Yard Act has always been preoccupied with the big questions, and as the band has gotten bigger and bigger over the past few years, those questions have only multiplied.

World Cafe last talked with Yard Act frontman James Smith in 2024 about their album Where's My Utopia?, which came in the wake of the band's breakthrough success. At the time, Smith was grappling with the complicated feelings that came with getting, well, exactly what he'd wanted.

Now, on their new album, You're Gonna Need a Little Music, Yard Act continues to wrestle with questions of success and utopia, as well as bigger ideas about capitalism and hyperindividualism in today's society.

It's also the first album the band has recorded together in a proper studio, rather than remotely or while on tour.