Yard Act return with new single ‘The Trench Coat Museum’

Yard Act have returned with a brand new single called ‘The Trench Coat Museum’ – watch its official video below.

The new track is the Leeds band’s first since the release of their debut album The Overload in early 2022.

The track concerns reactions to the band’s increasing popularity, which vocalist James Smith said “left us open to scrutiny and disdain just as much as love and appreciation.” He added: “Criticism is fair game and the internet is lawless so you gotta take it as it comes, but I definitely stopped searching for myself on Twitter the day I read that someone wanted to punch my lights out.” 

Smith went on: “‘The Trench Coat Museum’ is about how our perception of everything shifts both collectively and individually over time at speeds we simply can’t measure in the moment. Within whatever space in society we occupy, we often see our own beliefs as being at the absolute pinnacle of what should be the “cultural norm” and whilst the completely human trait of being self-assured can’t be helped, it’s an absolute hindrance on our collective process. We are one etc. (Are we fuck)”. 

The track was produced by Gorillaz‘ Remi Kabaka Jr. and its video was directed by James Slater. Watch it below.

Discussing the video, Slater said: “The video serves as a continuation and expansion of the Yard Act universe we explored on the first album. It’s set some 30 years in the future in this strange, dystopian trench coat museum in which an enigmatic character – the visitor – takes an audio guided tour. The song’s an eight-minute banger so I wanted the exhibits to come to life so that we could transition from an exhibition tour to a warehouse rave. It feels like a mini-film which is no accident, we see this as the first part of a Yard Act movie that coincides with their next album.”

Revisit Rolling Stone UK‘s report of Yard Act’s recent homecoming shows at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club earlier this year here.