The Overload. Yard Act

The Overload is the album to have in alternative, British postpunk in 2022. That message was rammed home by all sorts of media at the start of 2022. I started listening, of course. In the last few years I may have found British postpunk to be of mixed quality, it certainly has its highs, as this blog attests to. So, how does The Overload land?

Well, there are a few options to answer this simple question. The fact that I'm writing so long after the release has a few reasons. The first is, I only got to know the record after the release. Second, this puts it in a disadvantage, as each weeks after brings other new records. Three, if it was really, really urgent, all else would have passed. The fact that it didn't tells you something. The fact that it's here anyway, also.

Fact is, that with the first listening sessions, I found my mood really determined my liking the record. With the best records this certainly is of no influence. Another fact, after one listening in, I bought a digital copy of the album on Bandcamp. It impressed me for certain.

Fact three is, I kept coming back to The Overload. Something is happening on the album. There is a lot of energy caught in the bits and bites burned unto a cd. It bursts out of my speakers. Yard Act is doing a lot of things right on its first album

The members are no longer youngsters bursting unto the scene full of swagger with their first songs. The band members have a whole history behind them before starting to work together as Yard Act. It all started in 2019 when Ryan Needham temporarily lived in at James Smith's place and they started to create songs together. In 2020 Sam Shjipstone and Jay Russell joined the duo and the first shows were played, the first singles released. (The first ones are a "name your price" on Bandcamp, if you like to get acquainted.) A year ago EP 'Dark days' saw the light of day and now there's The Overload.

If anything, this album is not an overload of the senses. For that this music is far to subtle. Seldom there are huge band sounds, the rhythm section is often leading, perhaps it is better to state the rhythm as a whole. Anything to do with true melody are at best small additions to that all present rhythm. The singing is more a mix of professing and singing. It's not talking and not real singing. Rap?, no not even t close. So, do not expect to be singing along to Yard Act. Prepare for declamation.

So, now you know why I cannot listen to The Overload under all circumstances. The energy has to grip me and needs me to be able to receive and share that energy. The moment I can't, the songs on The Overload become highly irritating. On the right moment the album lifts me up immediately, carrying me on its strength. There are not many albums having this sort of extreme effects on me. For most I know when not to play them. This is no so for The Overload and this sets the album apart from other postpunk albums I like. The Overload and I will certainly be going a longer way than e.g. The Murder Capital has.

Is this the postpunk album you should be listening to this year, if you are only to go listening to one? If you ask me, it's a ludicrous question. Tomorrow a better one could be released from a band nobody has heard of yet. If you want to listen a postpunk album that is special and different, including a pure fun pop track like 'Pour Another', with a lot of social comments like a latter day Ray Davies who has lost all his romantic streaks, The Overload is it.

Wout de Natris