Some bands are meant to be seen live and W H Lung is right up there. The ener­gy that bounces from stage to crowd and back again is elec­tric, espe­cial­ly with dynam­ic and expres­sive front man Jo Evans prowl­ing the stage. For their third album, Every Inch of Earth Pul­sates, it’s that live expe­ri­ence that W H Lung aim to recre­ate, bot­tling and encap­su­lat­ing the thrill and eupho­ria of being lost in the moment. They’ve dis­tilled it all down to an album’s worth of dance-heavy tracks. And Every Inch of Earth Pul­sates must sure­ly win ‘Album Title of the Year’.

For the Manchester/Todmorden band’s third album, the band relo­cat­ed to Sheffield to work with Ross Orton (MIA, Arc­tic Mon­keys, Work­ing Men’s Club), to help recre­ate that live vibe. As vocal­ist Joseph Evans says, they need­ed to ‘stop over­think­ing it’.

Back in the sum­mer, How to Walk was released, a first peek at what was to come – a caf­feinat­ed, upbeat, num­ber, heavy on the anthemics and easy sing-along capa­bil­i­ties (Whoo ooo oooh). Gui­tarist Tom Shar­kett echoes Jo’s com­ment: “He [Ross Orton] was the exact pro­duc­er we need­ed with­out us even real­is­ing. His pro­duc­tions and mix­es are bom­bas­tic, live­ly and in your face. He brought a real dose of mag­ic to the songs we’d written.”

The album’s open­ing track, Lilac Sky is infused with ele­ments of their ear­ly indie peri­od but brought bang up to date to reflect where the band are now. You can almost feel the smoke machine start­ing to fug up the room as drum­mer Alex Mer­cer Main’s open­ing stac­ca­to beat and Jo Evans’ vocals reach you from some­where in the gloom, those sonorous, jan­g­ly Cure-like gui­tars and shim­mer­ing synths.

It’s a strong open­er that leads into a mix of num­bers that reflect the band’s var­i­ous styles. Flow­ers in the Rain with Han­nah Peace on vocals is a dreamy, psy­che­delia-drenched num­ber. Thin­ner Wine has shades of Work­ing Mens Club, not too sur­pris­ing due to the band’s loca­tion in the Calder Val­ley. I’s a gor­geous­ly lay­ered track, propul­sive, with shim­mer­ing synths and slinky inter­play between gui­tars and bass.

Then there’s the sub­lime I Can’t Lie, an album high point with its insis­tent motorik beat and sense of retro dra­ma: Joseph’s falset­to vocals ris­ing over the instru­men­ta­tion even brings a touch of North­ern Soul to this num­ber while its bass and synth dri­ve it for­ward. And the album clos­es with I Will Set Fire To The House, a bang­ing track with an 80s feel that scin­til­lates with a euphor­ic chorus.

Every Inch of Earth Pul­sates is yet anoth­er bold step for­ward for W. H. Lung so now it’s all eyes on the Novem­ber tour. 

Tour details TICKETS
16/11/24 – New Cen­tu­ry Hall, Man­ches­ter
17/11/24 – Mono, Glas­gow
19/11/24 – Cluny 2, New­cas­tle
20/11/24 – Strange Brew, Bris­tol
21/11/24 – Isling­ton Assem­bly Hall, Lon­don
22/11/24 – Voodoo Dad­dy’s, Nor­wich
23/11/24 – Bode­ga, Not­ting­ham
24/11/24 – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham

Every Inch of Earth Pul­sates
Track List­ing
1. Lilac Sky 2. Bliss Bliss 3. Thin­ner Wine 4. Bloom and Fade 5. How to Walk 6. Flow­ers in the Rain 7. I Can’t Lie 8. The Paint­ing of the Bay 9. I Will Set Fire to the House

W. H. Lung Every Inch of Earth Pul­sates released 18th Octo­ber on Melod­ic records Pre Order
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