Yard Act: You're Gonna Need A Little Music [ISLAND]

Why you'll love it

The first Yard Act album written and recorded as a four-piece band, with a fold-out insert of lyrics, credits and a photo. It went to number 15 in the UK, number three on the UK physical chart, and carries "Redeemer" and "New Beginnings".

This edition

• Fold-out insert with a photo, lyrics and credits
• Eleven tracks, with "Redeemer" and "New Beginnings"

About the album

The first two Yard Act records were, by the band's own account, laptop records: The Overload was written before they were a touring band, and Where's My Utopia? got written on the road. This time they built a studio in their hometown of Leeds, wrote 40 or 50 songs together and finished the job in Los Angeles with Justin Meldal-Johnsen, whose CV runs from Nine Inch Nails and Beck to M83 and St. Vincent. James Smith said the whole process "felt like freedom."

Meldal-Johnsen told them they were like the Monkees, four people who could each carry their own TV show, and he set out to let all four personalities through. You can hear it: Smith's wry, talky vocals are still front and centre on "Empty Pledges" and "Fiction", but the grooves are fuller and the hooks land harder, and the record's real subject, how the internet sorts everyone into their own echo chamber, gets a proper band behind it. We'd recommend listening together, in the same room, like the old days.

Tracklist

Listen

Out July 17, 2026 on Island (cat# 5759051).