After a couple of years of building up a steady steam of anticipation with excellent singles, Yard Act have finally announced their debut album: it’s called The Overload and comes out on January 7 through Zen F.C.. On the album, singer James Smith says:
“Lyrically, I think it’s a record about the things that we all do – we’re all so wired into the system of day to day that we don’t really stop and think about the constructs that define us. But also beyond that, it’s kind of exciting, because there’s still so much we don’t understand; how a hive mindset is forged, how information spreads, how we agree and presume things without thinking. Some people think more than others, but a lot of this sloganeering – ‘I’m on the left, I’m not wrong’ – doesn’t achieve anything. Gammons, Karens, Snowflakes, whatever – I find it all so boring. I’m just not into that.”
They’ve also shared the title track, with Smith saying:
“‘The Overload’ serves as an overture to the album. It’s written from the perspective of someone sitting in a pub overhearing snippets of all these different conversations from different characters and acting as a vessel, a medium even, for their own thoughts and opinions. That cut and paste approach means it’s hard to decipher where one person’s musings end and another’s statement begins, and that feels like a fairer representation of why human existence is at the point it is right now. Society doesn’t prevail because of the absolute, it struggles on in spite of it. It’s our ability to compromise which helps us to coexist.”
A bustling indie jam that gives Smith plenty of space to show off his character work, “The Overload” is an energetic advertisement for what’s to come on the album. Political without being one-sided, angry without losing its sense of humour, danceable while also a downright rocker, “The Overload” is a sharp and impressive track that puts The Overload at the top of our most anticipated albums of 2022.
Watch the video for “The Overload” below or find it on streaming platforms.
Yard Act’s debut album The Overload comes out on Zen F.C. on January 7. You can find Yard Act on Bandcamp, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
