With a lead single acting as both a new era and a fresh statement of intent for Yard Act, following it up with another strong punch is crucial. But it’s inevitable, too. The James Smith-fronted group has dealt more than a few brilliant singles in their time and now we walk towards album three, the band show signs of maturing. That’s not to say their albums before it were immature, far from it. They had a kicking against the pricks spirit that has since evolved and seen the band fine-tune what they want to say, and how they wish to say it. New Beginnings is just that. It’s not so much a literal fresh start for the band, but it does occupy that same feeling of wiping the slate clean. No matter how much we beg and wish for a do-over, one never comes. The shame and weight of the past remains, and part of that is referenced in this latest song from the hard-hitting, Leeds-based outfit. They’re gearing up well for You’re Gonna Need a Little Music.
Yard Act’s target has not changed but the momentum has. New Beginnings is a sentiment felt across the country. Hard workers putting themselves on the line, and for what? There is no promise of a new beginning or even continued success, just survival. It’s a sickly feeling being bounced from job to job, hoping to land something, and for what? The wreckage is still in the rearview mirror. You can still smell the fumes of the old car crash. Repetition does not lead to salvation and that’s what Smith and the band nails here. It’s a softer touch from the band too, instrumentally speaking. Sam Shipton offers up some blisteringly brilliant work here with an electric guitar highlight that feels like some of his very best work with the band. There’s a lot of very best moments being set by Yard Act over Where’s My Utopia?, and You’re Gonna Need a Little Music. A song strong enough to siphon off from the new material and throw into your playlist where Pet Shop Boys and Mac DeMarco round out the most recent additions. Get a little bit more music in there, as Yard Act instructs.
We are going to need a little more music. When do we not? Redeemer was a punchy bit of punk fun with a band wanting to hone out their harsher edge, but New Beginnings is where they sound most at home. Delicacy meets demonstrating a firm grip on whatever you can hold before bracing for those new beginnings. Yard Act sounds like a confident unit here. They were a rough-around-the-edges, lovable band on their first outing and have since directed their attention and desire to some specifics of life. New Beginnings notes big winnings that then become the foundation for a fresh start. We can have as many of those as we like but the noise and brutality Shipton provides acts almost as a messy end to that new beginning. You only get so many fresh starts until life, or yourself, starts to tire.
Redundancy, travel, a fresh start can come from the weirdest and wildest of places but New Beginnings warns they may not stick. A new beginning is a new beginning but it is not a permanent one. Yard Act has captured an anxiety which has gone undersung across the world but is amplified now that there is such uncertainty at play. New Beginnings gets to grips with that feeling of never having a place to call home, not having a steady footing underneath you. What happens instead is you find yourself spiralling and struggling to get a foothold on what you’d expected from life. Incredible vocal work hammers that shortcoming home, and it’s hard to figure out what the route is after that. The new beginning has ended. Time for another one?
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