Albums: Where's My Utopia?

 

Released on 1 March 2024, "Where's My Utopia" is the second studio album by fantastic British band Yard Act, the album was preceded by four singles "Dream Job", ""Petroleum", "We Make Hits" & "When The Laughter Stops", the sound of the album is mainly between disco dance-punk and post-punk, and felt much more freeing compared to their first record "The Overload", according to critics, as one of the best record by one of the most finest bands on the current scene. 

 

The band second studio album is absolutely a giant leap forward into a broader sound and audience with a lot of different influences and sounds that make this record a one of a kind. Definitely, this brand new album offers a different focus which is great, infectious rhythms, disco sound from the late 70's., Manchester, and curious lyrics with bass-driven, breezy guitars and a solid synth work, a certain sound atmosphere that many people would like to call as "jangly", the brand new things are the dizzying sounds, hay synths and samples of horns, record scratches and disorienting vocal effects in order to create a chaotic frenzy style thar fixes themes, topics and stories in the whole album, that's the case of tracks such as "Fizzy Fish" and "Down By The Stream", they're just like a barrage of concepts that emerge from the singer's mind and love to scramble over each other until reach the listener, and this is the kind of stuff that makes this record like a whirlwind album. 

 

You can notice a regular appearance of sampled conversations, combined with the band's approach to eclectic sound that goes from disco, hip-hop, indie, grunge and dance, in order to gives the impression of someone zapping through radio music channels on-line, maybe the band is trying to offer a modern media landscape, sometimes the lyrics and storytelling are so extremely poignant, you can have that on the cycles of abuse portrayed on "Down By The Stream", the very high energy and bouncy track "Dream Job" that sounds eccentric and odd but definitely offeres an irresistible groove, smooth bass lines and subdued vocals with its 80s reminiscent synth, or the strange ace like is "Fizzy Fish", the lines on "Petroleum" or the vibrant duet with Kathy J. Pearson on "When The Laughter Stops", and you can have personal and emotional moments on "Blackpool Illuminations" that evokes a curious and tender story of singer childhood.

 

In the end, the album is large, bold and a cohesive work of art, one of the most vibrant and original albums of the year, Yard Act illustrates the disconnect between the expectations growing up of what being an adult in the 2020s was supposed to be like and what it is now, tackling feelings of anxiety and not feeling good enough. 

 

Where's My Utopia Track List: 

 

1. An Illusion

2. We Make Hits

3. Down By The Stream

4. The Undertow

5. Dream Job

6. Fizzy Fish

7. Petroleum

8. When The Laughter Stops

9. Grifter's Grief

10. Blackpool Illuminations

11. A Vineyard From The North