When Yard Act burst onto the scene with their 2022 debut The Overload, it seemed the new standard bearers for British post-punk had been found. Less than a year later, they collaborated with Elton John and released an expansive techno inspired single, “The Trench Coat Museum,” complete with an Arthur Baker remix.

Their highly anticipated follow-up album Where Is My Utopia? has finally arrived, and while “The Trench Coat Museum” is not included, its warning shot can be heard all over this brash, ambitious, self-effacing, and effortlessly playful album.

Yard Act’s fondness for experimentation and dance music was an essential keystone holding together the snarling post-punk sarcasm of The Overload, but Where Is My Utopia? finds the band wrestling with the pitfalls of their privileged position as musicians who “made it” over the sounds of mostly rollicking and celebratory dance floor ragers.

“What’s the guilt worth if you do nothing with it?” singer James Smith ponders on “The Undertow” immediately after confessing and apologizing for bullying a former classmate during an especially dark moment on an otherwise upbeat album.

The Overload was populated by a cast of diverse and interesting characters, but Where Is My Utopia? is a strictly post-modern post-punk disco album and is therefore only concerned with itself. The results are surprisingly a lot of fun for the most part, until things get dark and weird—as they often tend to when looking inward.