by Scott Yohe
First impressions are incredibly important. It seems as if Yard Act were very aware of this with their debut album The Overload. If you know about this new wave of British post-punk, then you know that Yard Act is being touted as the next big thing from it. The hype for The Overload is real, and Yard Act have lived up to it and gone beyond it. As a debut album, it makes the perfect impression that Yard Act is completely deserving of all the attention.
The first thing to know about Yard Act's musical style is that vocalist, James Smith, takes a page from Mark E. Smith's book, favoring a more talkative style rather than just straight up singing. He speaks clever and funny lines at you, while gliding over the instrumentals. The style asks a pretty good question, why sing when you can just talk? That's not to say that there is no musicality to Smith's vocal style, that would be untrue, but it would also be unfair to call this traditional singing. This style fits the music perfectly. You can also see that the band does not take themselves too seriously, despite all the true and sincere things Smith says over the music.
Opening with the song, “The Overload,” you are introduced to Yard Act perfectly. Talking about the "overload of discontent/the constant burden of making sense" the song is full of plenty of funny one liners. Towards the end of the song there's a joke about someone saying that the band should "kick that dickhead singer out the band" and they "shouldn't get political" in which the Smith replies "if you don't' challenge me on anything, you'll actually find that I'm very nice". The next song, “Dead Horse,” begins with the line "the last bastion of hope this once great nation had left is its humor" where afterward Smith rails into the media and the culture it has created, a culture that makes people feel miserable. The other line of the song that I think we all can agree on "the last bastion of hope this once great nation had left was good music, but we didn't nurture it, choosing to ignore it" which is really why we should be listening to bands like Yard Act, because good music is one of the last bastions of hope we have left. Smith may be beating a "dead horse" on this song, but it doesn't make any of this less true.
Throughout the whole album you get more great one liners and music. “Rich” talks about money, wealth disparity, the culture of the wealthy. One of the singles, “Land of the Blind” comes with another funny joke about making a 50 pence note disappear if you just close your mind. “Tall Poppies” tells the story of a man from a small town who everybody likes and admires, but never realizes that he is only so great because he's never left the village. It's a funny and charming story. The final song, “100% Endurance” is all about that just because there is no great meaning in this world, the world is still beautiful and there are plenty of reasons to do the things that you like. Smith sings "it's hippy bullshit, but it's true" which is good for a laugh but if you sit down and think about it, he's right. It doesn't matter if it's hippy bullshit, that doesn't make it worth anything less.
The instrumentals themselves are not any less important than the lyrics. Throughout the album you get plenty of great guitar riffs, drum beats, and basslines. Even on a track like “Land of the Blind” where Smith ‘bababa’s’ his voice as an instrument, it doesn’t overshadow the instrumental. It all accompanies the lyrics perfectly, not trying to more or less than the lyrics. In a band where the vocals are so important, it is necessary for the instrumentals to keep you engaged in the song, allowing you to pay attention to the lyrics, which is perfectly accomplished on The Overload.
When our last great hope is good music then we should look to bands like Yard Act for it. The Overload proves itself as something important by acknowledging its unimportance. Yard Act doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and it’s refreshing to hear an album that doesn’t think it’s the most important thing in the world. Regardless of all the hype, which they’ve lived up to, Yard Act has made something that really deserves to be part of that last great bastion of hope, good music.