Leeds quartet Yard Act announce their new album, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, out July 17th via Republic Records and release the lead single, “Redeemer.” You’re Gonna Need A Little Music follows the band’s UK Top 5 charting Where’s My Utopia? (2024) and their Mercury Prize nominated debut, The Overload (2022). Recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St. Vincent), You’re Gonna Need A Little Music rings with the chemistry and energy of a band absolutely locked in. It’s simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energized work they’ve laid to tape, but also contains some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, picking up their tale and examining the findings more unsparingly than ever.
For a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, Yard Act’s third album marks the first time that the quartet—frontman and vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell—have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” says Smith. The Overload was written alongside Needham before the band had fully formed; its follow-up, Where’s My Utopia?, was carved out in snatches of time on tour buses and hotel rooms. For the first time in a long time, Yard Act were able to settle into an “uninterrupted five month period” of creativity, crafting “40 or 50 songs” and allowing themselves to follow their ideas with no external pressure. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band.”
Each track on You’re Gonna Need A Little Music has its own distinct character. The ominous guttural ferocity of today’s single, “Redeemer,” sits amongst a sleazy disco odyssey, fizzing indie, and loose, cerebral, meditations. Yard Act may have thrown the kitchen sink, or at least its cookware, at the track, with Meldal-Johnsen concocting a brittle, metallic texture out of a day of rattling pots and pans, but the result is direct, visceral and exciting.
Watch the Video For “Redeemer”
No whimsical walk through suburban England, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music seeks to work through some of the most complicated facets of life. Intentionally, in some ways, it is a step away from Smith’s venerated vignettes and character studies; a move towards something more “impressionistic” and up for interpretation. “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now,” Smith suggests. The questions are deep, but the spirit of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is boundless – not for nothing does its title point to the power of art and creativity to rescue us from the mire.
Last month, Yard Act announced a summer North American tour including stops throughout the West Coast, East Coast and Canada. This marks the band’s first North American run since 2024. Tickets are now on sale and available here. Yard Act will also make several festival appearances across Europe in June and embark on an extensive UK and EU tour in the fall. A full list of tour dates is below.
Pre-Order You’re Gonna Need A Little Music
Yard Act Tour Dates:
(New dates in bold)
Wed. Aug. 5 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Thu. Aug. 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Sat. Aug. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
Sun. Aug. 9 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Mon. Aug. 10 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Tue. Aug. 11 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
Thu. Aug. 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Fri. Aug. 14 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Sat. Aug. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sun. Aug. 16 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Thu. Oct. 1 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Fri. Oct. 2 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Sat. Oct. 3 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Mon. Oct. 5 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria-Theater
Wed. Oct. 7 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich
Thu. Oct. 8 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Music Hall
Fri. Oct. 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Kägelbanan
Sat. Oct. 10 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Mon. Oct. 12 – Warsaw, PL @ NIEBO
Tue. Oct. 13 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory
Wed. Oct. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Fri. Oct. 16 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
Sat. Oct. 17 – Milan, IT @ Magazzini Generali
Sun. Oct. 18 – Toulouse, FR @ La Cabane
Tue. Oct. 20 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo
Wed. Oct. 21 – Madrid, ES @ Teatro Eslava
Fri. Oct. 23 – Lisbon, PT @ Cineteatro Capitólio
Fri. Nov. 6 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
Sat. Nov. 7 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
Tue. Nov. 10 – Newcastle, UK @ NX
Wed, Nov. 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Thu. Nov 12 – Sheffield, UK @ Octagon Centre
Fri. Nov. 13 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse
Sun. Nov. 15 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Wulfrun Hall
Mon. Nov. 16 – Leicester, UK @ O2 Academy
Tue. Nov. 17 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Wed. Nov. 18 – Cambridge, UK @ Junction 1
Fri. Nov. 20 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy
Sat. Nov. 21 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Beacon
Mon. Nov. 23 – Plymouth, UK @ Plymouth Pavillions
Tue. Nov. 24 – Southampton, UK @ O2 Guildhall
Thu. Nov. 26 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]
