The Overload Yard Act

• 1The Overload03:16
• 2Dead Horse03:38
• 3Payday02:54
• 4Rich03:42
• 5The Incident03:10
• 6Witness (Can I Get A?)01:20
• 7Land Of The Blind03:00
• 8Quarantine The Sticks02:40
• 9Tall Poppies06:21
• 10Pour Another03:20
• 11100% Endurance03:45
• Total Runtime37:06

Info for The Overload

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.

"An album as silly as it is eclectic, gleefully cheeky as it is fiercely intelligent. Whilst certain aspects border on repetitive tropes and sounds, the one thing you can’t call this album is forgettable. Whether they either smash to mega-stardom or simply remain the next Half Man Half Biscuit is irrelevant; this album is the greatest lexical party you will have in a long time." (gigwise.com)

Yard Act

Yard Act
formed in Leeds in September 2019 when Ryan Needham found himself temporarily living in James Smith's spare bedroom. The two had been pub associates for years, but their new living circumstances served as a catalyst for their friendship and creative partnership which saw them fuse James' interest in spoken word with Ryan's primitive proto-punk demos using an ancient drum machine and borrowed bass guitar. They released their first material in March 2020, coinciding with you-know-what, and with just three singles (The Trapper’s Pelts, Fixer Upper and Peanuts) and three gigs to date, Yard Act have staked out a territory all their own. Setting up their own imprint Zen F.C. they released their debut 7” which can now only be found for exorbitant sums on Discogs, they’ve scored two 6music playlists, and they’ve won a growing fanbase with their coruscating, narrative driven, spoken word dance-punk. Now girding their loins for a 2021 filled with new music, new recordings, debut novels, and (fingers crossed) plenty of live shows, Yard Act have most definitely marked our cards as one of UK’s most exciting prospects.

This album contains no booklet.