Given that the music business has spent most of the last two years in a kind of suspended animation, there’s something quite startling about the rise of Leeds quartet Yard Act. They appeared to come out of nowhere – they released their first single, the attention-grabbing Fixer Upper, at the height of the first national lockdown – and swiftly rocket to the forefront of the strain of alt-rock that eschews singing for sprechstimme vocals. Eighteen months on, they find themselves on a major label, touting a debut album that some observers think is going to enter the charts at No 1 (admittedly, not a rarity for indie acts in an era of diminishing sales).
