English Teacher - This Could Be Texas Review
Leeds quartet share enigmatic debut - with a dream to dazzle.
Ever since their breakthrough single R&B was given room to breathe, English Teacher have been on many alternative sonars with their whimsical palette of complexity and colour.
But it's more than just a frolic in the spring fields.
At the heart of English Teacher, there is a severe tenderness to it all; which is all projected by the soft sentiments of vocalist Lily Fontaine. At first spellbound from all the buzz the band had started to get at the start; but now fully immortalised as part and parcel within one of the UK's most shining acts, Fontaine's is placed front-and-centre at this parade with her rich vocals. Completed by guitarist Lewis Whiting, drummer Douglas Frost, and bassist Nicholas Eden, English Teacher are on a deserved high right now.
With no bracket to categorise or genre to pigeon-hole them into, their first-feature EP in 2022 was one of mystery. Majors alike sit the band on the bubbling post-punk (whatever that broad term brings), but the band are equally undecided. “We quite like that, we’ve never been able to figure it out either.” Lily admits.
Polyawkward caused a partial glance or two in their way. Now in the contours of their highly-anticipated debut, This Could Be Texas will more likely result in heads to swivel.
Like many debuts for bands in the wider-than-necessary scope of "alternative", there are often certain forks in the road where they let their complex curiosities overtake them during the writing process and into the studio. This Could Be Texas is certainly no exception, at times feeling more bloated and meandering than it needs to be.
Wistful opener Albatross lulls us into a sedative state with poignant piano trails while The World's Biggest Paving Slab - arguably the bands' most personal to them - takes a large King Gizzard-inspired toke and washes it with an airy chorus. Broken Biscuits sidles into Lily's poetry connection with fickle piano and gleaming horns that the likes of Black Country, New Road certainly dabbled into, once or twice. I'm Not Crying, You're Crying meanwhile, allows Eden's frenetic bass to weave between the repetitive blaring. On the other side of the coin, Mastermind Specialism is an acoustic doozy that finds its role to quieten all the hubbub so far. Not Everyone Gets to Go to Space is a welcoming attribute of new experimentals with its dazzling fairground rides and SEGA start-up sounds, but doesn't keep up with the same intensity despite Frost's intricate drumming attributes providing a lot.
2021 breakthrough R&B is beefed up here on the record version, perhaps here to signal the bands' passing journey of finding themselves and their sound. The perceptive agitation on Nearly Daffodils pays off, as a stand-out track that fits the bands' glorious temperaments, "You can lead water to the daffodils / But you can't make them drink," while slow-burner epic Albert Road trails down a deeper path of more wonderment for future Teacher, as it embodies the indie credentials of Ellie Roswell's Wolf Alice.
Whilst it can be hard for up-and-comers to find their feet in an equally overloaded scene, English Teacher can be the first to say that This Could Be Texas has all the traits of a fantastically-made debut - and then some.