Album Review: Cast – Yeah Yeah Yeah

Few bands carry the banner for classic British guitar music quite like Cast. Formed in Liverpool in the mid-1990s by former La’s bassist John Power, they quickly became one of the defining names of the post-Britpop wave, pairing jangling melodies with anthemic choruses and a distinctly Merseyside warmth. After splitting in 2001 and reforming a decade later, the band have balanced nostalgia with steady new output, proving their songwriting still has legs. Yeah Yeah Yeah, released on the Scruff of the Neck label, arrives as their eighth studio album and continues that later-era run. Let’s see if this new offering follows the wave of Britpop nostalgia-bait that seems to be spurred by the most recent Oasis gigs, or if the new tracks can offer something new, whilst retaining the bands early release appeal.

Kicking off with Poison Vine, and you can hear influences from the UK indie scene (the initial riff plucked straight from Rock n’ Roll Star) seeping through, but doesn’t really feel like a Cast track to me, with Don’t Look Away following – feels a bit more Shed Seven than Cast to me in the guitars (unmistakeable Cast vocals though)… a good track nonetheless. Calling Out Your Name feels a bit of a nothingburger, but Free Love is magnificent, very much in the mould of earlier Cast releases, and this continues through to Say Something New, which is another unmistakably John Power track.

The Way It’s Gotta Be (Oh Yeah) is a heavier guitar on the track, containing a few riffs which instantly make me think of another scouse band – the Zutons.  Following on, Devil and the Deep is a fantastic track, my favourite on the album – really reminding me of Power’s solo/mariner stuff, with that western country style feel to it – superb! Weight of the World might as well have been a Coral track with that intro, thought the vocals make it unmistakably Cast, where penultimate track Teardrops gives you a slower tempo track which has elements of remorse to it, which wasn’t for me but I can appreciate its merits, and it does build up as the track progresses. We round Yeah Yeah Yeah off with Birds Heading South – which feels like a Bowie track had a baby with a Cast track – which really works… definitely my second favourite track on the album.

Yeah Yeah Yeah reflects a group comfortable in their legacy but motivated to create, drawing on decades of history while keeping their feet planted firmly in the present.  They do lean on sounds which are lifted from other indie bands of the era, and I’m ok with that, but their best stuff is the tracks that are unmistakably Cast – a good album that doesn’t quite make my download list… though Devil and the Deep and Birds Heading South will be making it on my 2026 playlist.

Graeme