Yard Act releases 'You’re Gonna Need A Little Music'

Yard Act are very pleased to share their third album, “You’re Gonna Need A Little Music”, via Island Records.

The album is streaming and available to purchase now. Listen to the record in full HERE.

To coincide with its release, Yard Act also share a visualiser for the album’s taut stream-of-consciousness and cacophonic opener, Empty Pledges, shot in their home studio in Leeds. Watch now

The band continue their instore tour of the UK with two hometown signing sessions in Leeds tomorrow ahead of two live performances at Rough Trade East in London on Sunday, concluding with shows in Nottingham, Bristol and Brighton. Their North American tour commences on 5th August before returning for tours in Europe and the UK, concluding at O2 Academy Brixton on 26th November. A full list of dates is found below.

You’re Gonna Need A Little Music was recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St Vincent).

Vocalist James Smith: “Today our third record "You're Gonna Need A Little Music" is released into the world.

Says every band ever: We are immensely proud of this record and it is undoubtedly our best work yet.

But I know for a fact we have continued to evolve and we have not stagnated. Making music is too much fun and despite darker themes and the overwhelming sense of uncertainty permeating through the heart of this record, we have no doubt that our commitment to crafting this album was nothing but pure and joyous, therefore its intent was and is fully justified.”

Simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energised work they’ve laid to tape, but also containing some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music picks up their tale and examines the findings more unsparingly than ever.

Weirdly, for a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, their third LP marks the first time that the quartet 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, amongst a relentless schedule of “slinging [all our gear] in the rehearsal space, going back home, and then a week later piling it back into a van again.”

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”

The band will spend much of this year out on the road, kicking off with European dates in June before heading to North America throughout August. A full European tour follows in October ahead of a UK tour in November. Full tour details are listed below.

You’re Gonna Need A Little Music follows the band’s UK Top 5 charting Where’s My Utopia? in 2024, and their Mercury Prize nominated 2022 debut, The Overload.

Yard Act Live:

• 18th July – Crash Records, Leeds (signing only)
• 18th July – Jumbo Records, Leeds (signing only)
• 19th July - Rough Trade East, London (instore matinee show)
• 19th July - Rough Trade East, London (instore evening show)
• 21st July - Rough Trade, Nottingham (instore matinee show)
• 21st July - Rough Trade, Nottingham (instore evening show)
• 22nd July - Rough Trade, Bristol (instore matinee show)
• 22nd July - Rough Trade, Bristol (instore evening show)
• 24th July - Chalk, Brighton (in association with Resident Records)
• 5th August – Belly Up, Solana Beach
• 6th August – Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles
• 7th August – Outside Lands, San Francisco
• 9th August – Revolution Hall, Portland
• 10th August – Neptune Theatre, Seattle
• 11th August – The Pearl, Vancouver
• 13th August – Warsaw, Brooklyn
• 14th August – Black Cat, Washington
• 15th August – Underground Arts, Philadelphia
• 16th August – The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA
• 17th September – Fine Line, Minneapolis
• 18th September – Riot Fest, Chicago
• 20th September – Magic Stick, Detroit
• 22nd September – The Opera House, Toronto
• 1st October – La Cigale, Paris
• 2nd October – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
• 3rd October – Tivoliredenburg Ronda, Utrecht
• 5th October – Gloria-Theater, Cologne
• 7th October – Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg
• 8th October – Rockefeller Music Hall, Oslo
• 9th October – Kägelbanan, Stockholm
• 10th October – Vega Main Hall, Copenhagen
• 12th October – Niebo, Warsaw
• 13th October – MeetFactory, Prague
• 14th October – Festival Kreuzberg, Berlin
• 16th October – Les Docks, Zurich
• 17th October – Magazzini Generali, Milan
• 19th October – La Cabane, Toulouse
• 20th October – Sala Apolo, Barcelona
• 21st October – Teatro Eslava, Madrid
• 23rd October – Cineteatro Capitólio, Lisbon
• 6th November – O2 Academy, Leeds
• 7th November – O2 Academy, Leeds
• 10th November – NX, Newcastle
• 11th November – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
• 12th November – Octagon Centre, Sheffield
• 13th November – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
• 15th November – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
• 16th November – O2 Academy, Leicester
• 17th November – Rock City, Nottingham
• 18th November – Junction 1, Cambridge
• 20th November – O2 Academy, Oxford
• 21st November – Bristol Beacon, Bristol
• 23rd November – Plymouth Arena, Plymouth
• 24th November – O2 Guildhall, Southampton
• 26th November – O2 Academy Brixton, London