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Aug 24, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Manchester, England-based dance-rock band W.H. Lung were releasing a new album, Vanities, on September 3 via Melodic, but they have pushed it back to October 8 due to COVID-19 and pressing plant issues. To tide fans over, they have shared the album’s third single, “Gd Tym,” which was shared via a video starring a drag queen named Dylan as she wanders a small town in Northern England. The band’s Joe Evans co-directed the video with Craig McLaughlin. Watch it below.

Evans had this to say about the video in a press release: “The ‘Gd Tym’ video sees a drag queen sweep like a flame through a town in need of a party. She moves through the scenes bringing fierceness and love, fulfilling her divine task, before disappearing back into the land.

“I wanted the video to celebrate the central message of the song which rejoices in dancing and freedom and expression. I knew it had to be drag. We were so blessed to work with the amazing Dylan who brought such an elegance, glamour and vitality to their performance.

“I was inspired to create moving photographs, equally by the music videos of Solange and the vibrant slice-of-life photography of Martin Parr. The beautiful work of Craig McLoughlin who co-directed and edited this video and Jamie Haigherty, our DP, was essential in bringing these worlds together.

“The video was shot in the Calder Valley, around Heptonstall and our previous home of Todmorden. These are the real-life people and places from the period of our lives that informed the writing of this album. It’s a real joy to be able to pay homage to this these people and this scenery and here too.”

Previously W.H. Lung shared Vanities’ first single, “Pearl in the Palm,” via a video for it. “Pearl in the Palm” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then came the album’s second single, “Showstopper,” which features softlizard and was shared via a video. “Showstopper” also made our Songs of the Week list.

Vanities is the band’s sophomore album, the follow-up to 2019’s Incidental Music. W.H. Lung’s main songwriters are Tom Sharkett and Joe Evans.

In a previous press release, Sharkett said that their hometown is integral to their sound. “Manchester is a very important part of this record,” he says. “The White Hotel, nights like Wet Play, seeing Gerd Janson DJ at the End of Year Riot (Electric Chair) and then discovering all the amazing stuff on his label Running Back. Then when we moved to Todmorden it was the same. Seeing Andrew Weatherall down the road from our flat at The Golden Lion—it just felt like an exciting time for us and I wanted to consume as much new music as possible.”

Evans said that the dancefloor is also an important component of the new album. “Vanities is a musical representation of what Tom and I crave the most now that it’s been taken away from us,” he said. “In simple terms, we love to dance and have both fallen deeper in love with the music that facilitates that. Because of this voracious appetite for new music and the experiences that come with that hunger, influences on the album are vast: the aforementioned Weatherall, Robyn, Todd Terje, Grauzone, Kelly Lee Owens, Helena Hauff and countless others.”

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