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Yard Act review – a punk-funk workout for overthinkers

Touring their exuberant second album, the Leeds band are embracing their dancier side as their barbed observational songs get ever more intimate

Smith may also be hinting at the carnivorous aspects of fandom, the parasocial nature of the exchange that has always existed but feels even more acute in the internet age, where bands can doomscroll their haters’ disdain as the tour bus wends its way to the next posting. Overanalysing everything is probably what fans pay Yard Act for, even though, secretly, they are just as dynamic when Smith takes a breather, thanks to co-founder Ryan Needham’s stern bass groove, Shipstone’s abstract sheets of guitar and drummer Jay Russell’s lithe backbeat. So while some fans may rate Yard Act’s hyper-specific content about sweets (Fizzy Fish) and crisps, and value the showbiz light relief when they bring on a wheel of fortune, asking an audience member to spin it in order to determine which song of their first EP they will play, the band’s most secure future could lie in becoming more fully this sincere, sweatier version of themselves.

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