Change is in the air for Yard Act. As with many bands before them, the Mercury-nominated Leeds lads have found themselves pondering one question: when you emerge fully formed, where do you go next? The answer, as band co-founder Ryan Needham insists, was to go crate-digging. Remi Kabaka Jr, who produced the album, ‘spotted a few of the things that we were influenced by and brought tons of records down to the studio, and we did a deep dive into loads of stuff. He gave us the confidence to fully go for ideas and not hold back.’ 

The result is Where’s My Utopia?, an album that revels in collaging classic hip hop, Afrobeat, Nile Rodgers-tinged disco, acid jazz, found sound, and ragged indie pop, alongside vocalist James Smith’s wry and intricate spoken word. In this lithe game of musical free association, the wiry post-punk of their 2022 debut The Overload rarely rears its head, making the echo of 'a bit like The Fall this, innit?’ that hounded them a few years ago far less likely. ‘A lot of artists are very reactive to what they’ve been lumped in with,’ says Needham. ‘There are a few songs on our first album that I would consider post-punk; those with spiky basslines and spoken word. But there’s stuff on the back-end of that first album which a true post-punk head would be offended to call it that. This one feels a little bit more like a reaction to something that you’ve done previously, which I guess arguably makes it more post-punk.’

Beyond its fluid sonic wanderings, Smith’s lyrics on Where’s My Utopia? have shifted from the broad social archetypes and swingeing satire that typified The Overload into personal, inward-looking meanders through his youth and daily life. One highlight comes in the form of ‘Blackpool Illuminations’, a seven-minute therapy session about a beach holiday turned sour; the track is at turns sweet and pointedly funny in its observations on the nature of autobiography in songwriting (‘I just didn’t want to burden anyone with the truth,’ claims Smith when a disembodied voice on the track asks if he’s making his story up).

More pointedly, it marks a clean break from the satirical spark of The Overload. While not wholly absent from the album, Smith’s political observations are, as Needham points out, ‘more abstract and oblique.’ Like their more aggressive peers Idles, Yard Act are as burnt-out from the political landscape as anyone else, feeling more comfortable mining universal themes of regret and grief. ‘Utopia’s a bit more philosophically political,’ states Needham. ‘We had a few demos about UK politics, but James felt it was a bit disingenuous because we had taken our eye off the ball in that regard. Without sounding like privileged prats, we’ve been touring the world for two years and weren’t as engaged politically as we’d been previously. Weirdly, as this album lands, we’ve got that fire again so we’ll probably talk about politics on the road.’

Where’s My Utopia? is released by Island on Friday 1 March; Yard Act are on tour until Wednesday 27 March.