Yard Act have shared ‘New Beginnings’, the second single from their forthcoming third album You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, due 17th July via Island Records.
The single follows ‘Redeemer’ as a deliberate counterpart in mood. “New Beginnings is a bit of light to counteract the dark we led with,” vocalist James Smith has said. “Sometimes we’ve already shed our old skin without even realising it’s happening. Celebrate the new, because you can’t go back.”
The album marks a significant shift in how Yard Act make records. Their Mercury Prize-nominated debut The Overload (2022) was written before the band fully formed; their Top 5 follow-up Where’s My Utopia? (2024) was pieced together on tour buses and in hotel rooms between relentless shows. You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is the first time all four members have made an album together as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” Smith has said.
The album was recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, whose credits include Nine Inch Nails, Beck and St Vincent, across an uninterrupted five-month period in which the band wrote between 40 and 50 songs. “It felt like freedom,” Smith has said. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band.”
A UK in-store tour accompanies the album’s release, beginning in Edinburgh on 15th July, before a North American run in August, European dates in October and a full UK headline tour in November closing at O2 Academy Brixton on 26th November.
UK in-store dates:
15 Jul – Belle Anglais, Edinburgh (Assai Records)
16 Jul – Baltic, Liverpool (Jacaranda Records)
18 Jul – Rough Trade East, London
21 Jul – Rough Trade, Nottingham
22 Jul – Rough Trade, Bristol
24 Jul – Chalk, Brighton (Resident Records)
North America:
5 Aug – Belly Up, Solana Beach
6 Aug – Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles
7 Aug – Outside Lands, San Francisco
9 Aug – Revolution Hall, Portland
10 Aug – Neptune Theatre, Seattle
11 Aug – The Pearl, Vancouver
13 Aug – Warsaw, Brooklyn
14 Aug – Black Cat, Washington DC
15 Aug – Underground Arts, Philadelphia
16 Aug – The Sinclair, Cambridge MA
17 Sep – Fine Line, Minneapolis
18 Sep – Riot Fest, Chicago
20 Sep – Magic Stick, Detroit
22 Sep – The Opera House, Toronto
European tour:
1 Oct – La Cigale, Paris
2 Oct – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
3 Oct – Tivoliredenburg Ronda, Utrecht
5 Oct – Gloria-Theater, Cologne
7 Oct – Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg
8 Oct – Rockefeller Music Hall, Oslo
9 Oct – Kagelbanan, Stockholm
10 Oct – Vega Main Hall, Copenhagen
12 Oct – Niebo, Warsaw
13 Oct – MeetFactory, Prague
14 Oct – Festival Kreuzberg, Berlin
16 Oct – Les Docks, Zurich
17 Oct – Magazzini Generali, Milan
19 Oct – La Cabane, Toulouse
20 Oct – Sala Apolo, Barcelona
21 Oct – Teatro Eslava, Madrid
23 Oct – Cineteatro Capitolio, Lisbon
UK headline tour:
6 Nov – O2 Academy, Leeds
7 Nov – O2 Academy, Leeds
10 Nov – NX, Newcastle
11 Nov – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
12 Nov – Octagon Centre, Sheffield
13 Nov – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
15 Nov – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
16 Nov – O2 Academy, Leicester
17 Nov – Rock City, Nottingham
18 Nov – Junction 1, Cambridge
20 Nov – O2 Academy, Oxford
21 Nov – Bristol Beacon, Bristol
23 Nov – Plymouth Arena, Plymouth
24 Nov – O2 Guildhall, Southampton
26 Nov – O2 Academy Brixton, London
