperry likes this.
  13. fucked up my dates and I'm working today, but I sold my ticket at least. still hate to see it.
     
  14. Maybe it's just the drum machine forcing them to not rush too much, but the Tiny Desk performance is maybe the tightest performance out there.

     
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  16. Loving the alternate 100% Endurance with Elton John.
    The Tiny Dancer cover is cool too.
     
    thenewmatthewperry likes this.