Yard Act’s The Overload Is a Nuanced Document of Our Discontent
On their electric full-length debut, the Leeds post-punkers highlight the humanity in our grim dystopia
If we all must fall victims to the ceaseless malaise that is our slowly unfolding apocalypse, it’s at least fortunate that our misery is soundtracked by the quirked-up observers in the current U.K. post-punk scene. Dubbed “The Post-Brexit New Wave,” groups like Squid, Black Country, New Road, and Dry Cleaning have proven themselves compelling cultural narrators, capturing the essence of our entropy through their bluntly disorienting lyrics and often deadpan, ironic styles.
Enter Yard Act. A little bit Sleaford Mods, a helping of The Fall and a dash of Pulp, the group craft smart vignettes of modern life with a confident, witty delivery across their debut full-length, The Overload. Be it as someone recently flush with cash observing their own transformation at the hand of wealth, or a football captain whose life was washed away in a sea of disinterest, the sharp observations of vocalist James Smith contort everyday melancholy into a charming self-portrait—functioning like a reminder of the absurdities and pitfalls of life that define and unite us in the human condition.
This unique way of finding humor in the otherwise depressing is part of what sets Yard Act apart from their more morose peers. Take the title track: Set to a high-energy, undeniably funky instrumental, Smith’s seemingly drunken narrator proselytizes with excerpts like, “Kids these days think they’ve been hard done by / but they’ve never even looked at an iron lung like I did once,” and references your “dickhead singer” who “better not get political” unless he wants to end up in the back of an ambulance. The sheer amount of detail is at once funny, overwhelming and cleverly provocative, presenting not only a clear portrait of a Britain after Brexit, but also a semi-psychological examination of its barely lucid protagonist.