The fuzzy Manchester synthpop quartet W. H. Lung were a Stereogum Band To Watch in 2021, and now they’re getting ready to follow their debut album Vanities with a new one called Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates. We’ve already posted first single “How To Walk,” and now the band has followed it with a new track called “The Painting Of The Bay.”

Like “How To Walk” before it, “The Painting Of The Bay” rocks harder than most things that you could conceivably stamp the “synthpop” tag on. W. H. Lung hare more into guitar-fuzz than keyboard-beep, and it shows. “The Painting Of The Bay” is purposeful and propulsive, and it’s inspired by a Cezanne painting — or, more accurately, by frontman Joseph Evans’ lack of reaction to a Cezanne painting. Here’s what he says about it:

On the day this song was written, I was hurting and had gone to a gallery to try and find some peace. I stood for a while in front of a painting by Cezanne called “The Bay Of Marseilles.” I love this painting, but I was looking and looking and just feeling nothing, which made me feel worse. I came home and found that Tom had sent me an idea he’d done on the acoustic, and straight away the whole song just took shape; I think I wrote it stood up in the kitchen.

Listen below.

Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates is out 10/18 on Melodic.